Tuesday newspaper round-up: Sports Direct, Brexit, gender pay gap

It is bizarre that anyone still bothers to claim to have agreed a “merger of equals” when the concept has been shown time and again to be either a public-relations-driven fantasy or an all-too-real disaster. Yet here comes another one, hot on the heels of the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse. The latest to adopt the pose, the business information providers Markit and IHS, are less equal than most. Following the $13bn (£9bn) combination, shareholders in Nasdaq-listed, London-based Markit will hold only 43pc of equity. Conveniently enough, IHS shareholders’ 57pc falls just short of the 60pc threshold that would trigger the US Treasury’s clampdown on tax inversion deals. – Telegraph

Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley has lambasted politicians after snubbing a formal summons to attend a grilling by MPs in Parliament over working conditions at the retailer. The Business, Innovation and Skills committee last week ordered the sportswear tycoon to appear at cross-party hearing on June 7 afterMr Ashley declined repeated invitations to respond to questions about zero-hours contracts. – Telegraph

Britain’s biggest companies could face a credit downgrade – potentially forcing up their borrowing costs – should the UK vote to leave the EU in June, according to a report by a leading ratings agency. Moody’s said the prospect of lengthy and uncertain negotiations would deter foreign investors and limit the profits of mainstream corporations that trade with the rest of the EU. But banking and insurance would be less affected than non-financial companies. – Guardian

The government should make all jobs flexible and introduce an industrial strategy for low-paid women’s jobs to act on its pledge to close the gender pay gap, MPs will say. The 19.2% gap between men’s and women’s pay has barely improved in the past four years despite the government’s pledge to eradicate it within a generation, the women and equalities select committee will say in a report published on Tuesday. The gap for full- and part-time workers means on average a woman earns about 80p for every £1 earned by a man. – Guardian

Mike Ashley admitted yesterday that Sports Direct was in trouble, blaming MPs for creating a spiral of negative publicity surrounding the company. Mr Ashley told The Times he had concerns that the sportswear retailer, which employs about 18,000 people in Britain, was losing momentum and said that he would refuse to appear before a Commons select committee in June. – The Times

It was the crisis that dealt a “final blow to Britain’s self-image as a world power to be reckoned with”. Now a Bank of England policymaker has warned that Britain could face another Suez-style crisis in the run-up to the European Union referendum. Kristin Forbes, an external member of the Bank’s monetary policy committee, made the comparison in a speech in London yesterday, in which she said that the UK’s heavy dependence on foreign financing c0uld make it vulnerable in the face of a possible Brexit. – The Times