The Times
Ailing factories slip back into recession: Industry has slipped into its third recession in eight years, leaving the economy “precariously unbalanced”.
Economists warn against Brexit vote: Leaving the European Union would be a “major mistake” that would cost Britain in both the short and the long term, almost 200 economists are warning.
‘Emerging economies will send oil back to $76’: Oil prices are set to soar to $76 a barrel next year, propelled by robust demand from expanding Asian and African countries, an influential American agency has predicted.
Former Barclays banker ‘has admitted Libor fix’: The former Barclays banker who was the first embroiled in the Libor scandal to plead guilty can be named after a court lifted a reporting ban.
Shareholders set to quiz EDF on Hinkley Point: EDF will face fresh pressure from its investors over its plans to build an £18 billion nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
C&C’s dividend goes up despite profits going down: Annual profits at C&C Group dropped by almost 11%, but the beer and cider maker still managed to increase its dividend by more than the market had expected.
Brazil’s latest reality check keeps lid on Experian profits: A slump in the value of the Brazilian real and other currency headwinds have been blamed for disappointing annuals results by Experian.
Big housebuilders pledge 200,000 homes a year: Britain’s biggest housebuilders have pledged to build 200,000 homes a year by 2019 after coming under pressure from the government to boost housebuilding in an effort to tackle the country’s chronic shortage of homes.
The Independent
Tui plans to sell specialist unit to focus on mass tourism business: Tui, Europe’s largest tour operator, said it will sell its Specialist Group activities as part of a process of focusing on its mainline tourism operations following the disposal of the Hotelbeds Group unit last month.
EE gets Three’s muppet ad banned over ‘undisputed’ reliability claim: A Muppet-themed ad by mobile phone provider Three has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after rival EE complained over its claim to be the “undisputed” most reliable network.
Top 25 U.S. hedge fund Managers made $13 billion in 2015: Stock market volatility on Wall Street last year has not prevented top hedge fund Managers from being paid huge sums to handle the investments of the wealthiest people in the U.S. The top-25 highest earners took home a combined $13 billion in 2015, according to the industry’s annual “rich list” compiled by Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine.
Financial Times
Javid weighs £2.5 billion trim for British Steel pension fund: The government is planning to ringfence the British Steel pension fund and shave £2.5 billion off its long-term liabilities in order to make Tata Steel more attractive to buyers.
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Adidas and Chelsea blow whistle on shirt deal: Adidas’s sponsorship of Chelsea football club is to end six years earlier than planned, paving the way for the English Premier League team to sign a more lucrative deal with a rival sportswear group.
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Nigeria raises price cap on imported fuel: Nigeria moved to end shortages of petrol and hard currency on Wednesday, hiking the price cap on imported fuel by more than two-thirds as the oil price crash forced the Opec member to ease market controls.
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Purplebricks’ revenues rise 445% to £18.5 million: Purplebricks, the online estate agent, said on Wednesday that it had more than quadrupled its annual revenues to £18.5 million.
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Nissan weighing 30% stake in Mitsubishi Motors: Nissan is in talks to buy a one-third stake in Mitsubishi Motors as its smaller Japanese rival seeks outside capital to survive a scandal over inflated fuel economy data.
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Linn Energy files for bankruptcy protection: Linn Energy, the Houston-based oil and gas producer, has become the biggest U.S. casualty of the slump in crude prices over the past two years, filing for bankruptcy on Wednesday evening.
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China insurance regulator sends inspectors to Anbang: Anbang Insurance Group and local competitors are being examined by China’s insurance regulator as concerns grow about the sector’s aggressive investment policies.
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Vincent Bollore appoints son to Vivendi board: Vincent Bollore has appointed his son to the board of Vivendi, in a move that tightens the French billionaire’s grip on the media group as it looks to become a force in southern Europe.
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Lex:
Tui: jury out: Tui used to be a conglomerate. Now it is a “content-centric, vertically integrated tourism business”. Increasingly, it owns cruise ship cabins, hotel rooms and aircraft seats.
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JCDecaux: hoarding good news: Advertisers know just how to make the most out of anticipation. Years ago what was then Heinz Foods based an entire advertising campaign for ketchup around the excruciating suspense felt waiting for the sauce to pour from the bottle.
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Experian: not a nice-to-have: Many of the businesses that fall into the “research and consulting services” sector sell stuff that sounds nice to have — and likely to be ditched in hard times. Not Experian.
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Lombard:
Lies, damned lies and ebitda: BP loses $6.5 billion of investors’ money. Boo. BP makes $6 billion in underlying profits on a replacement cost basis. Hooray. At least it was for Boss Bob Dudley, whose $20 million pay was linked to the latter, writes Kate Burgess.
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Can cook, will cook: A good cook combines a few ingredients via a series of simple procedures, any of which, if bungled, will result in an unappetising mess. It’s the same task running contract caterer Compass Group, where Richard Cousins has just completed his tenth year in charge of the spatulas.
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The Daily Telegraph
Global corruption risks tipping more countries into crisis, IMF warns: Governments must step up their fight against corruption or face damaging economic and social consequences that risks tipping more countries into crisis, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned.
Heathrow offers compromise ban on night flights for third runway: Heathrow has claimed a compromise offer it has made to scrap night flights is “better” than a ban proposed by the Government-appointed Airports Commission, as it battles to secure backing for a controversial third runway.
Turnaround fund Endless revealed as bidder for Tata’s U.K. steel business: The seventh bidder for Tata’s ailing U.K. operations has been revealed as Endless, one of the U.K.’s largest turnaround specialists.
Google bans ‘deceptive’ payday loan adverts from search results: Google is banning adverts for payday lenders from its search results, adding the short-term loan industry to a blacklist that includes guns, tobacco and drugs, and dealing a bitter blow to the industry.
North Sea unions demand summit to tackle ‘safety crisis’: Disengaged North Sea workers are facing a potentially fatal safety crisis which must be tackled in partnership with industry and the regulator, unions have warned.
The world’s largest – and British-built – aircraft set to dominate the skies at Farnborough: One of the world’s largest – and British-made – aircraft could be dominating the skies over Hampshire in July with the giant Airlander airship taking part in the Farnborough airshow.
Top Shell investor vents anger at Boss pay: Shell could become one of the most high profile casualties of this year’s Shareholder Spring after a top investor and several leading advisory groups hit out at the company’s plans to award a multi-million pound bonus to its Chief Executive Ben van Beurden on the back of an 80% plunge in annual profits.
Investment banks’ predictions of big deals are normally wrong, says Fitch: When investment banks have a tough quarter they typically promise investors that they have a “strong pipeline” of big deals on the way that will boost revenues in the months ahead.
The Guardian
Lycamobile’s opaque tax affairs confounding its own auditors: Lycamobile, the largest donor to the Conservative party, uses a complex web of offshore and U.K. companies so opaque that its own auditors cannot account for £134 million of assets.
Standard Life Boss tries to head off investor revolt by cutting bonus: Keith Skeoch, the new Chief Executive of Standard Life, is attempting to head off a shareholder protest over his pay by cutting £700,000 off his potential £3.5 million bonus.
Construction firms apologise in court over blacklist: Leading construction firms have formally apologised to hundreds of trade unionists for putting them on an illegal blacklist and denying them work.
Brexit would lead to shortage of construction staff, says Barratt Boss: Britain’s departure from the EU would hit housebuilders’ workforces hard and exacerbate the housing crisis, the Boss of the U.K.’s largest homebuilder has said.
U.K. industry falls back into recession: Government hopes of rebalancing the U.K.’s service-sector-dominated economy have been dealt a blow with the latest official data showing industry slipping into its third downturn within a decade.
George Osborne says Treasury is planning for Brexit: George Osborne has conceded for the first time that the Treasury and the Bank of England are carrying out detailed contingency planning to prevent a vote to leave the European Union unleashing a financial crisis.
William Hill pays out £3 million to punters backing Leicester City: William Hill has paid out £3 million to punters who backed Leicester City to win the Premier League, but the hit to the bookmaker was partly offset by good results from the rest of the season’s matches.
Daily Mail
U.K. Catering giant Compass wins contract to serve food at new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas: Catering giant Compass has won a contract to serve food at the new stadium in Las Vegas where British boxing champion Amir Khan was knocked out last weekend.
Sir Philip Green fights back in pensions row by laying bare BHS accounts and accusing watchdog of giving ‘inaccurate’ evidence: Tycoon Sir Philip Green looks set for a bitter row with pensions regulator after launching an attack on its role in the sale of BHS, writes Laura Chesters.
William Hill left reeling as shock football results and well-backed Cheltenham winners pile pressure on the bookies: William Hill saw revenues slump in the first four months of this year as it took a hit from punters cashing in on bets from the Cheltenham Festival and Leicester City’s surprise Premier League title.
Daily Express
Barclays new data mining service arms smaller firms with market research power: Barclays has just launched a new online data analysis service to help smaller firms grow by arming them with detailed insights about how they, their customers and rivals in their area are operating.
‘Staggeringly unfair’ Meddling Brussels blocks mobile firm Three’s takeover of O2: Phone giant Three has hit out at the European Commission after Brussels bureaucrats blocked the firm’s proposed £10.3billion takeover of O2. Billions of pounds worth of investment in the U.K.’s digital infrastructure has been lost as a result of the decision, said Hutchison, parent company of Three.
Homebuying hell as 200,000 sales collapse amid gazumping and sellers pulling out: Hundreds of thousands of hopeful homebuyers have had their dreams dashed and a fortune as a record number of purchases collapsed last year. More than a quarter of property sales have fallen through after an offer has been accepted over the last five years, wasting the time and money of buyers, found a study by insurer LV.
The Scottish Herald
Entrepreneurial Spark appoints new Chief Executive: Entrepreneurial Spark has said Jim Duffy will be succeeded as Chief Executive of the start-up support programme by co-Founder Lucy Rose-Walker next month.
Pacific Building delivers eighth year of growth: Pacific Building, the construction and fit-out company based at Hillington in Glasgow, has reported a 54% annual increase in turnover to £13.2 million.
Sparrows wins new Stena contract: Sparrows Group has been awarded a 20-month inspection services contract to cover Stena Drilling’s global fleet of drilling vessels.
RBS hands out £3.3 million of shares: Royal Bank of Scotland has awarded 1,557,451 shares worth £3.36 million to 10 senior Executives as payment of their half-year fixed share allowance.
Marine Harvest enjoys best ever quarter: Fish farmer Marine Harvest has achieved its best ever quarterly group results but it remains loss-making in Scotland.
Sodexo extends Hampden partnership: Services company Sodexo has extended its partnership with Hampden Park until 2020. The company will continue to provide food and beverage services at Scotland’s national stadium including retail, hospitality and the museum café.
Edinburgh software firm signs its biggest ever deal: Accountancy software firm FreeAgent has signed what is thought to be the U.K.’s largest cloud accounting partnership deal with Danbro.
Premier Oil in talks with lenders amid weak oil prices: Premier Oil, which has a big North Sea business, has said it is in talks about changing the conditions of its loan funding amid the crude price slump.
The Scotsman
Energy Assets investors raise doubts over £200 million deal: A group of investors in Energy Assets said it would vote against the gas meter firm’s £200 million takeover due to concerns over its valuation.
Wood Group warns of 20% slide in annual profits: Tough market conditions are expected to knock about 20% of Wood Group’s annual profits, the oil and gas services giant warned.
Tennent’s Owner agrees tie-up to take IPA to India: The parent company of Scotland’s best-selling lager has struck a deal to brew and distribute the brand in India.
Lack of rural broadband access ‘unacceptable’ says NFU: The delivery of better mobile networks and affordable, reliable, superfast broadband to rural areas is essential to the running of safe and efficient farms and to allow farmers to comply with new regulations, it was claimed.
ISG seals £20 million contracts for two Edinburgh hotels: Construction group ISG has won £20 million worth of contracts to develop two city centre hotel sites in Edinburgh.
City A.M.
House sales forecast to stay flat as buyer interest drops for first time in over a year – RICS: Interest from U.K. house buyers has dropped for the first time since March 2015, as uncertainty plagues the market, according to the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Residential Market Survey.
U.K. investor relations firm expands with U.S. acquisition to target “more global and more outspoken and demanding” shareholders: London-based investor relations firm Sodali has announced the acquisition of a U.S. counterpart, Morrow. The merged entity, Morrow Sodali Global, is now better positioned to target “more global and more outspoken and demanding” shareholders.
Worldpay set to team up with accountancy software firms: Payments processor Worldpay is set to team up with some of the U.K.’s largest accountancy software firms as it continues to move towards serving small and medium-sized businesses.
Fast food chain Wendy’s warns over forthcoming sales growth: U.S. fast food chain Wendy’s has posted better-than-expected results for its first quarter, though it warned that sales growth will struggle in the coming three months.
JRP Group feeling positive off the back of last set of pre-merger results, even though they revealed a dip in total new business sales: JRP Group has revealed its final set of quarterly results relating to before its merger, in which the group Chief Executive revealed that he felt “positive about the future”.
Confident challenger OneSavings Bank reveals net loans and advances growth: OneSavings Bank revealed that its net loans and advances had grown in a trading statement ahead of its AGM, with its Chief Executive noting that the challenger bank remained “confident” for the year ahead.
Ding dong: Energy company set to announce plan for £8.5 billion IPO: Dong Energy is expected to announce its plan for an initial public offering (IPO). The flotation is expected to value the company around 80 billion Danish crowns (£8.5 billion).
Used car supermarket driving towards IPO worth up to £240 million: Used car supermarket Motorpoint is driving towards a stock market flotation which could be worth up to £240 million
