Sunday newspaper round-up: IPO frenzy, sterling shorts, M&S, Morrisons

Activity in Britain’s private sector rose marginally over the summer, according to an influential survey from the CBI, in the latest indication that businesses seem to be shrugging off the impact of the vote to leave the EU, the Sunday Times said. The CBI’s 'growth indicator' report showed a net 8% of companies reported a rise in activity in the three months to August, up from 5% in the period to July, while businesses also became modestly more optimistic about growth in the coming quarter.

The long-term stability of the UK’s housing market has begun to cause worries again, the Sunday Telegraph reported, with despite signs that the country’s biggest housebuilders have shrugged off the immediate aftermath of the vote to leave the European Union. While firms have reported a pick-up in sales in August, the number of new homes planned for next year and beyond appears to be waning, especially in London, with figures last week from the National House Building Council revealing the number of new sites registered in London since the referendum has fallen 62% year-on-year. The market’s focus is now likely to turn to the Government’s Autumn Statement, which is expected to contain stimulus measures to increase housing supply, which would boost the sector into 2017.

Currency speculators have scaled back record bets against sterling after being stung by the pound's recent rebound. Hedge funds last week eased off their short positions on sterling last week after upbeat economic data helped sterling recover to $1.33 from less than $1.29 in the middle of last month, bringing big losses for investors who bet it would fall and some investors throwing in the towel, the Sunday Times said.

The US government could face the might of Brussels bureaucracy in a showdown in the European Court over Apple’s €13bn tax row with the European Commission, legal experts have said. After the commission’s ruling that Ireland granted the technology giant undue tax benefits, Apple is understood to have retained City lawyers Freshfields to handle its case, with competition lawyers telling the Mail on Sunday that the US government would also have the right to make its case in the European Court.

Marks & Spencer will cut 500 head office jobs this week as part of the turnaround plan unveiled by its new chief executive Steve Rowe, the Mail on Sunday reported. The redundancies will amount to 15% of workers at its headquarters in Paddington, London, with no stores rumoured to be affected.

The supermarket sector will this week dive into a new escalation of the food price war that has already decimated profits across the sector, as Morrisons launches a salvo of price cuts across 160 everyday grocery items. The Bradford-based retailer will look to hit domestic rivals Tesco and Sainsbury's where it hurts with an average 12% price cut as the larger grocers try to fend off German discounters Aldi and Lidl, the Mail on Sunday, Sunday Times and Oberver all reported.

Britain's largest listed companies could be set a targets of increasing female representation in corporate boardrooms to 25% or even 35%. Sir Philip Hampton, the chairman of GlaxoSmithKline who in February launched a government-backed review into equality in business, has concluded that FTSE 350 bosses should be given tougher targets for the campaign for 'equality' to suceeed, the Sunday Times revealed, with women currently occupying fewer than one in five FTSE 100 executive posts.

The takeover of Poundland by South Africa's Steinhoff is facing another potential intervention, with the Sunday Telegraph citing speculation that US hedge fund Elliott Management may scupper the £610m deal at a crunch shareholder vote this week. Elliott has built a near 25% stake in Poundland, making it the retailer’s biggest investor ahead of Steinhoff’s 23.6% portion.

Vodafone faces growing tensions over its joint venture with Telecom Egypt, as the state operator prepares to launch its own rival mobile network, the Sunday Telegraph reported. In a move that raised fears at Vodafone and among its shareholders about the governance of its 45% owned Egyptian branch, Telecom Egypt said last week it had acquired a licence to build a 4G network, putting it in direct competition with Vodafone Egypt.

A consortium of powerful investors vying to buy National Grid’s £10bn network of gas pipes is attempting to lure an ex-director of the FTSE 100 group to spearhead its bid, according to the Sunday Times. Ahead of a deadline later this month, the group of Canadian, British and Middle Eastern investors is understood to have approached the energy industry veteran Philip Aiken, chairman of Balfour Beatty and the software company Aveva who was on the National Grid board until last year.

One of America’s largest money managers has pledged to prop up the rescue plan for struggling Kurdish oil explorer Gulf Keystone as the company tackles a multi-million-dollar restructuring while facing down a takeover bid from Norwegian rival DNO, according to the Sunday Telegraph. Los Angeles-based Capital Group, Gulf Keystone’s largest shareholder, is preparing to plough up to $20m into an emergency 2bn share offering which is needed to keep the company afloat while it restructures its hefty debt pile.

Planned changes to apprenticeship funding in England have been attacked by Labour MPs, who warn the shakeup risks cutting the number of schemes on offer and runs counter to Theresa May’s reported pledge to boost social mobility, the Observer reported. More than 50 MPs have written to Robert Halfon, the apprenticeships and skills minister, asking him to rethink proposals that would involve cuts in May 2017 of 30-50% to funding rates paid to some colleges and training providers that teach young apprentices.

Britain’s richest brothers are closing in on a £5bn deal to sell a 50% stake in London's biggest computer hosting network to a Chinese consortium. David and Simon Reuben's Aldersgate Investments is in advanced talks to sell half of Global Switch, which runs data centres in locations ranging from London to Hong Kong and Singapore, the Sunday Times reported.

Star UK fund manager Neil Woodford has begun government talks over a potential £250m fund that will focus on backing early-stage tech ventures outside London, the Sunday Times reported. Woodford, who would like the taxpayer to contribute half the funds, is working with the British Business Bank (BBB) and other institutional funds to launch the new investment company.

Boosted by songs such as Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding, the pop music industry enjoyed a record year of earnings from public performances of their music in 2015, the industry’s royalty collector has revealed. Money, money, money rolled in for musicians from broadcasters and internet companies, as well as from the thousands of shops, restaurants, bars, gyms, offices and nightclubs that are required to buy a licence to play music on their premises.