Wednesday newspaper round-up: Starbucks, Santander, Alphabet

Starbucks office workers will risk losing their jobs if they fail to comply with the company’s hybrid work requirement that employees are in the office three times a week. According to the Wall Street Journal an internal message sent to employees warns that an “accountability process” will start in January 2025. Consequences for non-compliance are “up to, and including, separation”, according to the company message. – Guardian

Santander is cutting more than 1,400 jobs across its UK business this year as part of its efforts to reduce costs. The Spanish bank’s chief executive officer, Hector Grisi, confirmed the cuts as its UK division delayed publication of its latest financial results to consider the impact of an influential court ruling linked to commission on car finance. Grisi told a press conference on Tuesday that the company would cut 1,425 jobs in the UK as it automated more of its operations. It is understood that the redundancies are largely completed and will be done by the end of the year. – Guardian

Rachel Reeves’s feared inheritance tax (IHT) raid has triggered a surge in investors racing to sell funds which own UK companies listed on the stock market. Investors pulled nearly £300m from funds specialising in small UK companies last month – almost a four-fold increase on the £80m withdrawn in August, according to Morningstar Direct. Mid-sized UK stocks also suffered from Budget uncertainty, with funds reporting outflows for the first time since March. – Telegraph

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, beat Wall Street’s profit and revenue expectations as artificial ­intelligence technology continues to drives growth in cloud computing sales and search engine advertising. Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s chief executive, hailed the “extraordinary” momentum across the business as the company reported a 33.6 per cent increase in third-quarter net profit to $26.3 billion, outpacing Wall Street estimates of $22.9 billion. – The Times

Rolls-Royce, a frontrunner in the race to deliver Britain’s first mini nuclear power plants, has sold a 20 per cent stake in its business developing the nascent technology. The Czech power company CEZ is understood to have paid millions of pounds for the stake in Rolls-Royce SMR as part of a joint push by the companies to deploy small modular reactors (SMRs). The utility has placed an order for units producing three gigawatts of electricity in the Czech Republic. – The Times