The Times
Takeover bid is a risk to jobs, says Akzo Chief: The head of the Dulux paint group Akzo Nobel warned that up to 3,300 British jobs are under threat in the hostile takeover approach from its PPG, its main American rival, and revealed that the British government is monitoring the issue.
Electric cars provide extra spark for record sales figures: A surge in demand for plug-in battery models and petrol-electric hybrids and the fast-approaching prospect of new vehicle excise duty rates have lifted new car sales to record levels.
London solicitor ignored calls to hand over papers: The Pensions Regulator has secured criminal convictions against a firm of solicitors and its managing partner for failing to provide documents when repeatedly asked to do so.
Koreans join queue at The Body Shop: A South Korean conglomerate has joined the bidding battle for The Body Shop. CJ Group said that it was interested in taking part in the auction that is being run by L’Oréal, the retailer’s owner.
Advertisers quit Fox show over sex claims: More than 30 leading companies have withdrawn their advertising on a Fox News programme amid reports that the television channel secretly settled sexual harassment claims made against its best-known presenter.
New law forces big firms to come clean on gender pay gap: Big companies face new reporting rules that will force them to reveal the gap between male and female pay and to be more transparent about how they pay their suppliers.
Horlick in a froth over cash call: Nicola Horlick has accused Seedrs, the crowdfunding site, of being “stroppy and difficult” after it threatened her with a lawsuit over her failure to stump up a promised £250,000 for her film finance business.
The Independent
eBay Founder Pierre Omidyar pledges $100 million to fight ‘fake news’ and hate speech: The philanthropic organisation established by eBay Founder Pierre Mr. Omidyar will contribute $100 million (£80 million) to support investigative journalism, fight misinformation and counteract hate speech around the world.
Alitalia cancels 60% of scheduled flights delaying thousands of passengers: Airline passengers flying to, from and within Italy have experienced severe delays and cancellations on a day involving widespread strikes by aviation workers, with more industrial action planned for the end of the Easter holidays.
Critics say new gender gap reporting rules don’t go far enough: Experts, including employment lawyers, HR professionals and campaigners, are warning that the Government’s new rules on gender pay reporting won’t do enough to tackle considerable financial inequality still overshadowing a multitude of industries.
One month left to spend your paper fivers, Bank of England warns: British shoppers have just one month to spend the 160 million old fivers which are still in circulation before they lose legal tender status, the Bank of England has warned.
JPMorgan won’t move many jobs from U.K. after Brexit, CEO says: The head of U.S. bank JPMorgan said on Tuesday the bank is not planning to move many jobs out of Britain in the next two years in a softening of tone on the likely impact from Brexit.
U.S. coal companies tell Trump not to quit Paris Climate Agreement: Some big American coal companies have advised President Donald Trump’s administration to break his promise to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement – arguing that the accord could provide their best forum for protecting their global interests.
Trump promises to burn banking regulation, Wall Street doesn’t buy it: Fresh from the failure of his healthcare bill, Donald Trump has moved on to another of the promises made at his inauguration: tearing up the banking regulations that are holding the American economy back.
EU bankers in U.K., sick of location limbo, volunteering to leave: Tired from months of wondering whether their jobs will be moved or cut, foreign employees at some of London’s biggest banks are taking the initiative and asking to be moved back home, according to people with knowledge of the requests.
Cuban family making their own wine brand using condoms: A family wine business in Cuba is thriving thanks in part to an unconventional item being added into the fermentation process – condoms.
Hungary law attacks George Soros-funded university: George Soros’ university in his Hungarian homeland is on the verge of closure after the nation’s parliament voted for legislation apparently targetting the institution.
Nivea pulls ‘white is purity’ advert after online uproar: The skin care brand Nivea set off a controversy this week with an ad featuring the phrase “White is purity,” again finding itself accused of racial insensitivity over a campaign that seemed to be embraced by white supremacists.
Financial Times
Trump administration seeks non-Chinese owner for Westinghouse: The Trump administration is working to find a new owner for Westinghouse, the bankrupt U.S. nuclear engineering group, to ensure that it does not fall under Chinese control.
Rio Tinto to fight $360 million Australian tax bill: Rio Tinto said it would fight a $360 million tax bill from the Australian government and defended the use of a trading hub in Singapore to buy and sell commodities including iron ore, its main source of earnings,
China’s emergence as top U.S. oil buyer highlights economic ties: China was the top foreign buyer of U.S. crude in February, according to data that show the growing interdependence of the world’s big energy-consuming nations at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions.
VTB sells 25% stake in St Petersburg’s airport: VTB, Russia’s second-largest state-run bank, has sold a 25% stake in St Petersburg’s airport to a consortium led by the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a $10 billion sovereign wealth fund that works with foreign investors.
Allied Minds cuts off funds to seven start-ups: Allied Minds, which specialises in turning research labs’ inventions into start-ups, has announced a $146.6 million writedown on the value of seven businesses, just months after it convinced investors to inject another £64 million into the company.
SIX Group eyes assets of banks exiting payments business: SIX Group wants to expand its payments business by buying the assets of banks looking to exit the market, the Chief Executive of the Swiss financial services company has said.
Property slowdown hurts demand for McCarthy & Stone: The housing market slowdown that followed last year’s Brexit vote hit retirement housebuilder McCarthy & Stone, with lower forward orders pushing profits down 25% in the first half.
‘Crowd-sourced’ Quantopian dives into algorithms: Quantopian, a “crowd-sourced” hedge fund, has begun allocating some of the money invested by industry tycoon Steven Cohen to trading algorithms coded by freelance computer scientists, as it steps up its efforts to disrupt the hedge fund industry.
Evan Greenberg attacks insurance brokers’ ‘abusive behaviour’: The head of the world’s largest property and casualty insurer has spoken out against “abusive behaviour” in insurance broking, predicting another backlash from the authorities more than a decade since a previous crackdown.
Foreign business Chiefs woo Washington: Foreign businesses with big U.S. operations are seeking to inoculate themselves against potential nationalist attacks from President Donald Trump by launching a co-ordinated drive to promote their credentials as American job creators.
ChemChina purchase of Syngenta clears main regulatory hurdles: ChemChina’s $43 billion purchase of Syngenta has cleared the two biggest remaining regulatory hurdles, opening the way for China’s largest cross-border acquisition to close by June.
Pepsi withdraws Kendall Jenner ad after social media backlash: Pepsi was the latest brand to wade into politically charged territory, as the fizzy drinks maker was forced to apologise for an advertisement that depicted Kendall Jenner, the reality television star and model, joining a protest and offering a can of Pepsi to a police officer.
Reimann family’s JAB agrees Panera Bread takeover: JAB, the investment company backed by Germany’s billionaire Reimann family, has added U.S. bakery and sandwich chain Panera Bread to its fast-growing U.S. food and beverages empire, after agreeing to acquire the chain for $7.5 billion.
Amazon’s China logistics push to pile pressure on rival shippers: Amazon has proven adept at growing businesses from scratch and by stealth. Now it is taking aim at the $8tn global logistics industry, by quietly nurturing a programme in China through which any wholesaler can use it to ship goods around the world by sea, land or air.
Air India future in doubt as auditors’ report raises concerns: Air India, which finally turned a profit last year after at least eight years of pre-tax losses, was revealed last month by the country’s auditor to have understated its operating losses by Rs64.2 billion ($964 million) between 2012 and 2015.
Lex:
Leveraged buyouts: no horn of plenty: Tech start-ups worth $1 billion are no longer rare enough to bear comparison with unicorns. Buyouts of listed businesses by private equity investors are more eye-catching beasts these days. Staples may be one of these, according to reports that it is in the sights of several leveraged buyout groups. The buoyant stock market means most of the traffic is going the other way, as businesses line up for flotation.
DCC: Breen nice knowing you: Like its Bosses, London-listed DCC trundles along below the radar. The FTSE 100 group has spawned no big scandals or profit warnings. The low profile resulted in a low rating last year when DCC was lumped in with defensive stocks, and share prices fell. Goldman Sachs analysts declared the company wrongly labelled and shares duly recovered.
Bovis Homes: a fixer upper: Bovis has pledged to put customers “at the centre” of what the company does. Previously they were on the periphery as the U.K. housebuilder rushed to meet sales targets, judging from social media photos of shoddy fixtures and gaping holes in new build homes. Such short-sightedness triggered a profit warning and cost the Chief Executive his job. New Boss Greg Fitzgerald must boost margins in a tougher housing market.
Lombard:
Mixed messages in corporate governance code decrypts: Britain’s Corporate Governance Code — setting out how companies should manage themselves, pay Executives and treat shareholders — is 25 years old. But it seems that responses to parliamentary proposals for reforming it have been written using technology from 50 years earlier. So, coded were some of the industry statements that they must have been typed on an Enigma machine.
HSS seeks hire purpose: After two profit warnings, one departed Chief Executive and a 60% share price fall in its first year as a listed company, the equipment rental group took £17 million in exceptional costs last year to sort out a distribution network that could not get generators and powered access platforms to where builders wanted them. This widened pre-tax losses to £17.4 million. According to the company, it was necessary after previous management failed to invest in infrastructure at the same rate as it made acquisitions.
The Daily Telegraph
Huawei faces U.K. injunction on smartphone sales: Huawei faces a sales injunction on smartphone sales in the U.K. after the High Court ruled that it must pay a global licence for infringed patents.
Gig economy row escalates as MPs attack Uber, Amazon, Deliveroo over ‘gibberish’ contracts: The gig economy has come under fresh attack from MPs who have labelled the self-employment contracts of Uber, Deliveroo, Amazon and Hermes as “unintelligible”.
Neil Woodford bats off Allied Minds share plunge as “short-term noise”: Well-known City investor Neil Woodford has dismissed a share price plunge at Allied Minds, which his company owns just under a third of, as “short term noise” which misses the bigger picture.
Deliveroo opens 30 kitchens to meet surging takeaway demand: Deliveroo plans to open 30 kitchen hubs in the U.K. this year to meet rapidly rising online demand for its takeaways.
Apprenticeship levy to be met with confusion by business: The apprenticeship levy which comes into force will be met with confusion and ignorance by thousands of companies.
HSS scraps dividend in bid to reduce debt as loss widens: Tool and equipment rental company HSS Hire has reported widening losses and scrapped its dividend after experiencing difficulties in its core rental business.
DCC makes first push outside Europe as Chief Executive plans retirement: DCC has made its first foray outside Europe by buying Shell’s liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) business in Hong Kong and Macau, as Chief Executive Tommy Breen announced he is to step down.
Galliford Try abandons plans for takeover of rival housebuilder Bovis: Galliford Try has walked away from its pursuit of Bovis Homes, as the beleagured housebuilder snapped up its suitor’s former Chief Executive for itself.
The Questor Column:
Buy Shire – the market has punished its big acquisition too severely: Markets tend to have mixed feelings about acquisitions. Shares in the company being taken over normally rise, of course, but investors often steer clear of the buyer on the basis that so many of these transactions fail to deliver the benefits promised. This has caused the share price of one acquisitive firm to be driven down too far, fund managers say. Mr. Pringle pointed out that Shire was expected to produce sales growth in the mid to high single digits, and earnings growth in the mid-teens, over the next few years. “We have a high degree of confidence in these figures being achieved,” he said. The firm is unlikely to be affected significantly by any attack on drug pricing by Donald Trump’s administration, he said, while the merger should lead to appreciable cost savings. Shire is also relatively immune to competition from producers of low-cost “generic” medicines because these firms tend to concentrate on treatments for the more common conditions rather than the rare diseases that Shire specialises in. We rated the shares a buy in July last year at £48.55 and reiterate that advice now. Questor says ‘Buy’.
The Guardian
Deliveroo accused of ‘creating vocabulary’ to avoid calling couriers employees: Managers at Deliveroo have been given a list of dos and don’ts setting out how to talk to the firm’s food delivery riders, using terms that appear designed to fend off claims that they are employees.
Speedboat among £5.1 million of assets seized in tax fraud investigation: British and Dutch authorities have seized more than €6 million (£5.1 million) worth of assets – including luxury cars, a speedboat and properties – from an Anglo-Dutch couple accused of running a multinational tax avoidance scheme.
Weak productivity leaves U.K. trailing other G7 nations: Britain’s poor productivity performance before, during and after the financial crisis of a decade ago has left a gap of 16% with the other six members of the G7 group of industrial nations.
BMW strikes set to disrupt Mini and Rolls-Royce production: Workers at BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars are to hold a series of 24-hour strikes at factories across the U.K. in a dispute about pensions.
Lloyds reveals location of 100 branch closures as it cuts 325 jobs: Lloyds Banking Group is cutting 325 jobs and has revealed the location of the 100 branches it will close between July and October.
Daily Mail
Luxury fashion house Ralph Lauren shutting flagship New York store as crisis continues to sweep U.S. High Street: Luxury fashion house Ralph Lauren is shutting its flagship New York store as crisis continues to sweep the U.S. High Street.
U.S. giant planning a swoop on Dulux owner Akzo Nobel claims to have rallied support of almost every one of firm’s biggest shareholders: The U.S. giant planning a swoop on Dulux owner Akzo Nobel claims to have rallied the support of almost every one of the firm’s biggest 20 shareholders.
Bitter battle breaks out between a shamed Tory party donor and Argentinian billionaire over control of key industries in Falkland Islands: A bitter battle has broken out between a shamed Tory party donor and an Argentinian billionaire over control of key industries in the Falkland Islands.
As many as 3,000 jobs could be at risk as Tesco embarks on latest mission to cut costs by slashing number of hours its stores are open: As many as 3,000 jobs could be at risk as Tesco embarks on its latest mission to cut costs by slashing the number of hours its stores are open.
Fall in sterling and reduction in pharmacy funding sees owner of Boots post mixed results: The fall in sterling and a reduction in pharmacy funding saw the owner of Boots post mixed results.
Small suppliers could be more than £20 million out of pocket following collapse of Agent Provocateur: Small suppliers could be more than £20 million out of pocket following the collapse of Agent Provocateur. Official documents show the lingerie seller owes £20.7 million to unsecured creditors while just £600,000 of this is likely to be repaid.
Daily Express
GBP/U.S.D climbing on mixed U.S. data: The pound was able to creep back towards $1.25 against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday as U.K. data impressed, U.S. data missed the mark and Trump concerns persisted.
Just one in five of Britons expect to stop work by 65: Only one in five workers believe they will be able to begin retirement when they reach the age of 65, research has shown.
Help for families hit by death duty – but there’s a catch: Families will have more protection from dreaded death tax thanks to changes taking effect in the 2017/18 tax year – however there are a couple of catches to watch out for.
Scotland’s economy shrinks in 2016 as Sturgeon wastes time on relentless independence bid: Scotland’s economy shrank by 0.2% in the final quarter of 2016, in another devastating blow to Nicola’s Sturgeon’s campaign for independence.
Dow Jones stocks rise ahead of Trump’s meeting with China’s Xi Jinping: America’s top stock index the Dow Jones jumped by around 0.7% at the open, ahead of a key meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The Scottish Herald
Initiative set up to help oil workers: An entrepreneurship initiative established to harness the experience, knowledge and innovation of senior oil and gas professionals who are either facing redundancy, or have been made redundant, is set to be launched in Aberdeen.
Braid Logistics profits up as Crown Office case settled: Braid Logistics, the transporter of liquid food, has upped profits to £1.1 million from £700,000 as revenue for the year to June 30 fell by £600,000 to £39.4 million.
Financial firms to embrace fintech: Almost half of U.K. financial services companies are planning to make a fintech acquisition in the next five years, with almost two-thirds believing they will lose a significant proportion of revenues to standalone financial technology (fintech) firms if they do not.
Revaluation of assets a boon for I&H Brown: Perth civil engineering and waste disposal business I&H Brown saw its pre-tax profits more than triple last year thanks to a significant revaluation of its property assets.
Job fears deepen as Wood finds more Amec synergies: Cost savings resulting from John Wood Group’s acquisition of engineering and project management group Amec Foster Wheeler have been revised up by £40 million to £150 million per year, leading to fears of further job cuts.
Clydesdale Bank launches lab so customers can “take back control of finances”: Clydesdale Bank owner CYBG is launching a lab in one of London’s wealthiest districts to allow customers to have a direct input in the future products it offers and technologies it develops.
Numbers slip at Distell as firm focuses on core range: Profit before tax at whisky firm Distell International fell by 13% to £7.9 million, but exceeded expectations.
Black & Lizars makes play to become leading nocturnal lenses firm: Optical group Black & Lizars is to take on the nocturnal lenses patient book of Jack Brown’s Glasgow practice in its first acquisition under the leadership of Michelle Le Prevost.
Services growth speeds up amid cost pressures: U.K. services growth accelerated to its fastest pace in three months in March, having slowed significantly in February, while firms hiked prices at the sharpest rate since September 2008 as sterling’s post-Brexit vote weakness fuelled costs.
The Scotsman
Bumper car sales could prove short-lived: March was a record month for Britain’s new car market, industry figures have revealed, but sweeping tax changes are likely to lead to a bumpy road ahead.
Tech firms in Scotland urged to complete industry survey: Tech firms based in Scotland are being urged to take part in an industry survey that could offer unique insights into the growing sector.
Fears over nationwide ripple effect from film studio decision: Environmental campaigners say communities across the country should be fearful after the Scottish Government overturned the advice of its own reporter and approved a £250 million film studio on the outskirts of Edinburgh.
Graham & Sibbald inks deal for Seymour & Co: Chartered surveying firm Graham & Sibbald has acquired Stirling-based commercial property agency Seymour & Co for an undisclosed sum.
High tech kit puts stats in sight for all golfers: Shot Scope is the golf technology product that inspired former pro-golfer Gavin Dear to return to an industry he thought he had left behind.
City A.M.
Norwegian ramps up transatlantic offensive with low-cost flights from Gatwick Airport to Seattle and Denver from £199: Low-cost challenger Norwegian has pushed on with its transatlantic focus, announcing the launch of new low-cost flights to Seattle and Denver from Gatwick Airport.
Investec provides £47 million for student accommodation in east London: Investec has put forward £47.6 million of funding towards a student accommodation scheme in east London.
Unions call for clarity on the future of the Moorside nuclear reactor while Kepco shows caution over NuGen deal with Toshiba: Unions have called for clarity in the future of the Moorside nuclear reactor as sources say South Korea’s Kepco, the most likely buyer, is in no hurry to seal the deal.
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chief backs City of London retaining euro clearing crown: The City has received backing from the U.S. as European politicians call for euro clearing activities to be moved from London and into the eurozone.
JP Morgan upgrades U.K. growth forecasts as economy sustains strong momentum: U.S. banking giant JP Morgan has upgraded its forecasts for growth as the U.K. economy sustained its momentum from the end of 2016.
Crossrail engineer Costain picks up £6 million TfL contract to plan the revamp of London’s A40 Westway: Costain, the Crossrail and Channel Tunnel engineer, has won a £6 million Transport for London (TfL) contract to plan the revamp of London’s A40 Westway.
