The Times
Patchy phone and tablet coverage is not what the City wants to hear: Promises of a “meaningful uplift” in profits this year at Dixons Carphone after a solid Christmas trading period failed to impress the City.
Italy’s red arrows make tracks for Britain’s HS2 rail line: The Italian state rail company has opened the bidding to operate the trains on the High Speed Two line in what is likely to be the most hotly contested competition in the history of the railways.
Ex-Chief of Essentra in line for £600,000 pay-off: The former Chief Executive of Essentra is to be paid more than a half a million pounds after a series of profit warnings at the struggling packaging company.
British Gas to pay £9.5 million over botched bills: British Gas is to pay a £9.5 million penalty after tens of thousands of business customers received inaccurate or delayed bills due to problems with its new IT system.
EU builders are skilled workers, says Crest Boss: The Chief Executive of Crest Nicholson has urged the government to treat European Union migrants working in the construction industry as “skilled workers” once Brexit negotiations get under way.
Loss of clearing threatens 85,000 jobs: Services associated with clearing euro-denominated securities will be forced to leave London, costing the City up to 85,000 jobs as a result of Brexit, a former head of the Swiss central bank has warned.
RBS ‘sank businesses to meet bailout terms’: Royal Bank of Scotland mistreated businesses because it was rushing to meet the terms of its taxpayer bailout in 2008, a claim lodged in the High Court has alleged.
The Independent
Airbus, which employs 15,000 in Britain, has a warning about Brexit: The Boss of aircraft giant Airbus has warned that his company would be “entering a dangerous phase” if the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union disrupts the movement of people and products.
U.K. airlines will ‘fall off cliff without Brexit deal says Ryanair Boss: The U.K. aviation industry could “fall off a cliff” in two years’ time because of the decision to leave the European Union, Ryanair Boss, Michael O’Leary has warned.
Euro group Chief warns Britain against tax haven temptation: The head of the council of euro zone finance Ministers said on Tuesday that the U.K. risks taking a “crazy step backwards” if it decides to become a tax haven in the aftermath of Brexit.
Government borrowing higher than expected in December: The U.K. public finances improved in December as Government borrowing fell £400 million on the same month a year earlier to £6.9 billion, official figures show.
Guardian ‘considering’ becoming a tabloid and outsourcing printing: The Guardian is weighing up the option of becoming a tabloid newspaper and outsourcing its printing operations to one of its big rivals, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
One of world’s largest tech companies makes Brexit warning: Microsoft has joined a growing list of companies threatening to pull investment from the U.K. after Brexit.
Brexit pound slump expected to cost easyJet £105 million in 2017: Carolyn McCall, the Chief Executive of easyJet, has said the cost of Brexit for her company was likely to hit £105 million this year, as a result of the slide in the value of the pound since the U.K. voted to leave the EU in June.
Financial Times
BHP slices full-year copper production forecast: BHP Billiton has cut its guidance for copper production in the 2017 financial year, blaming power outages at its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia.
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Bernie Ecclestone’s departure signals seismic shift for F1: On Monday night, Mr. Ecclestone was replaced as Chief Executive of F1, after Liberty Media, controlled by U.S. billionaire John Malone, completed its $8 billion takeover of F1’s parent company.
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Fever-Tree eyes global opportunity as sales sparkle: Fever-Tree, the maker of upmarket mixers for drinks, says the “global opportunity” for the group “remains in the early stages” as its sales continue to accelerate across all regions.
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Scores of planned U.K. power plants could be scrapped after subsidy change: Scores of small power plants planned for the U.K. are at risk of being scrapped because of an overhaul of energy subsidies — an outcome that threatens to increase electricity shortages in coming winters.
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Trump ends Obama block on Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines: President Donald Trump has quickly moved to reverse another of Barack Obama’s signature policies, backing two multibillion-dollar oil pipeline projects that became test cases for Washington’s commitment to addressing climate change.
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Libya’s oil head seeks investment to support output surge: The head of Libya’s National Oil Corporation has called on the central bank to free up more money for the energy sector to help boost production as he tries to rally investment from international oil companies for the struggling north African country.
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EDF fends off government pressure to close nuclear plant: The board of French utility EDF has fended off government pressure to close its Fessenheim nuclear plant, agreeing a temporary face-saving deal that will see the issue postponed until after France’s presidential election this spring.
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Cohn to receive exit package of at least $100 million from Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs is paying an exit package worth at least $100 million to Gary Cohn, its former president and Chief operating officer, as he leaves the Wall Street bank to become Donald Trump’s top adviser on the economy.
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Regulator summons Intesa, Generali and UniCredit to explain intentions: Italy’s stock market regulator has summoned the Bosses of Intesa Sanpaolo, Generali and UniCredit to a meeting to explain their intentions after a day of speculation about a bid potentially involving all three drove shares higher in Milan’s blue-chip index.
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Turkey keeps benchmark repo rate on hold but raises overnight rate: Turkey’s central bank left its main interest rate unchanged on Tuesday, but raised the overnight lending rate in a move that sent the lira tumbling by more than 1% against the dollar.
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J&J blames strong dollar for disappointing 2017 forecast: Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest healthcare company, blamed a stronger dollar as it forecast that 2017 profits and sales would fall below Wall Street expectations, sending the group’s shares down by more than 2%.
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Lockheed warns on accounting at Sikorsky unit: Lockheed Martin warned of possible “material weakness” in internal controls of financial reporting at Sikorsky, the military helicopter maker it acquired from United Technologies for $9 billion in 2015.
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La Land leads rivals a merry dance with Oscar nominations: Lions Gate Entertainment, the independent Hollywood studio, outperformed its larger rivals in the run-up to the Oscars when Damien Chazelle’s musical La Land equalled the record for nominations set by All About Eve and Titanic.
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GMB denounces union rival in turf war over Asos warehouse: The GMB has denounced officials at one of Britain’s smallest unions for behaving “like Bosses’ lackeys”, after a campaign to unionise a warehouse operated by Asos, the online fashion retailer, degenerated into a turf war.
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Tesco faces fresh lawsuit over past accounting irregularities: Tesco is facing new legal action over historical accounting irregularities, even as the British supermarket prepares to defend a separate lawsuit filed by investors who say they lost £100 million in the scandal.
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Alibaba revenues rise 54% in ‘blowout quarter’: Alibaba blew through analysts’ earnings estimates, lifting revenues 54% to Rmb53.25 billion ($7.7 billion) in its quarter to the end of December and prompting the Chinese ecommerce group to lift its full-year growth guidance to 53%.
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Cisco to buy AppDynamics for $3.7 billion: Cisco will acquire AppDynamics for $3.7 billion just as the start-up, which improves the performance of applications, prepared to join the public market later this week.
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SAP raises 2020 targets on cloud business confidence: SAP has raised its targets for 2020, predicting that “strong momentum” in cloud services would pave the way for more predictable and higher revenue streams.
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D-Wave claims quantum leap in computing power: D-Wave Systems, the world’s only commercial seller of quantum computers, has doubled the power of its new system, transforming its speed and making it able to solve larger problems, from managing complex logistics and financial models to detecting cyber criminals.
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Verizon misses estimates ahead of Yahoo purchase plans: Verizon added fewer new customers than expected in the fourth quarter, underscoring urgency in its quest to expand into media and advertising through a planned $4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo.
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Lex:
Aetna/Humana: Obamacare’s irrelevance: The U.S. District Court in Washington on Monday blocked the $37 billion merger of health insurers Aetna and Humana. There was too much opportunity for misChief in the Medicare Advantage service both groups offer to seniors. A tie-up would have simply been another notch in their belts. The court’s decision states that the market where antitrust issues loomed was Medicare Advantage insurance alone. The combined market share for the pair was simply too concentrated. Should either set of investors be upset? Given $1.25 billion in estimated annual synergies and a dip in the shares one might assume so.
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U.S. oil services: shovel ready: The number of oil rigs in North America — a good proxy for activity levels — has increased 70% from last year’s low. Service groups, such as Schlumberger and Halliburton, stand to gain as boom follows bust. Low oil prices caused clients to stop or wind down capital spending. To keep their clients happy, service specialists cut prices. Halliburton in particular achieved its highest ever market share in North America during the first half of 2016. Following last year’s oil price surge, service companies have tried to grab a bit of their clients’ expanding profits. In this week’s fourth-quarter earnings report, revenue in North America increased by 9%, less than expected considering the sharper rig count jump during the period.
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SAP: hip to be square: SAP is moving away from large upfront sales of old-fashioned hardware and licences. Instead, it seeks steady subscription-based sales spread over many years. These would be underpinned by rentals of cloud-based products and services. Such a transition takes time and money. Medium-term profits must be sacrificed in order to increase “predictable” revenues to three-quarters of the total (from 61% currently) by 2020.
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Lombard:
EasyJet delayed by abnormal levels of currency disruption: Britain’s biggest airline by passenger numbers has been suffering plenty of disruption for other reasons. In its trading statement on Tuesday, easyJet said it had incurred an “additional disruption cost” in the last quarter mainly due to higher numbers of EU compensation claims for delayed flights. In fact, last year, claims adviser AirHelp ranked easyJet the second worst of 34 airlines for on-time arrivals, compensation hold-ups and service (behind Azores airline SATA). But that was nothing compared with the disruption cost from another product of disputed EU claims: Brexit.
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The Daily Telegraph
Lloyds private equity arm takes stake in U.K. pharma comms company Fishawack: LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Bank, has taken a stake in pharmaceuticals communications company Fishawack, valuing the Cheshire-based firm at £38 million.
BT suffers worst day in more than 30 years as shares are battered by accounts scandal and tough outlook: BT suffered its worst ever day as a public company as an accounting scandal in Italy and the loss of lucrative big contracts at home wiped out all the gains its shares have made under Chief Executive Gavin Patterson.
Hungry investors to battle over Little Chef takeover: The Kuwaiti owners of Little Chef are preparing to choose a new owner for the iconic motorway dining chain after receiving competing bids from hungry investors.
St Tropez no longer shining for PZ Cussons: A poor summer dampened Britons’ appetite for self-tan lotion, according to PZ Cussons, which has blamed a slump in sales on lower demand for its St Tropez range.
Rio Tinto sells Australian coal assets to China’s Yancoal for £1.9 billion: Dirty, unloved thermal coal has been one of the star commodities of the last year, and now Rio Tinto has cashed in on rising prices by offloading an Australian coal business for $2.45 billion (£1.97 billion).
The Questor Column:
Aggreko is expensive, but this is why it’s poised for growth: Ashtead, the FTSE 100 equipment rental specialist, has done this column a good turn, with a healthy 20%-plus gain since its selection in early November, and it may now be worth investigating one of its rivals, Aggreko. Around half of Aggreko’s business overlaps with that of Ashtead in the U.S. equipment rental market, providing mid-sized power generators. If President Trump gets America to invest in infrastructure projects this operation should benefit, although this opportunity is now fairly well understood. The real secret to Aggreko could be the power solutions business, which may be about to reach a welcome turning point after a difficult couple of years. This unit rents out large-scale power generators to meet any power shortages for governments and utilities. Capacity utilisation seems to be rising and once it hits the 70%‑80% range the profits can start to motor. A strong schedule of major sporting events in 2018 provides a good range of potential contract wins. The stock could be poised for a comeback after a difficult 2016. Questor says ‘Buy’.
Ladbrokes 2022 retail bond: The Ladbrokes Group Finance retail bond, which pays annual interest of 5.125% and matures in 2022, looks like a good option to consider. A fall in the bond’s price from 110p to 103.2p means the yield to maturity is 4.6%. Interest is paid twice a year. The price has been pleasingly resilient in the face of the introduction of a new horseracing funding scheme, a new levy on bookmakers’ profits and running concerns over a regulatory review of fixed-odds betting terminals. The bond’s BB rating means there are risks and trading has been tough for all high-street bookies, but this is a still a nicely cash-generative business. Questor says ‘Buy’.
The Guardian
Citigroup plans new operations away from London after Brexit: Citigroup has set out 25 criteria to weigh up which financial centre in the European Union will house the new operation it expects to set up as a result of Brexit.
Supreme court rules parliament must have vote to trigger article 50: The government has lost its fast-tracked appeal to the supreme court, forcing Ministers to introduce emergency legislation into parliament to authorise the U.K.’s departure from the EU.
Highly paid Bosses should not get knighthoods, City veteran tells MPs: Knighthoods and other public honours should not be handed to highly paid businesspeople, one of the U.K.’s most respected company Chairmen has told MPs.
The world’s biggest accounting scandals: The scandal at Toshiba has got Japan’s government worried that investors will lose confidence in the country. Japan has its own problems with antiquated oversight of top managers but companies have cooked the books throughout history and worldwide.
Toy prices could rise by up to 15% after pound’s Brexit plunge: The price of some toys could rise by up to 15% as a result of the plunging pound, manufacturers have warned.
Beer prices rise amid sobering threat of Brexit-related inflation: The spectre of inflation is looming over the British pint, as two major brewers raised the price of beer and the brewing business warned of far larger Brexit-related rises to come.
Daily Mail
Spread better IG Group falls despite pledge to protect punters losing more than their original stake: A clampdown on trading continues to weigh on IG Group shares. the firm admitted it was cautious about the future despite putting in place rules to prevent customers losing more than their original stake.
Housebuilder Crest Nicholson overcomes Brexit wobble to rake in annual sales of £1 billion: Crest Nicholson raked in annual sales of £1billion as it overcame a Brexit wobble. The housebuilder said revenues rose 24% to just over £1billion in the 12 months to the end of October after it sold 2,870 newly built homes – 5% more than the previous year.
Now legal vultures swoop on BT over £530 million black hole: Trio of U.S. law firms prepare to file suits to recover losses suffered by investors: BT is facing legal action over claims it misled investors about the scale of a £530million accounting scandal in its Italian business. A trio of U.S. law firms are preparing to file suits to recover losses suffered by BT investors after almost £8billion was wiped off the value of the telecoms giant.
BoE official predicts more flash crashes in line with pound’s sharp fall in October: Global financial markets will face more ‘flash crashes’ in line with sterling’s sharp fall in October, according to a top Bank of England official.
Britain’s national debt poised to hit £1.7 trillion – with interest payments approaching £40 billion a year: Britain’s ballooning national debt rose by £250 million a day last year – leaving it just shy of £1.7 trillion.
Daily Express
HSBC to shut 62 branches: How will you be affected by closures?: Britain’s biggest bank HSBC is to close another 62 branches in 2017, as the group claims more people move to use online banking.
Pound falls after Supreme Court’s Brexit ruling: The pound fell against the dollar after the Supreme Court ruled Parliament must be given a vote over beginning the formal Brexit process.
Pension fund returns hit seven-year high amid Brexit vote: Pension savers received a boost last year, as the retirement funds enjoyed their highest returns since 2009 amid Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, according to analysis.
BT Italian accounting scandal: £7 billion wiped off shares as full extent of wrongdoing exposed: Shares in BT sank by 18% after the communications giant warned on profits amid an expected £530 million hit, thanks to accounting wrongdoings at its Italian division.
Post Office launches ‘biggest expansion of face-to-face banking in a generation’: The Post Office is rolling out new services that mean more people will be able to access everyday banking at branches in a bid to reduce the hit of providers reducing their presence on the high street.
Banks scale bank on ‘sweeteners’ used to tempt customers to switch current account: The big banks are scaling back the “sweeteners” they have been offering to tempt customers into switching current account.
The Scottish Herald
Call for boardroom purge at Bowleven: Bowleven has come under renewed attack from a rebel investor which is trying to oust Chief Executive Kevin Hart and five fellow board members and has accused the oil and gas company of significant shareholder value destruction.
Alliance willing to buy back activist’s shares: The Board of Dundee-based Alliance Trust has thrown down the gauntlet to activist investor Elliott Advisors by publicly announcing that it would be willing to buy back some of its shares.
Brexit worries of smaller exporters revealed: Small businesses have signalled there will be a significant overall decline in their exports because of Brexit, in a key survey.
Mixed picture for builders: Scottish builders reported growth in the final three months of last year, as workloads continued to rise, but the sector faces “significant challenges” during 2017, a survey has shown.
Self-build home firm goes under after cash runs out: An Inverness-based self-build home company and its sister timber-frame business have ceased trading after running into “serious cash flow problems”.
Not enough jobs for law diploma graduates: There are still significantly more students than training contracts in the Scottish legal market, despite the number of people enrolling on diploma courses dipping by three% in the current academic year.
Scottish Friendly sees sales rocket by 33% in 2016: Sales at financial services mutual Scottish Friendly increased by 33% in the 2016 calendar year, with the provision of life insurance policies for other businesses driving much of the growth.
Faculty to roll out arbitration scheme to cut disputes costs: The faculty of Advocates is on the cusp of relaunching an alternative dispute resolution service that is expected to cut down both the cost and the length of time it takes to bring legal action.
Scotland’s pubs most stable: PUBS and restaurants in Scotland are at less risk of insolvency than outlets across the U.K. as a whole.
Pizza chain to create 350 jobs: Pizza chain Domino’s has unveiled plans to create another 350 jobs in Scotland, with the opening of a further 10 stores north of the Border this year.
Watchdog urges opposition to Aberdeen pay report: A corporate governance watchdog has urged shareholders to vote against the remuneration report of Aberdeen Asset Management, branding the variable pay awarded to Chief Executive Martin Gilbert as “excessive”.
Farm antibiotic use challenged by EU agencies: Farmers must urgently re-think their livestock production systems to reduce their use of antibiotics, for the future good of both animal and human health.
SL trust drops focus on Europe: The Standard Life European Private Equity Trust will go ahead with plans to drop its geographic focus after winning the backing of shareholders at its annual general meeting.
Clothing firm has £500,000 target for crowdfunding bid: A Scottish clothing brand which specialises in fashionable yet “technical” outdoor jackets for women has embarked on a £500,000 crowdfunding drive.
The Scotsman
BP offloads North Sea assets to EnQuest in $85 million deal: North Sea producer EnQuest is to become the operator of BP’s Sullom Voe terminal in the Shetland Islands as part of an $85 million (£68 million) deal with the oil major.
Jobs firm iMultiply hires industry guru Paul Atkinson: Recruitment industry veteran and serial angel investor Paul Atkinson has been hired by iMultiply as the Edinburgh-based firm sets out a goal to double turnover.
Planning consultant Iceni sets up shop in Scotland: A planning and development consultancy has opened an office in Glasgow, its first outside London, and is already working on a series of high-profile contracts.
Shares in Murgitroyd slump following profit alert: Murgitroyd, the Glasgow-based firm of patent attorneys, saw its shares slump by almost a fifth after warning that its full-year results will fall short of City hopes.
City A.M.
Donald Trump urges car giants Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler to build new plants in the U.S.: U.S. President Donald Trump has urged the heads of car companies to boost production in the U.S. and promised to slash “out of control” regulations to attract more investment.
The government will introduce a straight-forward Article 50 Bill “within days”: A bill granting the government power to begin the U.K.’s separation from the EU will be brought forward “within days” after ‘s landmark Supreme Court verdict on Article 50.
Intesa Sanpaolo reveals it is examining Generali takeover: Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo has revealed it is considering a takeover bid for the country’s largest insurance firm, Generali.
The head of the BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, has warned boards he will vote against excessive pay: The Chief Executive of the world’s largest asset manager has warned companies it is invested in it will use its weight to vote down excessive Executive pay.
Saudi Aramco eyes bankers for what could be the world’s biggest float: Global banking giants are set to compete for an advisory role on oil goliath Saudi Aramco’s multi-billion-dollar float, which is expected to be the world’s biggest initial public offering.
