The Times
Watchdog gives in to banks’ demand for PPI claims cut-off: The Financial Conduct Authority has caved in to banks over payment protection insurance compensation by backing their call for a two-year deadline for new claims, against the view of its own experts.
Companies pay dividends rather than plug black holes in pensions: Big companies with large pension deficits have paid dividends to shareholders in the past two years that would have plugged black holes in their retirement schemes.
World’s drivers learn to love their huge gas guzzlers all over again: Cheap petrol is driving a boom in sales of SUVs and trucks as drivers from Beijing to Boston turn their backs on more fuel-efficient models and hybrids.
Online grocery shoppers hungry for more: The rise of online shopping and that increasing dominance of discount retailers mean that Britain’s food and grocery market is set to grow 10% by 2021, valuing it at £197 billion.
Chinese make $9 billion play for place at games table: Tencent Holdings was said to be in talks to acquire Supercell Oy, the Finnish developer of the popular Clash of Clans mobile game, for more than $9 billion.
Schroders pays Hong Kong fine for disclosure failures: Schroders has been fined by a regulator in Hong Kong for failing to adequately disclose stocks it held that were listed on the local stock exchange.
The Independent
U.K. unemployment rate falls to its lowest level since 2005 despite Brexit fears: Unemployment in the U.K. has fallen to its lowest level in eleven years despite fears that uncertainty prior to the EU referendum might affect the labour market.
Zara Owner Inditex profits beat rival H&M : Inditex SA reported profit that beat expectations as a faster distribution system enabled the Owner of the Zara clothing chain to outpace competitor Hennes & Mauritz AB, whose sales missed analysts’ estimates.
350,000 renters put at risk of eviction, Shelter says: Thousands of renters in England have been put at risk of losing their home, according to a new report.
Aveva and Schneider Electric end takeover talks: Schneider Electric’s second attempt to buy a majority stake in U.K. software maker Aveva Group proved short-lived after the two companies ended negotiations just two days after they became public.
Financial Times
Restaurant Group appoints Barry Nightingale as CFO: Struggling eatery chain Restaurant Group has appointed Barry Nightingale, the former finance head at Monarch Airlines, as its new Chief financial officer, two months after it announced the departure of his predecessor and warned on profits.
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Berkeley’s house reservations fall by a fifth: Upmarket housebuilder Berkeley sent out a stark warning about the state of the U.K. property market, saying that reservations for its houses fell 20% in the first five months of the year.
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Jaguar Land Rover opens £240 million Brazil factory: Jaguar Land Rover has said it will open other foreign plants following the inauguration of its £240 million Brazil factory in Itatiaia this week, its first wholly owned manufacturing plant outside of the U.K.
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Virgin Australia raising A$1 billion with China in its sights: Virgin Australia is raising more than A$1 billion ($737 million) and slashing costs as part of a restructuring aimed at strengthening the carrier’s balance sheet and repositioning itself to pursue opportunities in China.
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Uber rival Didi Chuxing raises $7 billion in new capital: China’s rival to ride-hailing pioneer Uber has raised more than $7 billion from investors and lenders, capping off a month that has seen an unprecedented wave of funds pouring into car-booking apps.
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Volkswagen plans shake-up of parts operations: Volkswagen is planning a far-reaching shake up of its sprawling operations that make components, as part of efforts to cut its bloated costs, according to two people briefed on the proposals.
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Crown Resorts surges on plan to spin off international assets: Shares in Crown Resorts surged 14% on news the casino and hotels group plans to spin off its international investments into a separate company, to insulate its Australian businesses from its underperforming interests in Macau.
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S Korea finds $1.3 billion accounting hole at Daewoo Shipbuilding: South Korea’s state audit agency said it had uncovered a Won1.5tn ($1.3 billion) accounting hole at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, in the country’s first official findings from a probe into the troubled shipbuilder.
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Lex:
Mobile gaming: Super sell: Mobile games are so moreish they can be hard to put down. SoftBank has reportedly managed to go cold turkey, negotiating the sale of its 73% stake in Supercell, the Finnish maker of Clash of Clans, to China’s Tencent in a deal said to value the company at $9 billion.
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H&M/ Inditex: fashion cents: On Wednesday Swedish apparel retailer Hennes & Mauritz, announced that sales in the most recent quarter increased by a disappointing 2% over the same period last year.
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Toys R Us: still in the club: All parents know that their little darlings will eventually tire of even their favourite doll or action figure. The same holds true for private equity investors who, on occasion, can be every bit as capricious as toddlers.
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Lombard:
Admiral Green dodges a broadside over BHS: Would the real Sir Philip Green please come forward? MPs probing the collapse of BHS with a £571 million pensions deficit were confronted with multiple Sir Philips when he appeared before them during a six-hour evidence session on Wednesday.
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Red cars, red faces: If you speed in a Ferrari, the cops stop you to fine you, we are told. If you don’t speed, they stop you to get a look at the car. A new rap on the marque’s charge sheet is its ability to embarrass employers. A group of forex Executives at Citigroup has just been outed as taking a continental road trip in low-slung sports cars when colleagues were slaving over preparations for currency volatility around next week’s referendum.
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The Daily Telegraph
Tata Steel urges staff to think carefully about benefits of EU before referendum vote: The Owner of Port Talbot steelworks has intervened in the Brexit debate with a memo to staff outlining the benefits of EU membership to its business.
U.K. biotech is surging but more support is needed, industry warns: The U.K.’s biotech sector is in fine fettle, having raised a record amount of capital last year, but the Government should do more to support growth and investment to ensure Britain becomes a global hub for the life sciences industry, according to a report.
Steinhoff launches bid for struggling Poundland: The high street discount chain Poundland has become the target of takeover interest from Steinhoff, the South African serial bidder that has already tried to buy fellow retailers Argos and Darty this year.
Oil price retreats from $50 – and will stay lower ‘for months’, says Goldman Sachs: The oil market has reversed its fragile gains over the past two weeks to fall back below the $50 a barrel mark, as Goldman Sachs warned that the price is unlikely to return to its 2016 highs “for months”.
Banks forecast strong growth despite Brexit risk: Britain’s banks and other finance businesses are reporting strong business growth and increasing profitability, despite their public warnings about the risks posed by the EU referendum.
Openreach Boss Clive Selley defends broadband roll-out: BT Openreach’s Boss Clive Selley has hit out at criticism that the network is failing to invest in ultrafast broadband lines, saying “it’s a mug’s game” to focus purely on fibre-optic technology.
Sky Movies rebrands as Sky Cinema as broadcaster throws down gauntlet to Netflix and Amazon: Sky is attempting to reassert its dominance over Netflix and Amazon in the film market with a relaunch of its Sky Movies package under the name Sky Cinema.
The Questor Column:
Sell Berkeley shares as prices fall: Berkeley Group, the London-focused builder of premium flats, has just reported a record set of profits, and promised to return £2 in dividends to shareholders every year for the next five years, but we remain wary of the shares as there is growing evidence that we are nearing the peak of this particular housing cycle. Berkeley specialises in buying brownfield land, which is either ex-industrial or has been developed for housing before. Berkeley generated sector-leading gross profit margins of 33% during the year to the end of April, but the cracks are beginning to show in this particular property cycle. The builder sold 321 more homes to reach a total of 3,776 during the year, but prices are falling, with the average price down £60,000 on a year earlier to £515,000. Pretax profits fell £8.8 million lower to £530.9 million in the 12 months to the end of April from revenue that was down £73 million to £2.05 billion. The sales rate fell 20% during the first five months to the end of May, according to Berkeley. Berkeley can weather the storm over the short-term as it has already agreed sales on £3.25 billion of property, or just over a year’s forecast sales. The problem we can see is 12 months down the track when that lower sales rate begins to really bite into trading. This would come as London is increasingly finding itself oversupplied with new-build flats. The shares may look cheap, trading on eight times forecast earnings, but for cyclical shares we prefer to use a cyclically adjusted ten-year average of earnings. We recommended selling Berkeley shares at the end of last year as London property began to cool (£31.35, November 15) and we still think there is more pain to come. Berkeley Group at £29.54-36p. Questor says “Sell”.
The Guardian
European shares recover after five days of losses: European shares clawed bank some of their losses after a five-day losing streak caused by jitters about next week’s referendum on the U.K.’s membership of the European Union.
Bank shares would fall sharply after Brexit, City analysts warn: Bank shares are likely to fall sharply if there was a vote for Brexit and dividend payouts to shareholders would be axed, according to a forecast by City analysts.
M&S criticised for ditching antisocial hours pay to offset wage rise: Marks & Spencer has been criticised for cutting the pay of approximately 10% of its shop-floor workers by removing premiums for working Sundays and antisocial hours and trimming back bank holiday payments.
Tesco food waste rose to equivalent of 119 million meals last year: Tesco has revealed that the amount of food waste generated by the supermarket giant increased to 59,400 tonnes last year – the equivalent of nearly 119 million meals.
Daily Mail
South African billionaire Christo Wiese makes a daring bid for ailing high street chain Poundland: Billionaire Christo Wiese has made a daring bid to take over the U.K. high street by swooping for Poundland.
Britain’s biggest bowling chain Hollywood Bowl set for £280 million float after sport’s popularity climbs: Britain’s biggest bowling chain Hollywood Bowl has announced plans to join the stock market in a £280 million float.
U.S. growth forecasts trimmed as Federal Reserve indicates there will be two more interest rate rises by the end of the year: The Federal Reserve left interest rates in the U.S. unchanged but indicated there would be two hikes before the end of the year.
Fears for up to 800 U.K. jobs as British Airways hires Indian firm Tata Consultancy Services to provide IT services: Hundreds of staff at British Airways are to lose their jobs after an Indian firm was hired to manage its computer systems.
Daily Express
Europe’s banks to be promised unlimited funding to stem economic meltdown sparked by Brexit: Fears of a financial catastrophe in Europe if Britain votes to leave the union, has prompted the bloc’s top policymakers to plot an emergency Brexit plan of action.
Landlord lending plunges by a shock 85% after Government taxes: Mortgages to landlords fell off a cliff following the Government introducing new taxes on second home buyers.
The Scottish Herald
Technology firm faces challenges after Shell contract loss: Arria NLG, the language generation technology firm, has seen losses balloon following the loss of a key contract with Shell but said it has made good progress while noting material uncertainty about its funding position.
Scotland’s economy ‘shifts from consumer to creator’: Scotland’s manufacturers heave driven a shift in the economy from consumer to creator, according to business strategist, Mark Shayler.
Financial services firms less optimistic: Optimism among firms in the financial services sector has fallen for the second consecutive quarter, according to the latest sector survey by the CBI and PwC.
Nigg boosted by wind farm contract: Global Energy Group and Siemens have signed a contract for the use of Nigg Energy Park in the £2.6billion offshore wind farm project which was given the green light last month.
Flagship tourism project opens: The Rings, a flagship project for accessible tourism in Scotland, has opened its doors after attracting £335,000 of funding from Bank of Scotland and a £150,000 grant from the Scottish Rural Development Programme.
The Scotsman
Sir Philip Green apologises to staff over BHS collapse: Former BHS Owner Sir Philip Green has apologised to the staff of the collapsed retailer, adding he will “sort” the firm’s dilapidated pension scheme, which has a £571 million black hole.
Edinburgh Uni aims to build links with construction: The commercialisation arm of the University of Edinburgh is to hold an event aimed at boosting the construction industry through the use of new technologies.
Edinburgh expansion on cards for law firm Kennedys: International law firm Kennedys is eyeing further growth in Edinburgh after moving to larger offices on the city’s canalside.
Scotgold ‘extremely pleased’ with Cononish mine trial: Precious metals miner Scotgold reported encouraging process with a bulk processing trial (BPT) at its project in the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.
Unemployment in Scotland falls by 11,000: Unemployment in Scotland has fallen by 11,000 between February and April to stand at 160,000, official figures show.
City A.M.
Tech titans rule 2016 with $268 billion of M&A activity: Technology is leading the global mergers and acquisitions sector this year with $267.6 billion worth of deals announced so far, according to new research by financial markets platform Dealogic.
Subscription services on the rise for pay monthly Brits, survey shows: U.K. consumers are increasingly opting to pay a monthly fee to subscribe to a service, rather than buy it outright, new research has shown.
Bidders believe Tata is split on U.K. assets sale: Bidders for Tata Steel’s U.K. operations have accused the company of being split over whether to move ahead with the sale.
Revised version of the Pubs Code due in July, but industry is “disappointed” it won’t be backdated to original enforcement date: A revised version of the Pubs Code is set to come into force in July, but pub organisations are “disappointed” that the government has refused to make the legislation apply retrospectively.
London Distillery Company and Royal Botanic Gardens team up to launch Kew Organic Gin: Artisan gin just got a floral makeover, as The London Distillery Company announced a collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gardens to create Kew Organic Gin.
Wood Mackenzie: Oil industry to cut $1 trillion spending as North Sea hits “critical phase”: The global oil industry will spend $1 trillion (£704 billion) less on development and exploration in 2015-20, just as the U.K.’s North Sea sector hits a critical phase.
A Brexit vote is a gamble on the future of the young, London’s lord mayor to warn: Voting to leave the EU represents a gamble on the future of young people, the lord mayor of London will warn.
