The Times
Bosses confident of a strong second half: Confidence among U.K. businesses remains buoyant despite the tumult in Greece and uncertainty about the future of Europe, research indicates.
China blocks new listings to stave off market crash: Chinese authorities have intensified their attempt to shore up struggling equity markets by suspending new share offers completely.
George Osborne may backtrack on bank levy: George Osborne is weighing up whether to announce a review of the £3.5 billion-a-year bank levy in Wednesday’s budget as one of a range of business-friendly measures.
Police investigating RBS for ‘loan abuse’: Police are investigating allegations from a small business Owner that a Royal Bank of Scotland employee dishonestly transferred the lender’s liability on his company to the taxpayer.
Investor fired up over Dragon Oil bid: Baillie Gifford, the Scottish investor, will renew attempts this week to hold talks with Emirates National Oil Company over the disputed £3.7 billion bid for Dragon Oil, the Turkmenistan producer.
Charles backs campaign to stop fossil fuel investment: Monster, the consumer electronics company, is planning to forge a partnership with Spotify to bundle its high-end headphones with streaming services to take the fight to Apple and Beats.
Rural pensioners keep young families off housing ladder: The shortage of affordable homes in many of England’s rural areas is pricing out young families and will lead to dozens of “pensioner pockets” in the countryside, an analysis shows.
Unilever warning on internet advert fraud: One of the world’s biggest advertisers has warned the industry needs to tackle online fraud and problems with ad viewability as a matter of urgency.
The Independent
Union firebrands battle for leading GMB role in place of Sir Paul Kenny: The scourges of British business are lining up to succeed arguably the most successful union leader of modern times, Sir Paul Kenny, as general secretary of the GMB.
Faster growth to cut billions off deficit as tax revenues surge: Recovering tax revenues and faster growth could prompt the Government’s fiscal watchdog to shave as much as £5 billion off the U.K.’s deficit in this week’s Budget, experts predict.
Financial Times
Lone Star to create £1 billion U.K. hotel group: Lone Star, the Dallas-based private equity group, will bring together 89 U.K. hotels to form a £1 billion company, Amaris, which it hopes to be able to float on the stock market in the medium term.
U.K. Finance Chiefs ‘shrug off’ European fears: Never mind “Grexit” — the Finance Chiefs of some of Britain’s biggest companies are planning to expand and take more risk despite the turmoil in Europe.
Close Brothers turns Regional Growth Fund grants to SME loans: Britain’s regional manufacturers have secured almost £200 million of financing through government grants channelled via merchant bank Close Brothers, highlighting the potential of public and private funding to ease small companies’ access to cash.
Big-box retailers from Carpetright to Ikea turn to high street: Since moving from Carpetright’s Croydon branch to a spruced-up “concept” store in Clapham, deputy store manager Atila Hasan has noticed a change in the way people shop.
European pharma groups paid $1.5 billion to U.S. doctors in 2015: The biggest European drugmakers paid $1.5 billion in fees to U.S. doctors and teaching hospitals last year, according to official statistics that shine a light on the financial ties between pharmaceutical groups and the medical establishment.
Osborne to raid BBC coffers to pay for over-75s TV licences: George Osborne is aiming to raid the BBC’s finances to help pay for £12 billion of welfare cuts in this week’s Budget, amid warnings from the Chancellor that the corporation should rein in the “imperial ambitions” of its successful website.
Australian miners cry foul over China coal-testing regime: Australian miners are urging Beijing to suspend a coal-quality testing regime, which they claim is unfairly blocking cargoes at Chinese ports and increasing costs for exporters at a time when the seaborne coal trade is under severe stress.
U.S. renewables industry seeks tax breaks to compete with gas: The U.S. wind and solar power industries face a fall in investment in 2017 after tax credits expire, their trade body has warned as it appeals to politicians for more financial support.
U.K. flood fund in £2.1 billion reinsurance deal: The new government-backed flood subsidy fund is preparing to make one of the world’s largest purchases of catastrophe insurance with plans to buy backstop cover worth £2.1 billion.
KKR hires ex-Bolloré Group Executive to head push into Africa: KKR appointed the former Chief Executive of Africa’s biggest ports and logistics network as a senior adviser, in a sign the private equity house is looking to invest in the region’s infrastructure.
Osborne’s pension fund infrastructure plan raises just £1 billion: Nearly four years after George Osborne announced a flagship scheme to persuade pension funds to invest billions of pounds in hundreds of new transport and energy projects, it has raised just £1 billion, much of it invested in old private finance initiative schemes.
Sabic pushes into Asia with South Korea deal: Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation has teamed up with SK Global Chemical to produce polyethelyne products in South Korea, marking the state-controlled petrochemicals group’s latest push into Asia.
Standard Chartered joins pact to prevent forest destruction: Standard Chartered bank has put palm oil and soy companies on notice that it will soon stop dealing with businesses whose operations drive the widespread destruction of tropical forests.
PayPal on hunt for takeovers after eBay split: PayPal is on the hunt for international acquisitions to drive growth and fend off predators, as it prepares to separate from eBay and become an independent company in the first of several big technology split-ups this year.
Yamaha aims to unlock U.S. and EU markets with agricultural drone: Until Amazon secures regulatory approval to deliver parcels to our homes using drones, one of the hottest battlegrounds in the fast-evolving market for unmanned aerial vehicles is where you might least expect a technology revolution — agriculture.
Lex:
Puerto Rico bond insurers: wrap song: Puerto Rico’s debt problem is not limited to its bondholders. After the island’s governor admitted that the island’s debt was unsustainable, shares in bond insurers MBIA and Assured Guaranty fell hard — the former by 40%. Municipalities tend to “wrap” their debt issuances with insurance. Doing so lowers the interest rate and can also help to attract a wider investor base. For the insurers it can be good business. As long as they price the risk correctly, they should be able to generate plenty of excess capital that can be sent back to shareholders as dividends or buybacks. MBIA and Assured have $4.5 billion and $6 billion of gross exposure to Puerto Rico’s bonds, respectively; the book values of the two are $3.8 billion and $5.8 billion. But it is unclear how big a loss they will have to take on that exposure. Puerto Rico’s debt is complex. Some of it is issued by quasi-public corporations such as the power utility and the highway authority; some is backed by tax revenue. It remains to be seen if the debt will be restructured all at once, or piece-by-piece (the power utility, PREPA, may be closing in on an deal with creditors, for example). The order and extent of restructuring will affect what the insurers have to pay out.
Ashtead: sharpest tool in the box: Two of them, HSS Hire and Speedy Hire, issued profit warnings this week, and Speedy parted company with its Chief Executive too. Their fortunes contrast sharply with those of Ashtead. Its results for the year to April 30 beat forecasts and the company raised its final dividend by a third. Most of all though, it is the economic cycle, which picked up earlier in the U.S. than in the U.K. Plant hire entails borrowing money to buy equipment, keeping it heavily utilised and reinvesting the cash flow in more kit. The business model works like a dream when construction is buoyant — which is why Ashtead’s shares have risen 1,000% over the past five years. Over-investing at the wrong point in the cycle can be calamitous. Ashtead knows that feeling — having scrambled to deleverage seven years ago — and although capital expenditure is still over £1 billion each year, it intends to keep net debt at less than twice earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation. That compares to over three times ebitda in 2007.
The Daily Telegraph
Defiant Greeks reject EU demands as Syriza readies IOU currency: Greek voters have rejected the austerity demands of Europe’s creditor powers by a stunning margin, sweeping aside warnings that this could lead to the collapse of the banking system and a return to the drachma.
Chancellor must make radical tax overhaul a Budget priority, urges IoD: George Osborne should radically cut back the complexity of the British tax system when he delivers his emergency budget this week, the Institute of Directors has urged.
Rip-off rents hit the Home Counties as unaffordability contagion spreads out of London: The cost of renting in the Home Counties has risen 5.4% over the last six months to June, driven up by international tenants and a surge in demand from companies relocating employees and their families to the London commuter belt.
Take a tour round HMS Queen Elizabeth: It’s exactly a year since the Queen smashed a bottle of whisky against the side of Britian’s largest warship, naming the new aircraft carrier under construction in Rosyth, Scotland, after herself.
Marks & Spencer ‘suffers clothing setback’: Marks and Spencer is expected to have suffered another blow in its attempts to get its clothing business back on track, after cool weather in May and June dampened sales.
The Guardian
Greek referendum no vote signals huge challenge to Eurozone leaders: Greece delivered a landslide no vote to the Eurozone’s terms for the country remaining in the single currency on Sunday night, unleashing a seismic political shift that could derail the European project.
Breakup of big six energy firms not needed, says regulator: Hopes that a long-awaited report from financial regulators would recommend the breakup of big six energy suppliers such as British Gas and SSE are about to finally be dashed.
FCA’s £819 million in fines revenue gives Osborne room to fund worthy causes: The Financial Conduct Authority has imposed more than £800 million of fines on banks and other companies in the first half of this year – giving the Chancellor the opportunity to make eye-catching allocations to worthy causes in this week’s budget.
Sainsbury’s and M&S under fire over Executive and staff pay disparity: Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer face protests from shareholders and campaigners this week over high Executive rewards and low pay for staff.
Pay rises for Bosses – and shareholder dissent – back on the agenda: Some of the U.K.’s biggest companies are sounding out shareholders about pay rises for their Bosses in a move that risks reigniting the controversy over excessive Executive pay.
Daily Mail
Central bank set to provide lifeline to shore up embattled Chinese stock market: China’s securities regulator said the country’s central bank would provide liquidity support to shore up the country’s embattled stock market.
Historic ‘NO’ vote in Greek referendum to spark fresh stock markets rout amid ‘Grexit’ fears: Greece’s central bank is asking the European Central Bank to raise the amount of emergency funding for Greek lenders to shore up the embattled country’s financial system.
Bidders stalk the U.K.’s top landlord Grainger in ‘£1 billion takeover’ after investment group Crystal Amber takes 3% stake: Grainger, Britain’s largest market-listed landlord, is being circled by potential bidders considering a £1 billion-plus takeover.
Daily Express
Fiscal rules could mean £12 billion of cuts: Chancellor George Osborne’s new rules to limit government spending could hit growth and lead to £12billion of tax increases and spending cuts, the EY Item Club think tank warns.
The Scottish Herald
George Osborne told he must use Budget to boost North Sea exploration: George Osborne must do more to boost exploration activity in the North Sea in this week’s Budget to help boost ailing confidence in the oil and gas sector, Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce has said.
Maven investment signals faith in prospects for exporters: Glasgow-based Maven Capital Partners has invested £4.3 million in a firm that makes trackball pointing devices used in sectors such as healthcare and the media.
Accountancy giant hails benefits of paying employees Living Wage: Increasing the standard £6.50 per hour Minimum Wage to match the Living Wage rate of £7.85 would benefit staff and businesses, KPMG has said.
Hi-tech firm defies oil downturn with £4 million expansion: Q-Mass, a high-tech maker of precision equipment for the oil and gas industry worldwide is defying the offshore slump with a £4 million expansion, as it seeks to diversify into the renewables, defence and nuclear power.
The Scotsman
CBI warns Heathrow runway wait could cost U.K. £31 billion: Britain could lose up to £31 billion in trade by 2030 because of the failure to increase flights to Brazil, Russia, India and China alone, research by the CBI suggests.
Christmas comes earlier each year for Argos: Online and catalogue retailer Argos has been inviting journalists to its Christmas Show at a trendy London restaurant on 15 July.
Retailers – and Osborne – in the spotlight: Retailers take the spotlight this week, with annual meetings for Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s, as well as a trading update from online clothing store Asos and annual results from fashion chain SuperGroup.
City A.M.
EasyJet cabin crew set to strike amid pay row: EasyJet cabin crew are planning to walk out over pay after talks between unions and the airline broke down following months of negotiations.
U.K. recruiters’ revenues reap the benefit of strong U.K. job market: Recruitment firms are seeing income soar as a result of Britain’s booming job market.
Directors make the case for a TTIP trade deal: The Chairman of a leading business group will use a major speech in the City tonight to urge business leaders to get behind an EU-U.S. trade deal.
Wagamama hires retail veteran Allan Leighton as new Chairman: Asian restaurant chain Wagamama is set to appoint Allan Leighton as Chairman, paving the way for further expansion overseas.
David Shaw to chair Mayfair’s Pollen Estate: Mayfair landlord The Pollen Estate has appointed the head of The Crown Estate’s Regent Street portfolio, David Shaw, as Chairman.
Celebrity hotspot San Carlo eyes expansion as its turnover jumps: Italian
