Thursday newspaper round-up: Job losses, Dominic Chappell, Snapchat

Nearly 1,400 UK jobs are at risk as pharmacy chain Boots, Walkers crisps and bakery Greggs all cut costs. Both Walkers and Greggs are restructuring their manufacturing operations in an attempt to improve efficiency. The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union said more than 600 jobs were at risk at nine Greggs bakeries around the UK. – Guardian

Dominic Chappell, the last owner of BHS, has pledged to fight legal action by the Pensions Regulator designed to force him to pay millions of pounds into the failed retailer’s pension scheme, saying the black hole in the scheme was not his fault. The regulator has agreed a £363m cash settlement with Sir Philip Green to rescue the BHS pension scheme and halted legal proceedings against the billionaire. However, it is continuing with legal action against Chappell and his company Retail Acquisitions and is understood to be seeking as much as £17m.- Guardian

Britons should brace for two years of stagnant real pay as inflation surges while cautious employers hold back wage hikes, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Even after that living standards will grow only slowly, meaning families will only be modestly better off in 2021-21, the analysts believe. The sudden squeeze may come as a surprise as wages have outstripped price rises by a substantial margin in the past two years. - Telegraph

The City watchdog wants to give independent analysts the chance to produce research on flotations so that investors can have access to information free of professional conflicts of interest. The Financial Conduct Authority said yesterday it intended to ensure that any company planning a listing would give analysts not working on the float the same access offered to banks leading the deals. – The Times

The parent company of the popular messaging app Snapchat is to be valued at almost $20 billion after setting a price for its initial public offering at $17 a share. Snap, which will begin trading later today on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SNAP”, has priced its long-awaited float above the $14 to $16 a share targeted by the company, in an indication of strong investor demand. The offer was several times oversubscribed. – The Times