Sunday newspaper roundup: Lloyds, UK trade deals, BAE, SABMiller, Lonmin, Uber

The new government could accelerate the re-privatisation of Lloyds Banking Group and scrap George Osborne’s plan for a sale to retail investors, senior financiers believe. While Mr Osborne wanted to make a profit on every share in the bank, only selling when the price stood at above the bailout level of 73.6p, new Chancellor Philip Hammond may want to sell the bank more quickly, raising cash and removing one painful hangover from the financial crisis, banking sources believe. - Sunday Telegraph

Theresa May's rapid rise to prime minister will help the UK economy to skirt a recession following the Brexit vote, even as growth slows to the weakest pace since the financial crisis. The EY ITEM Club said the political stability brought by Ms May and a new cabinet would boost confidence, though it warned that the decision to leave the EU would mark the end of a five year jobs boom and push down house prices. - Sunday Telegraph

Whitehall is trying to lure the City’s top talent to its Brexit team to build a 300-strong army of trade experts by the end of the year. In an admission of the government’s yawning skills gap, officials have turned to law firms and consultancies such as Linklaters and McKinsey for talent to handle the complex task of leaving the EU and inking new deals. - Sunday Times

Australia has called for a free-trade deal with Britain as soon as possible, in a boost for the newly appointed prime minister, Theresa May. In a phone call on Saturday, May spoke to her Australian counterpart, Malcolm Turnbull, who expressed his desire to open up trading between the two countries as a matter of urgency. - Guardian

The Italian government is working on plans to set up a €50bn bad bank which would aim to clean up the country’s beleaguered lenders. It is understood that €10bn of public money could be used to buy bad loans at a knock-down price, taking assets with a face value of €50bn off the banks’ hands, allowing them to start giving out more good loans instead. - Sunday Telegraph

New Chancellor Philip Hammond has been forced to renew a battle to stop the EU from poaching the clearing market from London. The European Central Bank has previously tried to force the flow of euro-based transactions out of London and into the eurozone, resulting in a legal challenge that the UK won in 2015 after arguing for four years that the UK should have an equal right to host clearing houses as it was part of the EU’s single market. - Sunday Telegraph

Some recruiters have reported demand for new staff has flourished since the referendum, with 150,000 more jobs added to Reed Group's website in the past three weeks compared with the same period last year. James Reed, chairman of the £1 billion-plus turnover group, said the 8 per cent increase was a sign that it was ‘business as usual’ despite fears that job vacancies could drop. - Mail on Sundy

BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce’s ability to deliver the new Successor nuclear missile submarines to replace the ageing Trident fleet faces fresh doubts ahead of a crucial vote on the huge project. On Monday MPs will decide on whether to press ahead with the programme - the biggest UK defence deal for decades with a £30bn price tag and £10bn contingency fund to deal with snags - with major worries about their record for building submarines. - Sunday Telegraph

Two activist hedge funds have now built stakes in SAB Miller, cranking up pressure on the brewer to revise the terms of its £77bn sale to the owner of Budweiser. Following steak-building by US activist Elliott Management last week, the Children’s Investment Fund (TCI) has also now acquired the stake through derivatives — believed to be just under 1% — and it is understood that manager Sir Chris Hohn has met SAB’s management to discuss the structure of its deal with Anheuser-Busch InBev. - Sunday Times

BT faces pressure to offer a discount internet service to pensioners and families on low incomes as part of major reforms to the telecoms market. The former state monopoly has called on Ofcom to allow it to decommission its costly traditional telecoms network by 2025 as voice calls are increasingly carried over broadband. - Sunday Telegraph

The platinum giant Lonmin will sit down for crunch talks with unions this week after they demanded a 56% pay rise. The London-listed company, which employs more than 24,000 people in South Africa, pulled off a $373m (£282m) rights issue in December that rescued it from insolvency but wiped out many investors. - Sunday Times

Uber, the company behind the taxi hailing app, faces its first legal action in the UK this week over whether its drivers are workers or self-employed. The US-owned firm will appear in a case brought by law firm Leigh Day, supported by the GMB union, at the Central London Employment Tribunal on Wednesday. - Mail on Sunday

The future is Brexit and amid the uncertainty one sector has not only welcomed the prospect, but predicts that business will rocket as a result. Britain’s leisure industry – which was already on a roll having welcomed record numbers of foreign and domestic tourists last year – is expecting to reach new heights in 2016 as the falling pound makes the UK great value for overseas visitors. - Mail on Sunday

The boss of the world’s biggest defence company and supplier of Britain’s new F-35 fighter jets said the fallout from the Brexit vote could tempt it to invest more here. Marillyn Hewson, chief executive of Lockheed Martin, said exporting from Britain could become more attractive, aided by the slump in sterling. Lockheed builds gun turrets for Britain’s Ajax and Warrior tanks at its Ampthill factory in Bedfordshire, and hopes to export the kit to Qatar and other countries. - Sunday Times

Britain could become a haven for genetically modified crops after leaving the EU, with Monsanto set to lead the GM charge. A potential relaxation in policy on designer seeds has caught the attention of the US agricultural giant, which intends to seek talks with the government on ways it can expand its presence in Britain. - Sunday Times

Some of Britain’s largest supermarket chains have been referred to trading standards for using “fake” farm branding to pass off produce as British when it may actually have come from abroad. The National Farmers Union has formally complained to National Trading Standards over the use of fictitious brands that it claims could mislead consumers. - Guardian

A European Union nation who is boss of one of Britain’s biggest companies sought advice about officially obtaining permanent residence in the UK in the run-up to last month’s referendum vote. Permanent residence status is a prerequisite to applying for British citizenship. Business advisory firm KPMG said it had helped the unnamed chief executive of a FTSE 100 blue-chip business in a case which is the most high-profile example of anxiety among EU workers about their rights to stay and work in the UK following the referendum. - Mail on Sunday

The American media giant Time is exploring a bid for the Radio Times. Immediate Media, which owns the news-stand staple and is one of Britain’s biggest magazine publishers, has been put up for sale by its private equity owner Exponent. - Sunday Times