Friday newspaper round-up: Brexit, Sky, Glencore, BT, banks

Britain will fight moves by Brussels to secure the power to carry out raids on City of London firms after Brexit, despite a government White Paper conceding defeat on securing a European Union deal for smoother access for financial services to the Single Market. Officials said that any EU efforts to impose market surveillance on British territory would be a red line in the Brexit negotiations, which resume next week. - Telegraph

Theresa May could suffer the defeat of a crucial Brexit bill as early as Monday after Eurosceptics reacted angrily to the white paper she published yesterday. Relations between Conservative MPs who support a hard Brexit and No 10 worsened after the publication of the 98-page document, which spelt out a series of detailed compromises. - The Times

The City of London has said that banks, insurers and fund managers would accelerate their relocation plans having been dealt “a real blow” by Theresa May’s Brexit strategy. Ministers dashed the City’s hopes of maintaining easy trading access with the EU, conceding that plans for looser ties on services would lead to more barriers for British companies. - The Times

Sky could change hands for as much as £30 billion amid an escalating takeover battle for the European pay-TV group, analysts have predicted. Jerry Dellis, an analyst at Jefferies, the investment bank, said: “Current offers fall well short of knockout levels. Comcast’s offer is merely the opening shot.” His £17.50-a-share price target values Sky at £30.1 billion. - The Times

Living standards are in danger of being held back because a global resurgence in protectionism could undo the benefits brought about by slashing trade tariffs in the past, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has warned. Countries pushing tariffs back up to the same level they were at in 1990 would cut growth in GDP per capita by around 0.5 percentage points per year, its economists estimate. - Telegraph

Glencore is facing the threat of legal action being taken by its own investors after it emerged last week that American anti-corruption investigators were targeting the mining and commodities group. Quinn Emanuel, the London-based law firm that is leading action against Volkswagen over the carmaker’s emissions testing scandal, said that Glencore shareholders may be able to seek compensation over losses caused by alleged misleading statements or failures to disclose information. - The Times

The US Department of Justice has sought to overturn a court decision which allowed A&T to acquire Time Warner, filing an appeal which, if successful, could reverse the $85bn merger, which completed last month. The DoJ had been given 60 days to decide whether it wanted to appeal Judge Richard Leon's ruling, from June 13, and lodged the appeal on Thursday evening. - Telegraph

The value of Britain's housing market has fallen by £26.9bn, or 0.33pc, since the start of the year, as growth in the North East and Wales has failed to counteract falling prices in many other regions across the country. The nation’s homes decreased in value by an average of £927 each between Jan 1 and June 30 this year, and are now worth a collective £8.2 trillion, according to figures from property site Zoopla. - Telegraph

Banks must speed up their efforts to move away from using Libor as a basis for their business after the rate was found to be inaccurate and open to manipulation, the head of the Financial Conduct Authority has said. Andrew Bailey said yesterday that “the pace of transition is not yet fast enough”. - The Times

Investors hung up on BT amid reports that the telecoms group had lost the rights to broadcast Italian Serie A football, dealing a further blow to its sports plans. BT was understood to have lost the rights to broadcast Italian Serie A football matches in Britain to the rival Eleven Sports, which is owned by Andrea Radrizzani, owner of Leeds United FC. - The Times

The government has come under pressure to revamp its apprenticeship scheme after figures showed the number of training places slumped by a third over the last nine months. In the first three terms of the 2017-18 academic year, the number of people starting an apprenticeship fell to 290,500, a 34% reduction on the 440,300 during the same nine-month period in the previous year. It is also nearly 25% down on the 384,500 apprenticeships started in the equivalent period in 2015-16. - Guardian

The number of patients waiting for an operation on the NHS has reached 4.3 million, the highest total for 10 years, official figures show. Growing numbers are having to wait more than the supposed maximum of 18 weeks for planned non-urgent surgery such as a cataract removal or hip or knee replacement. - Guardian

Internet giants such as Facebook and Google should be subject to independent regulation to combat fake news and harmful content, the head of Ofcom has said. Sharon White has urged technology companies to become more accountable and said that they could face penalties if they failed to prevent the spread of misleading and dangerous material. - The Times

The US Securities & Exchange Commission is said to be investigating whether Facebook adequately informed investors about the Cambridge Analytica data leak when it first learned of it in 2015, as the technology giant comes under increasing pressure from regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, said the SEC had requested information from Facebook over how much it knew about what Cambridge Analytics was doing with data harvested from its users and over its subsequent disclosures to the market. - Telegraph

Tesla has hit a speed bump that will cut subsidies for customers buying its electric vehicles in the US, after Elon Musk’s carmaker hit a milestone of 200,000 sales. The US government subsidises purchases of electric cars with tax credits of up to $7,500 (£5,700), which apply to all of Tesla’s cars. - Telegraph