The Times
MPs warn banks over threat to free cash machines: MPs say they could intervene if banks fail to resolve a dispute that threatens millions of customers with being charged to withdraw their own money from thousands of cash machines that at present are free to use.
Economic slowdown may last for three years: Financiers are losing confidence in the economy and one of the country’s most closely watched forecasting panels has predicted a three-year grind of slow growth.
Berkeley can see its prefabs sprouting up everywhere: One of Britain’s biggest housebuilders, a specialist in the luxury London market, has started to make and sell houses built almost entirely in a factory.
Customs posts on border with Ireland are ruled out: The British and Irish governments have agreed that there will be no customs posts on the Northern Irish border, despite Theresa May signalling she will take the U.K. out of the European Union’s customs union.
French Connection seals its lips over angry investors’ demands: French Connection has stayed silent after receiving a letter from three of its largest investors calling for a clear-out of the struggling retailer’s boardroom and a potential sale of the business.
Sale takes Shell past $6 billion barrier: Royal Dutch Shell has agreed an $820 million deal to sell its share of a Saudi Arabian petrochemicals joint venture, taking it past the $6 billion milestone in its asset sales programme.
Superwoman flies to rescue of ailing lender: A peer-to-peer lender run by Nicola Horlick made a loss of £1.8 million last year and needed an emergency loan to survive after would-be investors pulled out of backing the venture. Money&Co, which allows retail investors to make loans to private companies, almost ran out of funds, its latest accounts show.
Sofa.com is sitting pretty as new showrooms boost sales: Britons may be in for a tough year, but at least they are sitting comfortably: sales of settees jumped over Christmas, according to Sofa.com. The furniture retailer said that its sales rose by 28% in the 12 weeks to January 9. New customers accounted for 73% of orders of beds, chairs and a sofa at its new showrooms in London’s Islington and Bankside, which have taken its store count to eight. Sofa.com’s digital sales rose by 38% after websites were launched in Germany and Ireland.
The Independent
Nissan Boss Carlos Ghosn says U.K. investment to be ‘re-evaluated’ if Theresa May delivers poor Brexit deal: The Boss of Nissan Carlos Ghosn has admitted that the car giant’s U.K. investments will be “re-evaluated” if Theresa May delivers a bad Brexit deal, despite last October’s high-profile commitment by the firm to build its next Qashqai and X-Trail model at its Sunderland plant.
HSBC bank agrees to repay £4 million to customers for unreasonable debt collection practices: HSBC has agreed to stump up £4 million to pay back customers subjected to “unreasonable” debt collection practices following a regulatory probe.
Ford trials plug-in hybrid vans in London to help tackle air pollution and climate change: Ford will trial plug-in hybrid vans in London in an effort to accelerate the uptake of low-emissions vehicles and tackle climate change and air pollution.
Financial Times
Theresa May to unveil 10 ‘pillars’ of industrial strategy: Theresa May will set out her vision for Britain’s industrial future on Monday, promising to boost “world-leading” sectors while “closing the gap” between the most productive industries and places, and the rest.
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AirAsia denies wrongdoing in dealings with Rolls-Royce: AirAsia, the Malaysian budget carrier, has denied wrongdoing after an inquiry into corruption at Rolls-Royce found that the U.K. engine maker failed to prevent its employees from bribing an AirAsia Executive with a $3.2 million discount for the maintenance of a private jet part-owned by Tony Fernandes, the airline’s co-Founder.
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Toshiba faces pressure to secure funding for U.K. nuclear project: Toshiba is facing pressure to secure investment from a South Korean energy group and the U.K. government to keep afloat a multibillion-pound British nuclear power project as the Japanese conglomerate struggles with mounting financial difficulties.
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LNG project boosted by trials of icebreaker ship: A ship capable of breaking through thick Arctic ice to deliver Russian liquefied natural gas to Asia is due to begin trials, marking an important step towards completion of a $27 billion LNG project championed by president Vladimir Putin.
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French finance minister Sapin woos U.S. banks after Brexit vote: French finance minister Michel Sapin made a pitch to senior Executives of America’s largest banks to relocate to Paris after the U.K. leaves the EU, but raised eyebrows by talking in French with the assistance of an interpreter.
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Overseas cyber attackers targeted Lloyds: A cyber attack by an international criminal gang hit some of the U.K.’s largest banks in a move that brought down digital services at Lloyds Banking Group intermittently for more than two days.
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China clamps down on banks moving currency overseas: Chinese regulators are stamping out moves by banks to shift renminbi out of the country as they attack one of the few loopholes remaining in the country’s strict new capital controls regime.
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Lloyds’ charge into consumer credit eases mortgage pressure: The head of Lloyds Banking Group’s retail business is targeting consumer lending as a way to tackle the challenges posed by record-low interest rates and an uncertain economic outlook.
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PayTM plots move into asset management in India: PayTM, the Alibaba-backed Indian smartphone payments platform, plans to enter the asset management market a month before it begins banking operations in the country.
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Cerba Healthcare sold to Partners Group and PSP Investments: PAI Partners has agreed the sale of Cerba Healthcare, the laboratory testing company, to Partners Group and PSP Investments, one of Canada’s largest pension managers.
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Forbes settles long-running takeover dispute: A long legal battle over the takeover of Forbes magazine has been settled after the Chinese investors who bought the media company in 2014 agreed an out of court deal with the Forbes family.
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L’Oréal invests in ‘beauty tech’ start-ups for digital makeover: An app that designs nail art, a personalised natural skincare range and sophisticated location technology to help retailers target offline customers are three of the “beauty tech” start-ups selected by French cosmetics company L’Oréal for its first accelerator programme.
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Coursera enrols governments in online learning: Coursera, the online education platform, is targeting veterans in the U.S., youth in Pakistan and would-be financiers in Kazakhstan with the launch of a service where governments pay on behalf of users.
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Lex:
M&A appraisals: trust the process: Corporate courts in Delaware, where most American companies are domiciled, are sympathetic to the choices boards make if they can show their care and independence. Lengthy auctions involving 100 companies or more can be seen as just as reasonable as a single buyer deal wrapped up in days. While the Delaware court is willing to respect traditional auctions, companies that pursue unconventional, but sometimes justified, methods to sell themselves must now fret about owing more money years down the road. The result is that management may just pass over good takeover offers altogether, leaving shareholders to rue a lost premium.
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The Daily Telegraph
Stamp duty fuelling housing crisis, says Property Chief: Stamp duty is making the U.K.’s housing crisis worse by distorting the market and harming long-term development, the head of one of the world’s biggest property groups has warned.
Shell’s North Sea deal expected within weeks ahead of M&A boom: Shell’s plans to sell off U.K. oil assets are expected to move ahead within weeks ahead of an M&A boom for the North Sea.
Digital mortgage broker Habito raises £5.5 million from Silicon Valley investor: An internet mortgage broker that aims to shake up the convoluted process of securing a home loan has raised £5.5 million from a Silicon Valley investor.
FTSE investors win record dividends as sterling plummets: London-listed companies paid a record-breaking £16.6 billion to their investors during the final three months of 2016, as the plummeting pound gilded an otherwise downbeat year for dividends.
University of Bath spin-out behind STI diagnostic tool raises £28.3 million: University of Bath spin-out Atlas Genetics has moved a step closer to marketing a diagnostic test for sexually transmitted diseases after securing an extra $35 million (£28.3 million) in funding.
Small drug companies grow as big pharma outsources: The U.K.’s small, privately-owned pharmaceutical companies often go under the radar, but they’re playing an increasingly important role in Britain’s healthcare sector and posting impressive growth rates, according to a report from consultants Catalyst Corporate Finance.
Sky prepares for push into film production: Sky is preparing a push into feature film production, according to industry sources. The company is due to give investors its half-year report on Thursday against the backdrop of its planned takeover by 21st Century Fox, as it attempts to maintain focus on its sporting battles with BT and efforts to retain subscribers as Netflix and Amazon pile more money into original programming.
Dixons Carphone due to ring up festive sales rise: Dixons Carphone is expected to prolong the festive cheer for retailers this week by reporting a jump in sales, before it introduces price rises in response to the weakness of sterling.
British renewables firms vying for $50 billion of Saudi contracts: British renewables firms are preparing to compete for a multi-million-dollar windfall by snapping up contracts to develop wind, solar and power storage projects in Saudi Arabia through the kingdom’s $50 billion renewables drive.
ITV to move staff to new office ahead of refit of South Bank home: ITV has agreed a deal for a new London office as overflow space for hundreds of its staff while it refurbishes its current home on the South Bank.
Merger of Bovis and Berkeley on shaky ground: A City attempt to lay the foundations of a £5 billion merger of Bovis Homes and Berkeley Group is on shaky ground, with Berkeley understood to have rejected the idea.
The Guardian
Mexico braced for exodus to U.S. as ‘Trump effect’ hurts the peso: In Mexico, it is known as “el efecto Trump”: a barrage of taunts and tweets that rattle the economy and hammer the peso. For the new president, it is part of a strategy to pressure companies to move jobs back to the United States. Mexico’s job will be to suck it up, accept the millions of people Trump has promised to deport, and pay for the proposed border wall.
Brexit speech triggers dash for foreign currency as pound wavers: Britain’s consumers rushed to buy dollars and euros for their holidays as the value of sterling dropped after Theresa May’s commitment to a hard Brexit last week.
Chinese growth slips to slowest pace for 26 years: China’s economy slowed further last year to expand at its weakest pace for quarter of a century, with warnings that it risks losing further momentum in 2017 as Donald Trump’s presidency creates new challenges for the trading superpower.
Courgette crisis: Spanish farmers hope the worst is over: Manuel Martínez points to the distant, snow-dusted peaks that rise above the pines and palms and gives voice to a thought to chill the hearts and panic the stomachs of vegetable lovers.
The new robot revolution will take the Boss’s job, not the gardener’s: Guy Ryder is an old hand at Davos. The Director general of the International Labour Organisation has seen it all: the years when the global business elite is brimful of confidence and the years, such as 2017, when the top 1% of the top 1% is fretful.
U.K. GDP forecast: a strong finish to 2016 … and a sharp slowdown in 2017: Official figures this week are expected to provide fresh evidence that the U.K. economy remained resilient in the face of Brexit uncertainty at the close of 2016 but economists warn Britain is headed for a sharp slowdown this year.
Amazon and Google fight crucial battle over voice recognition: Amazon and Google always thrive in the fourth quarter as people get out their wallets for Christmas. Both companies – or in Google’s case, its parent group, Alphabet – are therefore expected to announce booming revenues in their fourth-quarter results over the next fortnight, with Alphabet going first on Thursday and Amazon the following week. But analysts are already looking beyond the simple question of how many cardboard boxes Amazon filled and how many searches Google answered. They’re wondering which company will win the battle to control your home.
Daily Mail
After proposed sale to Aussie asset stripper sparks outrage…MPs in U-turn as they plan float for Green Bank: Ministers may backtrack on plans to sell the Green Investment Bank to the so-called Aussie vampire kangaroo. Plans to offload the bank to investment firm Macquarie may be scrapped in favour of floating it on the stock exchange. Ministers had been widely criticised over plans to sell the Green Investment Bank.
Weetabix could be offloaded to Italian pasta company in £1.5 billion deal: Weetabix could be offloaded to an Italian pasta company in a £1.5 billion deal. The U.K.’s second biggest cereal brand has been attracting potential buyers since it was put up for sale by its Chinese owner last year.
Pearson Chief Executive facing mounting pressure to stand down amid criticism from teachers and shareholders: The Boss of Pearson is facing mounting pressure to stand down amid criticism from teachers and shareholders. John Fallon, Chief Executive of the firm which issued its fifth profit warning in four years on Wednesday, is to answer to shareholders who claim they were blindsided by the scale of the slide in profits.
Boss of homewares retailer Dunelm warns there will be price rises at business this year: The Boss of homewares retailer Dunelm has warned there will be price rises at the business this year. John Browett said the firm, which imports most of its stock, will have to hike prices on around two-thirds of its 30,000 products.
Daily Express
Ladbrokes Coral prove it’s better together: After William Hill downgraded full-year profit guidance at the beginning of the month, few people had high expectations for newly merged Ladbrokes Coral. After all, the group faced exactly the same punter-friendly football and racing results that had afflicted William Hill.
Inflation expected ‘to soar over 3% by April: Inflation will smash past the Government’s limit and hit 3.1% by the end of March, according to the respected EY ITEM Club think tank.
The Scottish Herald
Broadfoot hire is PR coup for Glasgow agency: Frame, the Glasgow-based creative agency, has boosted its public relations division by hiring the communications Chief of the Scottish Football Association (SFA).
Fleet is in a higher gear after takeover: A Glasgow-based vehicle leasing company has declared it is poised for a major leap in revenue after completing its first major acquisition.
Rog Wood: ‘The British Wool Marketing Board has seen turbulent times’: The latest wool auction held in Bradford by the British Wool Marketing Board (BWMB) was yet another lacklustre affair with only 60% of the offering sold.
Edinburgh start up highlights amount of support on offer for firms in fields like software development: After a week in which Brexit has hogged the headlines we hear from a businesswoman who highlights uncertainty about what the vote will mean for small firms.
BT to publish third-quarter results amid Openreach battle with watchdog: Telecoms giant BT will report back on third-quarter trading next week as it battles with communications watchdog Ofcom over plans to force it to legally separate its Openreach network arm.
Filofax maker turns new page: The parent company of the maker of Filofax and Letts diaries has made an underlying pre-tax profit of £1.2 million in the year to April 30, dipping from £1.8 million following completion of a major restructuring.
U.K. economy to become more reliant on exports: A “Shallow and prolonged” economic impact from Brexit will see the U.K. economy become heavily dependent on exports as it sees a “significant readjustment” away from consumer spending following the slump in the pound since the Brexit vote, according to forecasts.
The Scotsman
Frying and roasting in cancer link: Roasting and frying starchy foods could increase the risk of cancer, a government body has said.
Livingston is Scotland’s top performer in house price growth: House price growth in Britain’s new towns has outperformed the national average, a report has found.
ScotRail Boss denies exit is linked to poor performance: ScotRail Alliance Chief Phil Verster has condemned the linking of his surprise departure with poor train performance as “totally wrong”.
City A.M.
Australian overtures are welcome – but post-Brexit trade deals will not be plain sailing: Aussie diplomat Alexander Downer has become the latest foreign politician to propose a quick trade deal post-Brexit, insisting over the weekend the two countries could trigger a “significant intensification” of trade by tearing down barriers.
British business groups welcome Theresa May’s wide-ranging industrial strategy: Britain’s top business groups have thrown their weight behind government plans for a sweeping new industrial strategy, seeking to boost productivity across every sector and in every corner of the country.
Trump could be a great job creator, if he backs women in the workplace: President Donald Trump could live up to his promise to be “the greatest jobs producer that God ever create”, according to an influential think tank, but he may need to promote female-friendly policies to do so.
HMRC in £468 million small business tax haul: Local compliance teams investigating small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) brought in substantial extra revenue to the taxman last year.
Shareholders move in on Johnston Press CEO: Investors in the publisher behind the i newspaper, The Scotsman and The Yorkshire Post are expected to call for Ashley Highfield to step down from the firm in a meeting this week.
Brace for “hard rebalancing” of U.K. economy in 2017: The fall in the pound will result in a “significant readjustment” of the U.K. economy away from consumer spending and towards exports, regardless of the results of the Brexit negotiations.
