Monday newspaper round-up: 2019 Brexit, Hammond preview, Deutsche Bank, Tesco
Theresa May has set Britain on course to leave the EU by 2019 in her first major speech on Brexit, saying that the UK would become a “fully independent, sovereign” country in the clearest sign yet that she wants a clean break from Europe’s single market. The prime minister told cheering Conservative supporters at the Tory party’s annual conference that Britain would insist on taking full control of immigration and refuse to accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. - Financial Times
Deutsche Bank is bracing for another pivotal week as the German giant negotiates with the US Department of Justice to talk down a $14bn fine. Senior figures including chief executive John Cryan are expected to be in the United States this week, coinciding with meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Mr Cryan spent much of last week in Arizona, reassuring clients about the strength of the bank on the sidelines of the firm’s leveraged finance conference. - Telegraph
Germany’s deputy chancellor has launched a blistering attack on John Cryan, Deutsche Bank chief executive, as concerns continue to rise among the country's political and corporate elite over the market storm threatening to engulf the country's biggest lender. Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the centre-left social democrats and Germany’s economics minister, took aim at a memo Mr Cryan sent to Deutsche staff last week after its shares plunged to 30-year lows. In it, he blamed “forces in the market” that were trying to destabilise the bank. - Financial Times
The chancellor is to tell the Conservative party conference that he remains set on achieving a balanced budget, while reiterating that this would happen in a “pragmatic” way without the need for a surplus this parliament. The scale of the deficit “remains unsustainable”, Philip Hammond is to say on Monday according to extracts of his speech released in advance, which also includes a reiteration of the election pledge to "restore fiscal discipline” but "in a pragmatic way that reflects the new circumstances we face". - The Guardian
Small investors are likely to be given the chance to buy shares in a proposed £10 billion stock market listing of O2 in what would be the first big retail offer since the government floated Royal Mail three years ago. City experts said that if the mobile group priced the shares competitively, a retail offer could prove as attractive as some of the big privatisations of the 1980s, which created millions of stock market novices known as Sids. - The Times
Tesco faces legal action from 60 large investors that claim to have suffered £150m in losses because of accounting irregularities at the British retailer. It marks the first collective lawsuit against the supermarket in the UK. The lawsuit will pile further pressure on Britain’s largest retailer, which is grappling with slowing sales growth and ongoing controversy over its 2014 profit misstatement. -Financial Times
The Chancellor should set a date for when Britain will eliminate the deficit to help "maintain the confidence of international investors", Liam Fox has suggested. The International Trade Secretary said that the Government must be "very clear" that it is still committed the balancing the books as Britain prepared to leave the EU. - Telegraph
Companies will take more than 20 years to fill the shortfalls in their pension funds, according to Goldman Sachs, which says that the collapse in bond yields since the Brexit vote has hugely inflated the cost of future pension promises. The warning comes before this week’s release of results from Tesco, which is expected to be the first of many leading employers to reveal the added pressure on its pension fund, one of the biggest private sector schemes in Britain with 350,000 members. - The Times
Britain is among the worst-performing economies in Europe when it comes to encouraging small businesses to export, a report has warned. It is in the bottom five European economies in terms of small and medium-sized companies’ share of exports, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. - The Times
The UK's agricultural and food services industry would struggle to survive without access to seasonal labour from Europe, leading to higher prices and even shortages, the boss of the country's biggest potato company has warned. Angus Armstrong, chief executive of Produce Investments, an Aim-listed business that cultivates spuds across 6,500 acres of land, said the biggest concern for the company over leaving the European Union was getting access to non-UK workers. - Telegraph
The number of UK breweries has risen by 8% to around 1,700 over the past year as the surge in popularity of craft beers continues, research shows. Breweries are becoming increasingly profitable and targeted for acquisition, said accountancy group UHY Hacker Young, with drinkers in the UK willing to pay premium prices for a luxury product. - Guardian
A manufacturer of medical products which was once part of Bristol-Myers Squibb will announce plans for a multibillion-pound listing in London as the slowdown in the IPO market induced by the Brexit vote is set to be reversed. ConvaTec, advised by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, is being floated by Avista Capital Partners and Nordic Capital with an expected value as high as £5 billion. - The Times
TVPlayer, the pay-TV streaming service, has raised £5m from the US media giant A&E Networks and the growth investor Beringea to boost its growth in the UK. The start-up, which offers UK channels such as ITV and Channel 4 and which recently signed a deal with Viacom to bolt on its MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central channels, is aiming to win over consumers who have never paid for TV content before. - Telegraph