Thursday newspaper round-up: China deal, pension deficits, BT, Amazon

Chinese officials are open to launching trade negotiations with Britain in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, raising hopes that the UK’s economy can receive a boost after it leaves the EU. Critics of Brexit warned that the UK could find itself alone and cut off from the world economy outside the EU, but the indications from China are that deals are possible. - Telegraph

Company pension schemes could be given new ways to calculate the cost of future promises to members in an attempt to ease the pressure of rising deficits. Ros Altmann, the pensions minister, said she was reviewing how schemes could account for their liabilities, as new measures to ease the economic shocks from Brexit are expected to inflate pension shortfalls. - FT

BT Group faces a renewed attack from Sky over control of Openreach, after pensions experts and the former City minister Lord Myners said its £47bn retirement scheme would be unaffected by financial independence for the network unit. A report by the law firm Sackers, due to be circulated in the City on Thursday, claims there are multiple “straightforward” options to maintain the scheme if Openreach is incorporated as a legally separate subsidiary with control over its own cash flows. - Telegraph

London has cemented its position as Britain’s number one taxpayer since the financial crash, leaving the government more dependent on the capital for its tax income. A study by the thinktank the Centre for Cities found that London generated almost as much tax as the next 37 largest cities combined and increased its share of “economy taxes” underpinning the Treasury’s finances to 30%, up five percentage points since 2004/5. - Guardian

The world risks becoming ever more reliant on Middle Eastern oil as lower prices derail efforts by governments to curb demand, the west’s leading energy body has warned. The head of the International Energy Agency told the Financial Times that Middle Eastern producers, such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq, now have the biggest share of world oil markets since the Arab fuel embargo of the 1970s. - FT

Amazon is planning to hire 1,000 more people than previously expected in the UK this year as the online retailer rolls out its one-hour delivery operation and extends its web services. The company will now create 3,500 permanent full-time jobs in the UK in 2016, taking Amazon’s total workforce to 15,500 as its Prime Now fast-delivery service, launched a year ago, reaches more than a third of the UK population. - Guardian

The plunge in sterling following the UK’s decision to leave the EU has prompted a flurry of interest in luxury homes in London from overseas buyers, who stand to save about 10% of the cost of buying a £1m property, a property consultancy has claimed. Arcadis said its clients had reported “a bounce in inquiries” since the referendum, with investors keen to make the most of the favourable exchange rate. - Guardian

Danone the world’s biggest yoghurt maker, has agreed to acquire WhiteWave Foods, the natural and health-focused food group, in a deal that values the US company at $12.5bn including debt. The French group announced on Thursday that it would pay WhiteWave shareholders $56.25 per share in cash, resulting in an enterprise value of around $12.5bn. - FT

Shares in Britain’s top three supermarket retailers fell sharply yesterday after analysts said there were “not enough sales to go around” amid growing fears of a renewed food price war. Tesco topped the list of biggest fallers in the FTSE blue-chip index, down more than 8 per cent to 161½p a share, after an analyst at Redburn, an independent research group, said that overcapacity and competition meant Tesco’s “fair value” was 80p, less than half the grocer’s closing price. - The Times

A fraudster who cheated users of a crowdfunding website out of thousands of pounds has received a two-year suspended prison sentence and a £100 fine. Alan Christopher Colton, who had pleaded guilty, conned users of Crowdcube into handing over money, ostensibly to support a flavoured vodka and champagne start-up called 88 Delicious. - The Times