Sunday newspaper round-up: Brexit plans, TTIP, inflation, Tesco, Chappell arrested

Theresa May is likely to outline the Government’s negotiating priorities on Brexit in a speech to business bosses next week. The Prime Minister is expected to outline what relationship Whitehall is seeking sector-by-sector when she speaks to the Confederation of British Industry a week tomorrow. - Mail on Sunday

White House officials conceded on Friday that the president’s hard-fought-for Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal would not pass Congress, as lawmakers there prepared for the anti-global trade policies of President-elect Donald Trump. Earlier this week, congressional leaders in both parties said they would not bring the trade deal forward during a lame-duck session of Congress, before the formal transition of power on 20 January. - Observer

Citigroup is preparing to move up to 900 jobs from London to Dublin as part of its preparations for Britain’s exit from the EU. The bank is working on a “project of substance” for Dublin and exploring options for office space, according to sources in the Irish capital. - Sunday Times

Dominic Chappell, the former owner of BHS, has been arrested as part of the investigation into unpaid taxes on the profits made from the department store chain. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) officers are understood to have arrested Chappell, 49, in a dawn raid at his home near Blandford Forum, in Dorset, south-west England. - Observer

The criminals behind the Tesco Bank cyber-heist went on a spending spree in shops in the US and Brazil to launder their ill-gotten gains. The thieves used data stolen from the British lender to set up contactless payment accounts on smartphones, sources said. - Sunday Times

Britain's biggest banks have sent the strongest signal yet that the industry is preparing for the UK to leave the EU’s single market, as they urged the Chancellor to fight for passporting rights and influence from outside the bloc. The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) has used its Autumn Statement submission to call for clarity on possible “transitional arrangements” with the EU as well as a transparent negotiation timetable and the “establishment of regulatory co-operation mechanisms”. - Sunday Telegraph

Some of Europe’s biggest investment firms are mulling offers for a stake in O2, after plans for a £10bn float by its Spanish owner, Telefonica, were hit by delays. Private equity firms, including Advent International, the former owner of FTSE 100 payments company Worldpay, are considering making a cornerstone investment in Britain’s second-biggest mobile network before it lists on the London market next year, sources said. - Sunday Times

Shell is considering a sale of part or all of its $3bn Norwegian business as Britain’s biggest company comes under growing investor pressure to pay down debt from its blockbuster takeover of rival BG. The oil titan has lined up the investment bank Rothschild to conduct a review of the division, which operates several large fields in the Norwegian North Sea and has smaller stakes in many others. - Sunday Times

China is ‘stealing’ hundreds of billions of dollars from America. Regulations on climate change are ‘Stalinistic’. And America can earn more than $100billion from global companies by cutting their tax rates. If this sounds like the extreme rhetoric of America’s President-elect Donald Trump, that’s because they are the words of his senior economic adviser, Stephen Moore. - Mail on Sunday

Prices in focus

January bargain hunters are in line for disappointment, as Britain’s electricals giants prepare to unveil steep price rises after Christmas. Senior city sources have revealed that the industry’s biggest names including Dixons Carphone and AO World, and upmarket department store John Lewis, are privately discussing double-digit price increases in order to absorb higher import costs caused by the pound’s post-referendum slump. - Sunday Telegraph

Shoppers hunting bargains are primed for a Black Friday frenzy with the number of orders expected to hit a record of almost ten million on the day. The discounting will begin in earnest tomorrow when online giant Amazon announces the first wave of thousands of price cuts and other traders follow suit. - Mail on Sunday

Householders are being warned to brace themselves for a rise in their electricity bills as a series of freak events conspires to send wholesale prices rocketing. Safety concerns at France’s nuclear power plants operated by the energy company EDF have led to many reactors being temporarily shut down, with similar suspensions in Belgium together with a lack of rain in Norway and Sweden hitting hydro electricity. - Observer

Marks & Spencer’s boss faces a rebellion by small suppliers after promising to protect food shoppers from the impact of sterling’s plunge since the Brexit vote. Steve Rowe, who succeeded Marc Bolland in April, said last week that M&S’s grocery prices were more likely to fall than rise — despite the pound’s slump against the dollar and the euro, which has pushed up the cost of imported ingredients. - Sunday Times

The boom in sales for German discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl is ‘grinding to a halt’, according to City analysts. Bruno Monteyne, of stockbroker Bernstein and a former Tesco director, has warned that growth at the discounters is falling off a cliff and will peter out altogether over the next 18 months. - Mail on Sunday

Pub companies have warned the government that the price of a pint could rise by up to 30p if they are not protected from a “triple whammy” of pressures in the new year. A “perfect storm” of Brexit- related inflation, soaring business rates and the introduction of the national living wage will add an estimated 4% to overheads, industry sources said. - Sunday Times

Energy giants are demanding the Government relax its 2020 deadline for installing smart meters in every UK home after a series of delays setting up the communications system at the heart of the £11bn scheme. Ministers are also facing fresh questions over the merits of the project after a new official assessment estimated savings would be just £11 per household in 2020, down from the £26 estimated previously. - Sunday Telegraph

One of Britain’s biggest PFI deals, a £3.8bn contract to process rubbish for millions of people in Greater Manchester, is under threat amid shrinking council budgets. Nine local authorities signed a 25-year private finance initiative (PFI) contract in 2009 with the infrastructure company John Laing and Viridor, the waste-treatment arm of water company Pennon. - Sunday Times

Budget airline easyJet is set to report a sharp fall in profits on Tuesday following a year of terrorist attacks at some of its key holiday destinations. The company was also badly hit by the slump in the value of the pound. - Mail on Sunday

Jaguar Land Rover is preparing to unveil its first electric car in a move that will put it on course to gatecrash the motor industry’s green revolution. The Tata-owned UK-based manufacturer is understood to be eager to enter the growing market, as well as reduce its emissions footprint to avoid punitive green taxes. - Sunday Telegraph

HSBC’s hunt for a new chairman could be derailed, with the leading candidate said to be hoping for a top government job after the French election in May. Henri de Castries, 62, former boss of insurance giant Axa, joined the HSBC board last year and was expected to take the reins of Britain’s biggest bank at the annual meeting next April. - Sunday Times

One of the City’s most influential fund managers has proposed a radical revamp of the executive pay rules that would give shareholders a greater say over how much money bosses take home. Aberdeen Asset Management has proposed that businesses must receive the backing of at least 75pc of shareholders to win approval for remuneration policies, a much higher threshold than the 50pc required under current rules. - Sunday Telegraph

The owner of The Scotsman and Yorkshire Post is in talks to sell a stable of newspapers in East Anglia to one of Britain’s richest families. The Iliffe clan, a press-to-property dynasty worth £290m, has bid for a number of titles owned by the debt-laden Johnston Press. - Sunday Times

Lego will not run any more promotional giveaways with the Daily Mail, marking the first success for a campaign to stop companies advertising in newspapers that run “divisive hate campaigns”. The Danish toy company has been giving away free toys with the newspaper, but it told the Stop Funding Hate campaign: “We have finished the agreement with the Daily Mail and are not planning any future promotional activity with the newspaper.” - Observer

Administrators to Powa Technologies are examining payments the e-commerce firm made to offshore vehicles linked to the father and a friend of the founder of the company before it imploded. It is understood that Deloitte has looked at transactions between Powa, which was set up and led by Dan Wagner, and DBLP Sea Cow, a vehicle linked to Mr Wagner’s father, John, between 2013 and 2015. - Sunday Telegraph