Sunday newspaper round-up: Trump fears, Birds Eye, 'buy as you go', RBS

Analysts fear global markets will be plunged into turmoil this week if Donald Trump wins the race for the White House, with currency turbulence and a drop in US stocks not seen since the financial crisis. As Americans prepare to head to the polls on Tuesday, the Sunday Telegraph reported that experts were warning a victory for the Republican presidential candidate would trigger short-term market ructions and inflict long-term damage on the world’s biggest economy.

Supermarkets are being asked to raise the price of Birds Eye fish fingers and Walkers crisps by up to 12%, as the battle rages on between household brands and retailers over the collapse in the value of the pound. The Observer said Birds Eye, which is owned by New York-listed Nomad Foods, was seeking price rises and looking to shrink pack sizes as it said many of its raw materials were priced in dollars and so its sterling costs had risen.

Households will have the chance to buy their homes after 25 years of paying rent, under the government's new “buy as you go” plan that could be announced by the chancellor at the end of the month. Under a major revamp of the housing market, housing associations will be able to offer a new type of tenure where buyers will not need to have paid a deposit or require a mortgage but will build up equity in their homes over time, the Observer reported.

Businesses expect economic activity to accelerate over the next three months, according to a survey by the CBI. A net 13% of companies are forecasting an increase in activity, with predictions of growth across all sectors, after a net 8% of companies said growth picked up in the three months to October, the Sunday Times revealed.

Robust retail spending and increased export orders helped British companies continue expanding in October, according to a survey by the Confederation of British Industry reported in the Sunday Telegraph. Manufacturers' exports have been helped by the collapse of sterling, although the exchange rate is pushing up price of components imported by those same firms.

Theresa May’s hopes of a post-Brexit trade deal with India suffered a blow as Delhi warned some aspects of UK immigration policy could wreck the deal. As the prime minister prepared to make her first official visit to India, a spokesman for the country's minister of external affairs told the Observer that a policy brought in by May as home secretary restricting the right of Indian students to stay in the UK after graduation could prove to be a block on any progress.

The Bank of England has warned fund management firms to prove that they could deal with “fire sales” in any future financial crisis. The remarks are seen as foreshadowing the introduction of a formal stress test across the industry, the Sunday Times said.

The Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority is understood to be hiring advisers to assess whether the proposed acquisition of Williams & Glyn by Clydesdale & Yorkshire Bank (CYBG) would harm the challenger bank. The by the Sunday Telegraph reported that there are concerns that integrating W&G’s notoriously troublesome computer systems could cripple CYBG.

Plans by the Chancellor to levy a minimum price on cigarettes could hike the cost of the cheapest pack surge 50% to over £8.50 as part of the autumn statement this month. Ministers are understood by the Sunday Times to be analysing the benefits to public health against the cost to the public finances of lost duty through lower sales.

Sainsbury's pension deficit is understood to have inflated to £1bn this year as the fall in gilt yields mingles with extra liabilities of the scheme run by acquisition Argos, the Mail on Sunday reported. The soaring deficit, set to be revealed in this week’s half-year results, with the company also expected to release the results of its three-year pension review.

One of Britain’s biggest investment groups has called for BT to explore a voluntary sale of its Openreach infrastructure division as some investors feel the telecoms giant is being damaged by the long battle with rivals and regulators. Aviva Investor's head of UK equities, Trevor Green, told the Sunday Telegraph that “now is the time” for the company to have open discussions with investors about a potential split.

Marks & Spencer's chief executive Steve Rowe will announce dozens of store closures this week as he unveils another quarterly decline in clothing and homeware sales. Rowe is expected to reveal his intention to close some of the 914 shops in Britain, China and France and turn some clothing focused areas into food halls.

The £2.1bn deal to rescue Premier Oil, one of the North Sea’s largest independent oil companies, has been delayed until the turn of the year as debt markets begin to back away from risky exposure to the sector. Premier had expected to unveil a full-scale financial restructuring by the end of September but the rescue package remains under wraps as a team of 40 lenders struggle to finalise one of the most complex debt-financing deals in the North Sea’s history, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

MPs have accused Morrisons of axing staff benefits to fund the £40m cost of preparing for the new minimum wage.
The Yorkshire-based supermarket group has watered down longstanding pay arrangements, abolishing paid breaks and the Sunday pay rate, the Mail on Sunday said.

The world’s biggest fund manager has attacked the generous pension payments of several FTSE 100 bosses and called for these bumper contributions to be slashed. The Sunday Times reported that BlackRock, which manages £4trn of assets, has written a letter to the business select committee calling for the top bosses to have pension contributions that are more in line with the sums paid to employees, where pension payments are on average worth just 2.5% of their salary.

Sports Direct, the retailer run by billionaire Mike Ashley, has won government approval to pursue a legal case that aims to simplify its tax requirements and result in it paying substantially more VAT in the UK.
The case relates to the overseas sale of goods from its website on which it charges and pays millions of pounds in VAT, the Mail on Sunday said.

Sir Philip Green is arguing with BHS administrators FRP Advisory, who are investigating whether a £35m charge held by his Arcadia Group can be distributed to a group of creditors, which includes the BHS retirement scheme. Green says the funds should be return to him so, according to Sunday Times sources, he can use it in his settlement with the pensions regulator.

A government campaign led by GlaxoSmithKline chairman Sir Philip Hampton will call for businesses to boost the ranks of female executives by targeting women two levels below the board for fast-track promotion. Hampton, the Sunday Times revealed, is also expected to demand that women occupy about a third of the top-earning positions in FTSE 350 companies.