Sunday newspaper round-up: Brexit, BT, IAG, Sainsbury's, Taylor Wimpey

Theresa May is poised to play for time by further postponing a final vote on her Brexit deal next week, with the aim of limiting the scale of opposition to the vote and buying time for talks with European Union leaders. The Prime Minister's aides are believed to be drawing up a plan to make MPs' approval of the deal conditional on the European Union providing further concessions. - Sunday Telegraph

Theresa May has refused to rule out repeatedly bringing back her Brexit deal to parliament if MPs reject it next week as she sought to use the uncertainty that would follow a defeat to force support. The prime minister said the country would be in “uncharted territory” if her deal when the Commons holds its “meaningful vote” a week on Tuesday. - Sunday Times

Theresa May has insisted she will go ahead with a crucial vote on her Brexit deal amid growing speculation that it could be delayed. The prime minister said she was seeking further clarification from the EU to address the concerns of MPs, as well as specific measures relating to the backstop on Northern Ireland before the vote in the week beginning 14 January. - Observer

...May said she is “still working on” seeking assurances from European leaders as well as ways the government can “involve Parliament in a greater way”. Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Mrs May insisted “we will be holding the vote” but four times declined to say whether it might be postponed again. - Sunday Telegraph

An all-party group of senior MPs will launch an audacious attempt to derail a no-deal Brexit this week by starving the government of cash and creating a Donald Trump-style shutdown. MPs will vote on Tuesday on two amendments to the Finance Bill that would lead to a gridlock in Whitehall unless Theresa May wins approval from parliament for a deal with Brussels. - Sunday Times

Telecoms giant BT Group is working with some of the City’s most powerful takeover advisers amid fears it could be targeted by a German rival. BT is strengthening its defences by sounding out heavyweight dealmakers before a key 'standstill' agreement with Deutsche Telekom expires on 29 January. - Mail on Sunday

British Airways’ owner would be forced to “curtail” its dividend and “halt” share buybacks if it acquires debt-laden low-cost carrier Norwegian, investors have been warned. International Airlines Group (IAG) “will likely complete on M&A that will draw investor discomfort” in 2019, ­analysts at Citi said. - Sunday Telegraph

Secretive short-sellers are gearing up for a bumper 2019 after wiping £2.7bn off the value of British companies last year and one exponent says this year is going to be even bigger. Data reveals five mysterious short-selling firms have caused carnage with critical reports on firms they targeted. - Mail on Sunday

Waitrose is expected to be revealed as the biggest festive loser in the battle of the supermarkets after families flocked to Lidl and Aldi for Christmas food. Trading updates this week from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose are expected to reveal that the employee-owned chain lagged behind rivals last month, while among companies listed on the stock market, analysts identified Sainsbury’s as their biggest concern. - Mail on Sunday

Marks & Spencer is set to lose the battle of the Christmas aisles as its struggling food arm posts its worst festive performance for a decade. M&S’s upmarket food division used to be its growth engine, but analysts believe the chain continues to lose ­customers to rival supermarkets and the discounters. - Sunday Telegraph

High street retailers Marks & Spencer and Debenhams are set this week to reveal further falls in sales over Christmas — but are likely to avoid profit warnings thanks to a last-minute spending surge. M&S, in the midst of its latest turnaround effort under chairman Archie Norman, is expected to report like-for-like sales declines of between 2.5% and 3% in both its clothing and food businesses, according to analysts at Shore Capital, the company’s broker. - Sunday Times

Panic gift-buying in the run-up to Christmas was not enough to lift high street sales last month, capping the worst year on record for bricks and mortar stores, according to fresh figures. Despite discount posters plastered across shop windows for most of December, high street sales fell by 1.9pc last month, the sixth consecutive year of falling sales during the crucial festive trading season, accountants BDO found. - Sunday Telegraph

Delivery jobs for two gig economy giants are being traded to alleged illegal immigrants in a black market, an investigation has revealed. Workers at Deliveroo and Uber Eats who have passed vetting checks are offering up their jobs online. Whistleblowers claim that migrants who are in Britain illegally are renting these jobs without facing criminal record, insurance, right-to-work or passport checks. - Sunday Times

Taylor Wimpey is this week expected to point to more weakness in the housing market as the new year selling season kicks off. The FTSE 100 housebuilder, which gives its Christmas trading update on Wednesday, has been under pressure amid uncertainty over Brexit, with its shares falling by a third last year. - Sunday Times

The ex-boss of former mining behemoth Xstrata is plotting his comeback with a new venture that will seek out deals. Sir Mick Davis, the chief executive and treasurer of the Conservative Party who was known as “Mick the miner”, has set up Niron Metals as a vehicle to scour for potential opportunities around the world in industrial materials such as nickel, zinc and copper. - Sunday Telegraph

An influential City adviser has raised ‘major concerns’ about a director of Debenhams and urged investors not to back him at this week’s annual meeting. ISS, which advises investors on voting, is worried about David Adams’ position on the board as he was chairman of Conviviality at its collapse in April last year. - Mail on Sunday

A FTSE 100 software giant is at the centre of a new fat cat pay storm after the firm gave its top brass more time to cash in on its 'extraordinary' £110million bonus plan. Micro Focus put in place a bonus plan worth £268million for executives and another 30 senior managers in September 2017 after its £6.5billion takeover of software assets from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. - Mail on Sunday

Stagecoach has reaped £35m from East Midlands Trains, risking controversy amid the recent sliding performance on the route. The franchise is one of Stagecoach’s last remaining rail contracts. - Sunday Times

Domino’s Pizza shareholders have told the company’s chairman Stephen Hemsley that he must hire a new heavyweight senior independent director, after being left dissatisfied with his plans to bulk up its board. - Sunday Times

Ex-Barclays boss John Varley and three former colleagues will stand trial this week, becoming the first senior bank executives to be dragged before British courts in relation to conduct during the financial crisis. Mr Varley has been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud along with Roger Jenkins, the bank’s one-time Middle Eastern chairman, Tom Kalaris, the former boss of the bank’s wealth arm, and Richard Boath, who used to run one of Barclays’ European divisions. - Sunday Telegraph

A critic of Royal Bank of Scotland’s disgraced restructuring unit has spent £20,000 on a billboard berating the high street bank as part of efforts to reinstate an investigation into wrongdoing at the lender. Scottish businessman Neil Mitchell has paid four months up front on a £5,000 a month billboard on theA23 in Croydon, south London, in an effort to bolster support for his legal challenge. - Observer

Financiers working for European investment banks are in for yet another embarrassing bonus season as their American rivals pocket much bigger payouts again. Political pressure on UK bank bosses over fat cat pay means UK and European banks are expected to increase bonuses far less than their Wall Street rivals this year. - Sunday Telegraph

One of the most hotly debated privatisations of recent years has attracted fresh controversy after the Green Investment Bank’s trustees said they were “disappointed” by its weak investment in the UK since it left state hands. The clean power lender was sold to the Australian bank Macquarie in 2017 for £2.3bn and renamed the Green Investment Group (GIG), which widened its investment remit beyond the UK. - Sunday Times

Retail investors have complained about a huge flaw with the peer-to-peer lending industry after being dragged into a legal battle involving one of the industry’s biggest names. Thousands of investors received letters over the Christmas period telling them they could be expected to split a legal bill of more than £10m if a major borrower succeeds in its claim against peer-to-peer website Lendy over breach of contract. - Sunday Telegraph

Nicola Horlick was facing questions about the future of her flagship business last night after it reported a loss of £1.4million and slashed its staff headcount from 12 to one. Horlick – nicknamed Superwoman for balancing work and family commitments – once said the crowdfunding brand she founded in 2013, Money & Co, would be her 'greatest triumph'. - Mail on Sunday

Amazon is rapidly building up a fleet of cargo planes as Jeff Bezos’s retailing giant expands deeper into the parcel delivery business — and takes a bite out of giants FedEx and UPS. - Sunday Times

Forget lab-grown meat. A US company backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-Shing, is developing lab-grown cow skin in a bid to disrupt the $100bn global leather industry. Andras Forgacs, founder and chief executive of the US-based company, Modern Meadow, said the new technology would allow real leather to be produced at scale in a factory without having to raise or slaughter livestock. - Sunday Telegraph

An entrepreneur from Wales is sitting on a paper fortune after striking a deal with Lloyds that values his zip wire company at £45million. Lloyds Development Capital is purchasing a minority shareholding in Zip World, which manages zip lines in the Snowdonia mountain range and runs alpine rollercoasters, treetop adventure courses and underground trails at three sites in North Wales. - Mail on Sunday

Rockstar North, the Scottish developer of the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption video games saw its profits more than double last year, providing another boost for Britain’s gaming industry. - Sunday Times

Simon Cowell may have won plaudits for last night's new BBC One show, The Greatest Dancer, but his entertainment business has suffered a fall in profits and revenues. Simco, the TV firm behind Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor, has reported a 12 per cent fall in revenues to £37.6million in the year to March 2018. Operating profits fell from £25.1million to £24.1million. - Mail on Sunday