Monday newspaper round-up: Brexit warning, US trade deal, Rolls, LSE

Britain is in prime position to strike a new trade deal with the US outside the EU, former trade minister Lord Francis Maude believes. The UK is keen to do more deals post-Brexit, and the US is the country’s biggest national trading partner making a new treaty an attractive prospect. - Telegraph

Demand for emerging market exports has hit a new post-crisis low, with US imports from China dropping sharply in July in the latest sign that the engine of growth for the world’s developing economies is sputtering. The US has been one of the bright spots in an otherwise gloomy global economy and one of the few sources of growth for emerging market exporters, which last year saw exports of goods and services fall for the first time since the global financial crisis, according to figures from the UN. - Financial Times

Four managers in five believe that the Brexit vote will push Britain into recession in the next 18 months, while a separate survey has found business confidence hitting a four-year low. British executives think overwhelmingly that the decision to leave the European Union will have a negative impact on the economy, according to a poll by the Chartered Management Institute. - The Times

Business confidence has been dragged to a four-year low amid rising concerns over economic uncertainty and a slowdown in demand following the EU referendum result. Expectations that sales, orders and profits will grow over the next six months slipped to 12%, down from 38% in January, according to Lloyds Bank’s Business in Britain report. - Guardian

Banks are waking up to an imminent funding crisis as new rules designed to make money-market funds safer threaten to cause a dollar cash crunch among some of the world’s largest lenders. In a little over two months nearly $250 billion has been withdrawn from prime dollar money-market funds that provide short-term loans to banks. - The Times

Rolls-Royce is cutting more than 200 management jobs, the latest in a series of losses as its chief executive attempts to turn around the British engineering giant. The most recent episode in Rolls’ lengthy restructuring under Warren East, who was appointed as chief executive last year, was announced to staff last week. - Telegraph

Deutsche Börse and the London Stock Exchange Group’s plan to create Europe’s largest exchange group is set to face an in-depth investigation by Brussels following fears that the companies would have limited time to answer authorities’ initial concerns. European antitrust officials held a meeting last Wednesday with the exchanges outlining market concerns about the deal but the watchdog has not shared its own thoughts, according to two advisers familiar with the discussions. The exchanges will probably only find out close to the end of the EU’s initial investigation on September 28, the advisers said. - Financial Times

Britain risks being left behind in the 5G race to build smart cities unless the government overhauls outdated planning laws, one of the country’s most senior telecoms executives has warned. The outgoing head of mobile carrier O2 called on the UK to rethink the way it is planning to install the ultrafast fixed and wireless broadband networks required to support technologies of the future such as driverless cars. - Financial Times

The company behind Stansted, London’s third-busiest airport, is to call on the Government to lift restrictions on passenger numbers as it ramps up its campaign to expand and eventually build a second runway. Charlie Cornish, chief executive at Stansted’s owner, Manchester Airports Group (MAG), said the company was planning to apply officially in the coming months to have its so-called planning cap, which limits it to handling 35m passengers a year, raised. - Telegraph

China’s huge credit binge has increased the risk of a banking crisis in the world’s second biggest economy in the next three years, according to global financial watchdog. An early warning of financial overheating – the gap between credit and GDP – hit 30.1 in China in the first quarter of this year, a report from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said on Sunday. - Guardian/Reuters

First-time buyers hoping to snap up a bargain after the Brexit vote could be in for a shock with figures showing new sellers in England and Wales asking 3.3% more for typical starter homes than a month ago. The latest monthly report by property website Rightmove showed asking prices for newly listed homes were 0.7% higher – now an average of £306,499 – September than in August. - Guardian

The offshore online betting industry is set to be hit with a £50 million bill to help to fund the racing industry. By the end of next month racing chiefs believe that the government will have a structure to replace the outdated levy system reckoned to have cost horse racing £150 million in lost income since the turn of the decade. - The Times

The boss of EDF Energy has conceded that the French group has no plan in place to finance the next step in its nuclear programme after Hinkley Point. The contentious scheme to build the world’s most costly nuclear power station in Somerset was approved by the government last week. The deal was hatched as the first of a trio of new stations, with reactors also to be built by EDF and China General Nuclear, its partner, at Sizewell in Suffolk and Bradwell in Essex. - The Times

McDonald’s could face an order to pay nearly $500m in back taxes to Luxembourg, according to a Financial Times analysis of an investigation by Brussels into state-supported tax avoidance. Last month the European Commission imposed a €13bn tax penalty on Apple in Ireland, triggering a storm of protest from Washington and corporate America. As the commission steps up its crackdown on so-called sweetheart tax deals, two US multinationals — McDonald’s and Amazon — are potentially next in line. - Financial Times

Britain will forgo nearly 27,000 jobs by the end of the decade if it does not press ahead with the HS2 high-speed rail project between London and Birmingham, a report by Albion Economics has claimed. Amid increasing demands for the £50 billion project to be scrapped, the railway and construction industries have calculated for the first time how many people they will take on. - The Times

Carmakers are shifting their research centres to eastern Europe following the Brexit vote to lower costs and maintain unfettered access to European markets. Recruitment firms are on the lookout for skilled staff and senior executives who can lead research and development teams in Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria. - Guardian