Monday newspaper round-up: UK economic forecasts, ARM, retail data, dividends

The swift installation of Theresa May as prime minister and the expected boost to exports from a weaker pound will stop Britain from falling into recession after the EU referendum result, an influential economic forecaster has said. The EY ITEM Club, which uses the same model as the Treasury, said that Britain would “skirt” a recession, defined by a fall in gross domestic product in two successive quarters. - The Times

The International Monetary fund will slash its forecasts for UK growth this week as the impact of the Brexit vote triggers a wave of downgrades across Europe. Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director, warned that the Fund was also likely to cut its projections for world growth for the third time this year as global risks mount. - Telegraph

Japan’s SoftBank has agreed to acquire Arm Holdings, the UK’s preeminent technology company, for £23.4bn in an enormous bet by the Japanese telecoms group that the smartphone chip designer will make it a leader in one of the next big tech markets, the internet of things. The deal is expected to be announced on Monday morning, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. SoftBank and Arm could not immediately be reached for comment. - Financial Times

Investors in UK companies are heading for a dividend windfall as the collapse in sterling following the Brexit vote boosts payouts in dollars and euros. Exchange rate gains will lift payouts by £4.3bn this year, offsetting a slew of dividend cuts earlier in 2016, according to the Capita UK Dividend Monitor. - Financial Times

Airbus’s decision to slash production of its A380 “superjumbo” raises questions over when UK taxpayers will get back the £530m they handed to the plane-maker to help launch the jet. Britain gave the money to Airbus in 2000 to help develop the giant jet under a scheme known as repayable launch investment (RLI). - Telegraph

Britons stayed away from the shops in the uncertain weeks before and after the EU referendum vote, worsening the decline in footfall across the retail industry to its steepest in two-and-a-half years, according to new research from Springboard and the British Retail Consortium (BRC). The number of visitors to British shops fell 2.8pc in June compared to last year – the sharpest decline since February 2014, the BRC said. - Telegraph

Reports of the lingering death of “bricks and mortar” shops appear to have been exaggerated, according to research that shows 89 per cent of all retail sales in the UK “touched” a physical store last year. Despite internet shopping accounting for 15 per cent of all retail sales and though British shoppers buy more online per head of population than any other developed economy, the value of physical stores has not diminished, according British Land and Verdict. - The Times

Retailers may be struggling because of flagging consumer confidence and Brexit currency blues, but specialist high street shops are back into fashion. New analysis from insolvency specialist Nockolds shows that the number of specialist stores increased by 2.5 per cent last year, led by coffee and charity shops, the first rise since the recession began in 2009. - The Times

London planners may seek changes to the City of London’s historic protected views as they move to expand the cluster of skyscrapers that has transformed the skyline over the past two decades. The City of London Corporation, which runs the Square Mile, is eyeing a southward extension of the group of towers towards the “Walkie Talkie” building as it runs out of potential development sites in the existing cluster. - Financial Times

BT looks set to lose the initiative in a wrangle with the regulator as the deadline approaches for a review of national broadband. Ofcom is expected to announce its thoughts by the end of next week — one of the two updates that it will publish as it pushes ahead with a delayed auction of spectrum needed to boost 4G signals. - The Times

Boots is building on its plans to expand across Asia with a new franchise deal with Emart, South Korea’s largest retailer. The high street stalwart said it plans to offer its No7 and Soap & Glory ranges among the beauty products on sale in the new branches, which are due to open in the first half of 2017. - Telegraph

A retail fight has broken out on the school playground after Morrison's slapped a 200-day quality guarantee on its uniforms. The move by the supermarket group comes days after Lidl said that it would sell a primary school uniform including polo shirt, jumper and trousers or skirt for £3.75, less than a Starbucks coffee. - The Times

The average asking price of homes coming on to the market in England and Wales has fallen since mid June, according to property website Rightmove, with the Brexit vote exaggerating the usual summer slowdown. The figures, which cover the period between 12 June and 9 July, show that new sellers asked for an average of £307,824 for their homes, a fall of 0.9%, or £2,647, on the previous four weeks. - Guardian

The number of investigations launched by the Pensions Regulator into employers avoiding support for pension schemes has more than halved in recent years, it has emerged. The regulator, which is under pressure to take a hard line against Sir Philip Green over the BHS collapse and its pension fund deficit, undertook 23 investigations in 2013 but only eight last year, the least since before 2010. - The Times

Plans to build Britain’s first opencast coalmine for three years at a coastal site in Northumberland are set to move ahead this month, despite intense local opposition to the scheme. Banks Group, a privately-owned mining company, secured planning approval from Northumberland county council on July 5 to develop the site at Highthorn, near Druridge Bay, 30 miles north of Newcastle. - The Times