Market Buzz
Friday newspaper round-up: Royal Mail, fossil fuels, Anglo American
The union that represents workers at Royal Mail has called for a new business model for the company that would see workers given a stake in the company and pay tied to growing services and meeting certain social benefits. Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communications Workers Union (CWU), said that the potential takeover by the Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský should provide a moment to overhaul how the company is structured, which could mirror that of US-style public benefit corporations.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Sony Music, Royal Mail, house prices
A leading City lobby group is calling on the next government to bring in scams legislation that forces big tech and social media companies to cough up to £40m a year to reimburse customers and fight fraud on their platforms. The demand came in a ‘financial services manifesto’ released by UK Finance, which represents banks, payments companies and other financial firms. UK Finance and its 300 membershave long complained about having to shoulder the costs of fraud against their customers, despite a surge in the number of scammers targeting consumers through platforms such as Facebook and Google.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Ryan Salame, Ocado, Shell
The next government should force all tradespeople who install home heat pumps, solar panels and insulation to sign up to a mandatory accreditation scheme to counter mistrust in the industry, a leading consumer group is demanding. A report from Which? found that households face “significant anxiety” in choosing tradespeople to fit low-carbon heating systems, such as heat pumps, and insulation after “press stories about poor work and rogue traders”. – Guardian.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Ofwat, Facebook, Deutsche Bank
Ofwat is poised to refuse most water companies’ requests to ratchet up consumer bills, with some getting as little as half of what they have asked for, the Guardian has learned. The decision from the water watchdog for England and Wales, Ofwat, has been formally delayed until 11 July because of the general election. Its verdict, known as a draft determination, comes amid a growing crisis in the water sector. – Guardian.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Natwest, Shein, Nationwide
NatWest may not be selling shares to the public any time soon following the prime minister's decision to call an election on 4 July. The Treasury has said that an offer will not occur during the election period and Labour has not confirmed whether it would revive plans for the sale should it win. The sale had been expected to take place in June. - The Sunday Times .
Friday newspaper round-up: Energy price cap, Mike Lynch, News Corp
The energy price cap in Great Britain will fall to the equivalent of £1,568,a year this summer after a drop in wholesale gas prices. Set by the energy regulator, Ofgem, the cap reflects the average annual dual-fuel bill for 29m households and takes effect from July until the end of September. The cap, which is set quarterly, will fall £122 in July from its current level of £1,690, easing the pressure on household finances. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Mike Lynch, smart meters, Very Group
San Francisco federal courthouse on Thursday as a key witness in his own criminal fraud trial, which began in March. US authorities have charged the former software tycoon with 16 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy relating to his company’s acquisition deal with Hewlett-Packard in 2011. If convicted, Lynch faces up to 25 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Anglesey power station, electric cars, Eurostar passengers
Ministers have earmarked north Wales as the site of a large-scale nuclear power plant, which is part of plans to resuscitate Britain’s nuclear power ambitions. Wylfa on Anglesey (Ynys Môn) has been named as the preferred site for the UK’s third major nuclear power plant in a generation, coming after EDF’s Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, which is under construction in Somerset, and its Sizewell C nuclear project planned for Suffolk. – Guardian.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: New homes, AI, Mike Ashley
A Labour government would aim to announce the sites for a series of new towns within a year of taking office, with the promise that homes would be built in them by the end of a first term, Angela Rayner is to say in a speech. Giving more detail to a plan first outlined in Keir Starmer’s party conference speech in October, Rayner will tell a housing conference that Labour will strongly support private developers who create high-quality and affordable housing. – Guardian.
Monday newspaper round-up: Border checks, house prices, apprenticeships
Post-Brexit border checks will cost UK businesses £470m a year, the government’s public spending watchdog has said. Plans to bring in border checks on goods coming from the EU faced “significant issues” including critical shortages of inspectors before their introduction last month, the National Audit Office said in a report. – Guardian.
Friday newspaper round-up: Bank branches, mortgages, Northern Rock
The number of UK bank branches that have shut their doors for good over the last nine years will pass 6,000 on Friday, and by the end of the year the pace of closures may leave 33 parliamentary constituencies – including two in London – without a single branch. The tally is being published by the consumer group Which? as it seeks to make the “avalanche” of closures and the “disastrous” impact they can have on local communities an election battleground.
Thursday newspaper round-up: JCB, M&S, smart meters
The British digger maker JCB, owned by the billionaire Bamford family, continued to build and supply equipment for the Russian market months after saying it had stopped exports because of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Guardian can reveal. Russian customs records show that JCB, whose owners are major donors to the Conservative party, continued to make new products available for Russian dealers well after 2 March 2022, when the company publicly stated that it had “voluntarily paused exports” to Russia.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Brexit border outages, Boeing, Stellantis
Lorries carrying perishable food and plants from the EU are being held for up to 20 hours at the UK’s busiest Brexit border post as failures with the government’s IT systems delay imports entering Britain. Businesses have described the government’s new border control checks as a “disaster” after IT outages led to lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers being held for long periods, reducing the shelf life of their goods and prompting retailers to reject some orders.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Tesco, OpenAI, housebuilding
Tesco is facing criticism from “shocked” charities who say they are struggling to distribute unwanted food to homeless and hungry people after they claim the retailer brought in rules that mean unwanted food can only be collected in the evening. The supermarket group has switched to a new system which asks charities to pick up unwanted food, such as items reaching their best before date, only in the evening when a store is closing rather than the following morning, the charities have claimed.
Monday newspaper round-up: BT, ultra-long mortgages, Fever-Tree
BT has said it is increasingly using artificial intelligence to help it detect and neutralise threats from hackers targeting business customers amid repeated attacks on companies. The £10. 5bn group is aiming to build up its business protecting customers from online criminals and has patented technology that uses AI to analyse attack data to allow companies to protect their tech infrastructure. British businesses are routinely facing hacking attempts, and some recent high-profile victims have included including the outsourcer Capita, Royal Mail and British Airways.
Friday newspaper round-up: Tata, Post Office, John Lewis, KPMG
Members of a steelworkers’ union have voted to take industrial action in protest at planned job losses at Tata. The company last month rejected a plan by unions to keep open a blast furnace at the Port Talbot steelworks, ending hopes of avoiding as many as 2,800 job losses. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Tax rises, smart meters, Selfridges
The next government will be forced to hit voters with post-election tax rises and delay net zero investment unless it is prepared to rip up Treasury rules for managing the state finances, a leading thinktank has said. The National Institute for Economic and Social Research (Niesr) called for a radical overhaul of the self-imposed constraints imposed on government borrowing and debt as it warned that persistently weak growth and lower inflation would make hitting the rules more difficult.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: E-gates, Mike Ashley, Brexit
More than 800,000 people in Europe and the US appear to have been duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a vast network of fake online designer shops apparently operated from China. An international investigation by the Guardian, Die Zeit and Le Monde gives a rare inside look at the mechanics of what the UK’s Chartered Trading Standards Institute has described as one of the largest scams of its kind, with 76,000 fake websites created.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: House prices, employers, Wayve
Universal Music Group could become the latest company to face an embarrassing shareholder revolt this AGM season, after an influential advisory firm urged investors to reject an “excessive” €139m (£119m) payout for its chief executive, Lucian Grainge. Glass Lewis said it had “severe reservations” about supporting the Dutch-American music company’s pay decisions, which included a €92m share-based bonus for its British-born CEO that easily made up for a 51% cut in his salary, to €7.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Darktrace, National Insurance, Royal Mail
An aura of mystery continues to linger over whether the biggest of Darktrace's shareholders are prepared to support Thoma Bravo's £4. 2bn takeover. Among those is Mike Lynch, who is currently facing trial in the US over fraud claims linked to executive search software outfit Autonomy. Also unclear is the position of the Darktrace Employee Benefit Trust, which owned just under 8% of the company's shares. The trust is managed by Equiniti, which has nothing to do with the decision.