The Times
Third of British households vulnerable to rate rise: Almost a third of households would have to cut spending, work longer hours or change their mortgage terms if interest rates rose by just 2 percentage points without any increase in pay, according to the Bank of England.
Rolls-Royce Chief to sack top Executives in £200 million shake-up: Rolls-Royce will announce the removal of up to 12 senior Executives in the first step of a restructuring programme aimed at saving £200 million a year.
Threadneedle fined £6 million for trade that could have lost investors £70 million: One of the world’s largest fund Managers has been fined £6 million by the City watchdog after it ignored warnings about weaknesses in its management that nearly allowed a former employee to execute a trade that would have lost investors more than £70 million.
Rio Tinto borrows $4 billion to revive Mongolia mine: Rio Tinto is set to borrow more than $4 billion to build an underground copper and gold mine that could transform the Mongolian economy. An earlier agreement over the Oyu Tolgoi project lapsed a year ago as the plan Foundered amid a dispute with the Mongolian government over taxes and royalties.
Wellcome Trust bets on oil price recovery next year: Britain’s biggest charity is betting on a rebound in oil prices next year.
Diageo acquires a taste for Australian whisky brand: The drinks company Diageo has bought a minority stake in an Australian whisky. The investment in Melbourne’s Starward Whisky is being made through Distill Ventures, the FTSE 100 drinks group’s “accelerator programme” for entrepreneurs seeking to create and develop innovative new spirits brands.
Carpetright makeover leads to 6% rise in profits: Carpetright’s turnaround strategy after years of thread-bare profits appears to be paying off, with the retailer reporting a 6% rise in profits for the first half of the year.
Average cost of an English home reaches £300,000: The average cost of a home in England has reached £300,000 for the first time.
BT in league of its own for pay TV complaints: BT received the most complaints of any pay TV channel provider this summer, according to the regulator.
The Independent
‘Santa and the Grinch’ call off £1.3 billion industrial takeover deal: One of the biggest U.K. takeover deals of the year has been called off after the punishing squeeze on oil prices forced the Bosses of the two companies to torpedo the tie-up.
Tim Peake goes into space: The chart that shows the U.K. space industry is taking off: The value of the space sector in the U.K. has grown from £6.5 billion in 2007 to £11.8 billion in 2014.
Female billionaires increase sevenfold in 20 years: There are seven times more female billionaires in the world as there were 20 years ago, according to a billionaire survey by UBS.
Inflation turns positive – but price pressures remain weak: Inflation returned to positive territory in November for the first time in four months, but analysts warned “lowflation” is likely to remain for some time to come.
China pollution: Canadian company Vitality Air sells out of bottled fresh mountain air as smog levels worsen: As China’s pollution problems continue, a Canadian company has cashed in on the crisis by selling bottles of fresh mountain air to people for up to $28 (£18.50) each.
Nurofen Owner Reckitt Benckiser ordered to stop selling ‘misleading’ target specific painkillers: An Australian court has ordered Nurofen’s U.K. Owner to stop selling several versions of the popular painkiller that were identical to its standard ibuprofen pills, but nearly twice as expensive.
Financial Times
Aveva and Schneider Electric abandon deal talks: Aveva, the British engineering software company, has called off its £1.3 billion reverse takeover by France’s Schneider Electric, citing unforeseen costs and risks associated with the proposed merger.
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Starbucks pays £8.1 million corporation tax as profits rise: Starbucks U.K. paid £8.1 million in corporation tax in the past 12 months – almost as much as it contributed between 1998 and 2012 – after posting its largest ever profit in the market.
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Sir David Walker to join Setl blockchain start-up: City veteran Sir David Walker is set to join Setl, a U.K. blockchain start-up, as its new Chairman once the fledging group completes a fundraising in coming weeks.
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New blow to Halliburton-Baker Hughes deal: Halliburton, the U.S. oil services group, has been forced to delay for a second time its planned $26 billion acquisition of rival Baker Hughes, after failing to reach an agreement with U.S. competition regulators.
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Noble in talks with China’s Cofco over joint venture stake sale: Shares in Noble Group surged more than 10% after the company said it is in advanced talks to sell its stake in its agricultural joint venture with Cofco to China’s state-backed grain trader, as it scrambles for cash following an accounting scandal.
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Valeant signs drug deal with Walgreens: Valeant has signed a deal to sell some of its best-selling medicines at a discount through Walgreens, the biggest pharmacy chain in the U.S., a move designed to soothe investor concerns after it cut ties to one of its main drug distributors amid claims of malpractice.
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UBM flogs PR Newswire for $841 million: Events organiser UBM is selling press release distributor PR Newswire for $841 million as it looks to focus more purely on the events market.
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Lex:
Qualcomm: chipping away: In the case of Qualcomm, Managers appear to have taken the no-expense-spared route (Goldman and Boston Consulting were among the advisers used) to the obvious result. Jana Partners had included a break-up in a list of possible remedies to boost the chipmaker’s sagging share price. It would have meant separating the company into a patent licensing business and a chip set business.
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Vodafone: Liberty, fraternity, parsimony: A multiyear network investment programme that has been depressing free cash flow, an ex-growth company’s reason for being, is concluding. Now what? Increase cash distributions? Sensible, consistent — and uninspiring. Vodafone’s high-yielding shares trail European telecoms broadly by 17 percentage points over two years.
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Sanofi/Boehringer: swap shop: GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis swapped oncology and vaccine assets in 2015; on Tuesday, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim said they were in talks about swapping their animal and consumer health divisions.
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Lombard:
Carpetright updates the beige shagpile with 50 shades of grey: Tastes in contemporary interior design are generally so absolute that you will be aware of how the rules have changed since the 1970s (apart from that confusing time a few years back when it was briefly ironic to have a single “accented” flock-papered wall). And, even though it might have taken them a few decades longer, so it seems are the staff at Carpetright. In fact, that last example of Private Eye-style neophilia is from the flooring group’s own Chief Executive, Wilf Walsh.
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A lack of Imagination: When Alexander Graham Bell grasped his telephone in 1876, presumably dialled ‘1’ and said “Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you,” he could scarcely have imagined that, 140 years later, the technology would be more about letting kettles talk to fridges than boffins talk to minions. But if you call your company Imagination Technologies — and you design chips for smartphones as well as “connected devices” — you are presumably supposed to have at least foreseen the possibility.
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The Daily Telegraph
Coming Federal Reserve interest rate hike looms over global markets: Global markets are braced for the most pivotal moment since the financial crisis, as the Federal Reserve prepares to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.
Imperial plans to drop ‘tobacco’ from its name: Imperial Tobacco, one of the world’s biggest cigarette manufacturers, plans to drop the word “tobacco” from its name in what marks the first major rebranding of the company since it was created more than a century ago.
Peel Ports lands Great Yarmouth docks deal: Peel Ports has expanded its empire by tying up a deal to purchase Great Yarmouth’s docks for an estimated £50 million.
Network Rail Chairman denies “fire sale” of assets: The new Chairman of troubled Network Rail has insisted his plan to offload £1.8 billion of depots, arches and station shops is not a “fire sale” by the state-owned company.
Serco does a U-turn on sale of leisure and environmental divisions: Troubled outsourcer Serco has done a U-turn on plans to sell its environmental and leisure units as it seeks to get back on track after last year’s huge profit warning, write-down and £550 million fundraising.
Domino’s Pizza agrees joint venture to turn around German business: Domino’s Pizza has formed a joint venture with its namesake in Australia to buy the largest pizza delivery business in Germany, in a bid to turn around its fortunes in the European country.
Royal Mail fined £40 million in French price-fixing scandal: Royal Mail has been hit with a landmark fine from the French competition authorities after its parcel delivery subsidiary took part in one of the largest price fixing cartels in corporate history.
The Questor Column:
Sell H&T as falling gold price leaves it too much to do in second half: H&T Group is successfully rebuilding itself after a bruising few years for the pawnbroking industry. But as gold prices approach five-and-a-half year lows, Questor is concerned about the outlook for the shares. The dramatic fall in the gold price forced pawnbroking peer Albermarle & Bond into administration last year. H&T weathered the storm but it has been facing increased competition from payday lending and peer-to-peer finance. The results for the half year to the end of June showed revenue down 3% to £37.4 million. The pretax profits showed improvement, up 30% to £2.6 million, from £2 million in the same period last year. A focus on cash generation also reduced net debt levels to £8.9 million at the end of June, down from £13.5 million a year earlier. That said, the challenges remain, with profits from gold purchasing falling across the first half of the year. The company also entered the second half with a higher stock of gold, and prices have dropped about 11% from the end of June. H&T is responding to a challenging market with new short-term personal loans and a foreign exchange service. But it is difficult to see how these can compete with larger scale competitors. The shares trade on 13 times forecast earnings per share of 14.7p, but second-half, pretax profits have to more than double to reach the target £7 million for the full year. Questor thinks that looks like too much to do as gold price fall. Sell. H&T at 197p unchanged. Questor says “Sell”.
Challenger banks face fresh regulatory focus: The challenger bank sector has endured a rocky year as experts consider the impact of new rules that will target buy-to-let lending. The U.K. buy-to-let boom has been a fantastic opportunity for smaller banks such as Aldermore, OneSavings Bank and Shawbrook to rapidly expand. During the past decade the amount of buy-to-let mortgages has more than doubled, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders. The Basel committee, which sets financial standards for the whole world, is taking a closer look at buy-to-let and wants smaller banks to hold more cash to cover the higher levels of risk. The new set of rules would more than double the amount of cash that smaller banks need to hold on their balance sheet for each loan. The need to hold more capital reserves against each loan would have a knock-on effect for growth rates and it would also reduce the return on assets at each of the given banks. That said, the proposed rules come as further indication that the regulatory winds have turn decidedly against buy-to-let, following George Osborne’s hike in stamp duty for second homes in the Autumn Statement and the removal of mortgage interest relief on tax bills in the summer budget. It marks a rocky first year for shares in Shawbrook and Aldermore, which only came to the market in April and March respectively. The shares still look good value for the long-term, with the well-diversified Shawbrook – which trades on 13 times forecast earnings, falling to 10 times next year – looking like the pick of the bunch. Questor says “Hold.”
The Guardian
Global markets rally ahead of Federal Reserve interest rate decision: Markets on both sides of the Atlantic have bounced back as Federal Reserve policymakers prepared to raise U.S. interest rates for the first time since 2006.
U.K. pay rises likely to fade fast, thinktank warns: Britain’s long-awaited pay recovery this year will quickly evaporate in 2016 unless productivity significantly improves, a leading thinktank has warned.
Gender pay gap doubles for women over 40 in management, says study: The gender pay gap for women over 40 is almost double the average when they enter management – and it gets worse as they get older, a study has found.
Asda’s grocery share hits nine-year low as Sainsbury’s, Lidl and Aldi gain: Asda’s share of the grocery market has hit a nine-year low as the pace of supermarket discounting stepped up ahead of Christmas.
Jaguar to join Formula E championship: Jaguar Land Rover is to enter a team into the Formula E racing championship as the luxury carmaker steps up its investment in electric vehicles.
Daily Mail
British banks now tough enough to survive another economic downturn like the 2008 crisis, says Bank of England: Banks in Britain are hardy enough to withstand economic downturns like the 2008 crisis, and would not now follow in the footsteps of HBOS, according to the Bank of England.
Imagination Technologies issues fresh profit warning, causing shares to slide nearly 11%: Imagination Technologies has issued a fresh profit warning, causing its shares to slide nearly 11%.
GlaxoSmithKline signs five-year partnership with Comic Relief to crackdown on malaria in the five worst-affected countries: GlaxoSmithKline has signed a five-year partnership with Comic Relief to try and crackdown on malaria in the five worst-affected countries.
TalkTalk Boss Dido Harding refuses to say sorry to customers who may have suffered financial losses following the cyber-attack: TalkTalk Chief Executive Dido Harding still refuses to apologise for financial losses caused to her customers following a cyber-attack which saw 157,000 customer’s details stolen by online criminals.
Daily Express
Sainsbury’s drinks rivals under the table as champagne sales deliver sparkling results: Sainsbury’s has staked an early claim to emerge a winner from an expected £6billion-plus supermarket spending spree by U.K. shoppers in the run-up to Christmas.
Pensioners stuck with rip-off income plans will be able to sell in 2017: Millions of pensioners will be able to sell their annuities in 2017, as part of an extension to retirement reforms introduced this year, the Government has announced.
British Airways Boss threatens to expand airline overseas over Heathrow runway ‘dithering’: The Boss of British Airways (BA) has warned he could seek to expand the airline overseas if the Government “twiddles its thumbs” over a third runway at Heathrow.
The Scottish Herald
Retail sales weaker in Scotland than in U.K. as a whole as north-south gap persists: The value of Scottish retail sales last month was down sharply on a year earlier, in contrast to a rise in the U.K. as a whole, the latest industry figures have revealed.
Scottish oil services firm eyes flotation despite crude price slump: The Owners of Denholm Oilfield Services hope to float the business on the stock market next year although it has suffered a sharp drop in North Sea business amid the crude price plunge.
Former Superglass Chief received £40,000 compensation payment: Former Superglass Chief Executive Alex McLeod has received a £40,000 payment for loss of office, according to the company’s annual report.
Macdonald Hotels to offer training to 400 unemployed young people: Macdonald Hotels is planning to provide training for up to 400 unemployed young people as part of a Government backed scheme.
United Utilities wins water supply contract with Tesco: United Utilities has won the water supply contract for Tesco’s 281 stores and distribution centres in Scotland.
The Scotsman
Petrofac warns of new hit over Shetland gas plant: Oilfield services contractor Petrofac has warned that it could face a further hit from a delayed gas plant on Shetland on which it has already racked up significant losses.
Festive cheer at Sainsbury’s as sales leap: Sainsbury’s is tipped to grab top spot among the “big four” supermarket chains this Christmas after being the only one to boost its sales performance during the past 12 weeks, industry data revealed.
Budget: Swinney vows to defy ‘Osborne austerity’: Finance Secretary John Swinney promised to prioritise hospital, schools and police funding when he unveils the Scottish Government’s budget.
New stores boost Livingston Designer Outlet sales: Livingston Designer Outlet has added a string of stores in time for Christmas, heralding a solid period of trading for the West Lothian shopping complex, writes Scott Reid.
Pricing reality check as M&A deals surge: Scotland’s corporate dealmakers are optimistic about the prospect of heightened mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity over the coming year but there continues to be a disparity in price expectation between buyers and sellers.
Morrison lands contract for £43.3 million Largs campus: Construction firm Morrison has been named preferred bidder for a £43.3 million education campus in Largs.
City A.M.
Bank of England warns EU bonus cap has increased risk of instability in the financial sector: The EU bonus cap has increased the risk of instability in the financial sector, Bank of England researchers said.
Americans bring Thanksgiving to U.K. retailers as spending soars: Black Friday’s online bargain frenzy may have dampened sales on the high street. But international shoppers helped to keep tills ringing, with spending up by 10% in the year to November.
MPs pile pressure on the accounting watchdog and KPMG over HBOS failures: An influential group of MPs have renewed calls for the accounting industry watchdog to investigate KPMG’s role in the collapse of HBOS.
StanChart slims its oil and gas advisory banking team as Bill Winters makes cost cuts: Standard Chartered has axed around six oil and gas advisory banking roles recently, as its new Chief Executive Bill Winters powers ahead with his cost-cutting plan.
U.K. Task Force on Shale Gas: Start fracking to determine its economic benefits: Britain should start exploratory fracking as a litmus test for how much it could contribute to the country’s economy, according to the Task Force on Shale Gas.
Aim-listed law firm Gateley reports bumper profits in first set of results since IPO: Gateley reported profits before tax for the six months ended 31 October 2015 of £2.9 million, up 11.5% from £2.6 million in 2014.
