Friday newspaper round-up: Tata, Rolls-Royce, Tesco, Sky

Activity in China’s manufacturing activity unexpectedly expanded in March for the first time in nine months, an official survey has shown, adding to hopes thatdownward pressure on the world’s second-largest economy is easing. The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 50.2 in March, up from the previous month’s 49 but still only marginally above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis. - Guardian

Sajid Javid will travel to south Wales on Friday to promise steelworkers that the government will use all “ministerial, official and diplomatic levers” to help save their jobs, including actively seeking out buyers for Tata Steel’s British assets. Arriving three days after the crisis broke, the business secretary will attempt to reassure 4,000 employees at the Port Talbot plant, despite a warning by David Cameron that the global collapse in the price of steel and massive overcapacity meant there was “no guarantee of success”. - Guardian

Tata Steel’s hunt for a buyer to save its British business could be hampered by the firm’s £15bn pension scheme, complicating rescue efforts that David Cameron admitted had “no guarantees of success”. The business, which employs 15,000 people at Port Talbot and other sites around the country, is saddled with more than 130,000 savers who are entitled to a pension. - Telegraph

Tata has accused David Cameron of sleepwalking into the steel crisis by helping China to block EU efforts to increase tariffs on its cheap imports. An executive from the Indian group told a Commons committee weeks ago that British support for China could lead to an “even greater steel crisis”, according to a transcript. Senior Tata officials are said to be amazed at the prime minister’s failure to heed their warnings that China would dump cheap steel on the market, undercutting Britain. - Times

Tesco is mulling the sale of its Giraffe restaurant chain in a move to cut its losses and distance itself from its former management’s wrong-footed strategy. The supermarket bought the family-friendly restaurant chain in an ill-fated acquisition three years ago under the direction of former chief executive, Phil Clarke, who saw Giraffe as an opportunity to lure more customers into its larger stores. - Telegraph

Royal Mail was braced for a dispute with unions after a deadline for a new pay deal passed last night and a settlement of long-running pensions’ issues remained no nearer. The Communication Workers Union secured a 9 per cent, three-year pay deal after agreeing to step back from strike action at the time of the privatisation and flotation of Royal Mail in the autumn of 2013. The agreement was regarded as a victory for the union. The deal, backdated to April 2013, ended last night and, despite two months of informal talks, no new settlement has been agreed. - The Times

Broadcasting giant Sky is to sell its headquarters and studios in west London for £545m. The company has instructed agents at BNP Paribas Real Estate to find a buyer for its buildings in Osterley, which it will then rent back in an expected 30-year deal. - Telegraph

Retailers will take the biggest financial hit from the rise in the “national living wage” (NLW) as more than 300,000 workers get a pay rise from Friday 1 April. The sector will have to find up to £3bn more a year to pay staff by 2020 assuming it maintains differentials between entry and mid-level staff and spreads the NLW rate to all employees, not just the over-25s they are legally obliged to cover, according to the British Retail Consortium. - Guardian

The billionaire owner of the Gherkin, one of London’s most recognisable skyscrapers, has been charged in an alleged plot to bribe Brazilian officials in an attempt to cut his family company’s corporation tax bill. Joseph Safra, the world’s richest banker with an estimated $18.3bn (£12.8bn) fortune according to Forbes magazine, was on Thursday accused of corruption in relation to a conspiracy to pay 15.3m reais ($4.2m) in bribes to tax officials, Brazilian prosecutors said. - Guardian