Sunday newspaper round-up: William Hill, Inflation, Ebay

William Hill and the Canadian owner of the PokerStars gaming website are in talks to create a £5bn betting giant that would storm into the FTSE 100. City sources said negotiations between Britain’s biggest high-street bookmaker and Amaya, which bought PokerStars for $4.9bn two years ago, were still at an early stage. - The Sunday Times

Britons face a cut in their real wages as the collapsing value of the pound stokes inflation, economists are warning this weekend. Sterling, already languishing after the Brexit vote, took a fresh battering late last week, and economists warn that the falling pound could lead to inflation soaring to 3 per cent or higher next year. With pay rises averaging just 2.3 per cent a year, the higher prices would mean a cut in earnings in real terms. - The Mail on Sunday

Online retailer eBay paid just £1.1m in tax in the UK last year, despite telling US investors that Britain was its second largest market, generating revenues of $1.4bn (£1.1bn). The company appears to have reduced its tax bill by using a corporate structure that routes advertising fees from hundreds of thousands of British sellers through an overseas company, according to UK filings. - The Guardian on Sunday

Australian officials are ready to begin work on a free-trade deal with the UK, and have recently flown in to begin hammering out the details of a landmark pact, the country’s top official in Britain has revealed. A senior negotiator from Canberra has already arrived in Britain, while top civil servants from Australia have briefed their counterparts in London on the ins and outs of trade deals, according to High Commissioner Alexander Downer. - The Sunday Telegraph

Goldman Sachs is preparing to move almost 2,000 highly paid staff out of London if the government opts for a “hard” break from the EU. The Wall Street giant will switch nearly one in three of its bankers to rival European cities if Britain loses preferential access to the single market. The spectre of such a large exodus will escalate fears that a “hard” Brexit could prompt multinationals to cut investments in Britain. Business is increasingly concerned over the UK’s future trading relationship with the EU. - The Sunday Times

SNP activists do not want to rush into a second independence referendum and have concerns about linking a snap poll to Brexit, a prominent candidate for the party’s depute leadership has claimed. Tommy Sheppard said there has been no appetite for a swift indyref2 among the thousands of party members he has come into contact with while campaigning to become Nicola Sturgeon’s number two. - Scotsman on Sunday

The European Union has slapped tariffs of up to 73.7% on Chinese steel after manufacturers were forced to cut jobs due falling prices and demand for the material amid an influx of cheap imports from Asia. Thousand of job have already been lost in the steel industry in Britain in the last year with thousands more at risk as the sector remains under pressure. Industry leaders have partly blamed the squeeze on the sector on China’s dumping of cheap steel in Europe as it struggles to find buyers for its products domestically. - The Guardian on Sunday

The chief executive of Astra Zeneca has warned that patients could face delays in receiving life-saving medicines unless a common drug-approval system is agreed during Brexit talks. Pascal Soriot said Britain risks falling into the second tier of priorities for drug developers, meaning new products will become available later than they do in America or the rest of Europe. - The Sunday Times