Sunday newspaper round-up: Iran worries, bank start-ups, National Grid, Argos

The UK's growth in 2016 will be more rapid than last year's as British consumer spending takes off, according to the EY Item Club. The think tank expects growth of 2.6%, up from 2.2% last year the Sunday Times reported, as consumer spending climbs to 2.8% increase thanks low inflation George Osborne's enforced U-turn on tax credits.

A pair of Canadian pension funds are understood to be planning to launch a consortium bid for National Grid’s UK gas-distribution arm. The Sunday Telegraph reported that the massive Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System's Borealis investment arm have begun plotting a joint bid for the £11bn assets.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney will launch a unit to help boost competition in the banking sector, alongside new plans that are designed to cut the time it takes new lenders to obtain banking licences from the current 12 months.George Osborne announced plans for the banking start-up unit in his autumn statement, the Sunday Times reported.

Mobile network Three will this week be forced to make major concessions as part of its £10.3bn acquisition of rival O2 from Spain's Telefonica. A “statement of objections” from the European Commission is expected to attach prohibitive concessions to the proposed purchase by Three’s Hong Kong-based owner, Hutchison Whampoa, before approval is granted, said the Sunday Times and Telegraph.

Home Retail chief executive John Walden has said in an inverview with the Sunday Times that the company is focused on building the transformation of Argos but left the door ajar for a takeover by Sainsbury's. “If there’s a way for us to realise this in a faster way with a partner or multiple partners, that’s certainly something we and the board would consider.”

Lord Sainsbury, former chairman of the supermarket group founded by his great-grandfather, has emerged as a key supporter for the current management’s bid for the Argos owner. The 3% shareholder's support will boost Sainsbury's board, said the Mail on Sunday, before its 2 February deadline.

Clydesdale Bank's owners will almost halve their pricing of the Glasgow-based lender's planned London initial public offer (IPO) due to the recent stock market turmoil. The flotation was expected to be valued at about £2bn-2.5bn but the investment banks handling the float have said the shares will be sold for half the targeted price, according to sources cited by the Sunday Times.

Pure Gym, the low-cost chain which has risen to become the UK's largest, has hired investment bank Rothschild to help with its own IPO, following rival The Gym's arrival on the LSE in November. US private equity owener CCMP is also considering a trade sale, the Sunday Times reported.

ITV has begun the search for a new chairman after Archie Norman revealed he will step down from the broadcaster once his replacement is identified. Norman, who is advising Australian retail group Wesfarmers in its acquisition of Homebase from Home Retail Group, has told boardroom colleagues he would leave ITV after six years in the job, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Debenhams' new chairman, Sir Ian Cheshire, sees “a lot of interesting upside" at the struggling department store chain but “no silver bullet”. Cheshire, who is due to take the role in April and will quickly need to replace his outgoing chief executive, said the group has been on the back foot since its debt-laden return to the stock market in 2006 after a period of private equity ownership, giving rise to the misconception that it was ailing or beleaguered.

Clothing retailer Next is joining in the recent trend for big high street names to open branches on Oxford Street's eastern arm. Following Primark's extension nearby and newly signed contracts from New Look and Benetton with Great Portland Estates, Next has signed up to take over three floors of the rebuilt Plaza shopping centre east of Oxford Circus underground station.

Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has proposed that a Labour government would renationalise the railways and stop companies from paying dividends until all staff received the living wage. The Sunday Times reported that Corbyn's first big speech on business saw him attack the government’s “laissez-faire attitude” to the steel industry, which “could let a downturn become a death spiral” in that sector in contrast to other governments across Europe acted to protect their industry.

A new new Conservative Party group has been launched by senior MPs to strengthen the campaign to keep Britain in the European Union. The Conservatives for Reform in Europe group, will be run by former cabinet minister Nick Herbert, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Pearson chief executive John Fallon's job is at risk as the education group unveils its back-to-school trading update in the coming week. A torrid period for its main American markets has seen the shares halve in less than a year and analysts believe another warning would put the chief executive under serious pressure, the Sunday Telegraph said.

The new owners of AssetCo, which used to organise the fire engine fleets of the London Fire Brigade, has launched a claim against auditor Grant Thornton for failing in its duties as an auditor. The company has alleged, the Sunday Times reported, that Grant Thornton failed to question the information it was given by the company’s bosses in 2009 and 2010 despite a “clear and obvious risk of management dishonesty”.