Friday newspaper round-up: Turkey, Transitional deal, Unilever

Theresa May is ready to offer EU citizens free movement to Britain for up to two years after Brexit under plans devised by Philip Hammond.The chancellor is understood to believe that he has the support of every cabinet minister for a transitional deal after Britain leaves the European Union in 2019. A new immigration regime would be put in place after the two-year period. - The Times

...But the cabinet has accepted that free movement of people for up to four years after Britain leaves the EU will be part of a Brexit transition deal, a senior source told The Guardian. As the EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, underlined the need for clarity on the British side at the end of the latest round of exit negotiations, soft Brexiters in the cabinet are now confident they have achieved a consensus about an “off the shelf” transition deal.

One of the biggest shareholders in Unilever has said that he expects the giant consumer group to set out plans for a single unified company by the end of the year. In what could be the most significant move for the Anglo-Dutch maker of Dove soap in a decade, the investor said he understood that Unilever’s board wanted to end the dual-listed structure so that it could become a simpler and more agile company. - The Times

Fox faces another delay in its £11.7bn pursuit of full control of Sky, after the Culture Secretary said she would not make a crucial decision on referring the takeover to competition watchdogs before Parliament takes its summer break. Karen Bradley told MPs she was still minded to refer the bid to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over the extra clout it would give the Murdoch family in the British media. - The Guardian

ExxonMobil showed “reckless disregard” in violating Russian sanctions while Rex Tillerson was the oil company’s CEO, the treasury department said on Thursday. The treasury fined Exxon $2m for violating sanctions that the Obama administration imposed on Russian entities in 2014 over Russia’s annexation of Crimea. And it said the company’s “senior-most executives” were aware of the sanctions when two of its subsidiaries signed deals with the Russian oil magnate Igor Sechin. - The Guardian

Britain's biggest building society is to pump millions into building and rental schemes in a bid to ease the nation’s housing crisis. Nationwide is considering a radical overhaul of its traditional savings and loans business to put more people on the property ladder. It is a considerable departure for a building society, and the first major decision by new boss Joe Garner. - The Daily Mail

An Icelandic airline is the latest carrier to attempt to break the curse of flying scheduled services to the US from Stansted. Long-haul airlines have had little success from London’s third airport, which is better known as the English home of Ryanair. From April next year, though, Primera Air is to give it a whirl, with seats at the back of the plane costing £149. It plans to fly daily to New York’s second airport Newark Liberty and four times a week to Boston. - The Times

Britain is “in the dark” over immigration numbers because the current system for counting movement into and out of the UK is inadequate, a committee of Lords has warned. Companies across the country are also unprepared for a sharp drop in immigration, meaning that the flagship policy to reduce net immigration to below 100,000 per year “runs the risk of causing considerable disruption”. - Telegraph

The billionaire Barclay brothers have abandoned the sale of Shop Direct after the remaining private equity bidders balked at the estimated £3 billion price. The digital retailer, which owns shopping websites including Very.co.uk, VeryExclusive.co.uk and Littlewoods.com, said that the appetite of potential buyers for the business had started to wane amid uncertainty after the general election. - The Times

Microsoft's fourth quarter profit beat Wall Street estimates, after it received a boost from its LinkedIn buy and its move to focus on cloud computing began to pay off. Shares in the group rose as much as 1.5pc in after-hours trading on Thursday, having touched a record high earlier in the day. - Telegraph

Investment firms that let customers down during last summer’s property fund sell-off have been ordered by the City watchdog to improve their emergency planning. The Financial Conduct Authority criticised some firms for poor communications as they raced to stop a run on open-ended property funds triggered by the post-Brexit panic. - The Times