Newspaper Summary
The Times
Spending falls in first signs of slowdown: Household spending is showing signs of tailing off in what a leading credit rating agency has warned may be an early sign that the economy has already begun to slow.
Fraud inquiry hovers over plantation scheme: The Serious Fraud Office has opened a criminal investigation into an alleged fraudulent scheme that promoted investments in Costa Rican tree plantations in Central America.
Vulnerable ‘priced out of market by rent rises’: Soaring rental costs and caps to housing benefits are pushing the most vulnerable tenants out of the private rental market, estate agents and chartered surveyors have warned.
Bowie’s farewell casts a shadow over undertaker: Direct cremations, popularised by David Bowie, are among emerging alternative funeral arrangements that have forced Britain’s largest operator to cut its earnings forecast.
Ofcom ‘must look at digital adverts’: Ministers have been urged to set up an investigation into Google, Facebook and the digital advertising supply chain to try to combat fake news.
Internet on BA flights is cleared for take-off: The days of peace on planes from phones and emails are almost over after Inmarsat won a contract with IAG, the owner of British Airways, to provide in-flight internet access to more than 300 aircraft.
Hinkley fundraising takes the spark out of EDF share price: EDF shares fell to record lows of less than €8 after the French utility launched a bid to raise €4 billion in capital to help fund the Hinkley Point nuclear plant.
The Independent
Government sending ‘mixed signals’ to business says BCC: The Director general of the British Chambers of Commerce has criticised the government for sending “mixed signals” in Wednesday’s Spring Budget and has criticised measures to alleviate the pressures of business rates as far too weak.
Stock markets and sterling react to U.K. Budget statement: London’s FTSE 100 inched marginally higher while the pound continued to trade close to a seven-week low against the dollar on Wednesday, showing only a muted reaction to Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Budget statement, in which he raised economic forecasts but warned that there was “no room for complacency”.
G4S profits surge 14% as outsourcing giant recovers from scandals: Shares in outsourcing giant G4S jumped as much as 9% after it reported surging full-year profits following an overhaul parked by a series of high profile scandals.
The number of female CEOs at the world’s biggest companies is falling: The number of women running the 500 most powerful companies in the U.S. fell by more than 12% last year, despite global efforts to promote gender parity in the work place and fresh evidence that companies with high proportions of senior female leaders tend to deliver stronger financial results.
First signs of U.K. economy losing momentum post-Brexit vote says S&P: First signs that the U.K. economy is slowing as a result of Brexit are starting to trickle through, according to Standard & Poor’s.
Liam Fox’s ‘Empire 2.0’ meeting is backed by corporate interests and will ‘fleece’ Africa, say campaigners: Campaigners have accused the Government of using post-Brexit trade deal negotiations to deepen corporate interests in African countries at the expense of ordinary people across the continent.
Iceland becomes first country in the world to make firms prove equal pay: On International Women’s Day, Iceland became the first country in the world to force companies to prove they pay all employees the same regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality or nationality,
Financial Times
Light dims from energy stocks as glow of higher oil prices fades: This year the energy sector, which is made up of major oil producers as well as oil servicing companies, is the worst performer of 11 major sectors on the S&P 500. It is down 6.7% compared with a 5.7% rise for the broader index.
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BT set to appoint Jan du Plessis as Chairman: BT is set to reveal on Thursday that Jan du Plessis, the South African-born City grandee, will become its new Chairman, replacing Sir Mike Rake.
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U.K. Budget opens review of North Sea tax rules: A review of North Sea tax rules has been opened to find ways of spurring fresh investment in U.K. oil and gas assets and spreading the multibillion-pound cost of decommissioning between industry and government.
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Piraeus picks Christos Megalou as its new Chief Executive: Piraeus Bank has hired Christos Megalou as its Chief Executive, ending one of the longest senior job vacancies in European finance. The top job at Greece’s biggest lender has been vacant for 14 months.
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Standard Life star fund manager Cumming quits: The departure of David Cumming, who worked in Standard Life’s asset management division for 18 years, is a serious blow to the Edinburgh-based investment company as it prepares to convince clients and shareholders that the merger will not trigger instability among staff.
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Investors begin to sour on Chinese health apps: Valued at $3 billion in a funding round last year, Chinese healthcare app Ping An Good Doctor rode a wave of investment flooding the country’s mobile medical sector. But investors are beginning to lose confidence in the ability of these companies to turn a profit.
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Budget 2017: social care funding set for major changes: Philip Hammond has announced an extra £2 billion of funding for social care and paved the way for major changes to how people pay for it.
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Akzo Nobel and PPG hold talks on potential $42 billion combination: Akzo Nobel, the Dutch conglomerate, has held talks with U.S. industrial chemicals rival PPG Industries over a potential combination that could create a $42 billion global chemicals giant, people briefed about the talks said.
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Rolls-Royce charts £200 million digital course for marine arm: Rolls-Royce has signalled it is nearing the end of a painful period for its struggling marine business, with plans to invest some £200 million over the next five to seven years in development of autonomous ship technology.
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VW emissions scandal not German government’s fault, says Merkel: Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, denied any prior knowledge of the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal, telling a Bundestag committee investigating the affair that she first found out about it from the newspapers.
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Bronfman-backed group walks away from Time Inc: An investment group backed by Edgar Bronfman Jr, former Chief Executive of Warner Music, Len Blavatnik, the billionaire owner of Warner Music Group, and Ynon Kreiz, who ran Maker Studios, will not pursue an acquisition, the people said.
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Songwriters call for bigger cut of digital music revenues: The songwriters of the world’s most popular music are waging a war in Washington to get a bigger share of the spoils of the digital streaming boom.
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Instacart eyes U.S. expansion after $400 million fundraising: Instacart, a grocery delivery start-up, has raised $400 million from investors as it seeks to expand across the U.S., a sign of confidence as other delivery newcomers struggle to make their economic models work.
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New Adidas Chief raises group’s sales and earnings targets: The new Chief Executive of Adidas ratcheted up the German sportswear group’s sales and earnings targets on Wednesday, and pledged a concerted push in the U.S. market, as he seeks to close the gap on arch-rival Nike.
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Uber vows to stop using ‘greyball’ tool to block officials’ rides: Uber has pledged to end the use of its “greyball” system for blocking officials from booking cars with its app — less than a week after the tool was made public.
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Will Snap make it into the S&P 500 index?: Snap, the first big tech listing since Alibaba in 2014, has already experienced the highs and lows of the stock market in the week since its NYSE listing. That performance, along with doubts over corporate governance, has raised questions over if, rather than when, Snap will join the S&P 500.
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Tech groups seek to reassure users after WikiLeaks report: Apple has said it is on alert for any further vulnerability disclosures involving the iPhone, while Samsung is reviewing its smartphone and smart TV security, following WikiLeaks’s release of material said to show the Central Intelligence Agency was stockpiling malware to break into devices.
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Samsung looking into security of devices after WikiLeaks report: The report from WikiLeaks claiming that Samsung is among the technology companies whose devices have been compromised by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency could deal another blow to the reputation of the South Korean group.
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Lex:
Tullow Oil: hitting pay dirt: London-listed Tullow Oil over-extended itself taking developments into production itself, then rewarded Chief Executive and Founder Aidan Heavey with a Chairmanship. Best practice in corporate governance does not include raising the Chief Executive to Chairman. Even as a non-Executive, Mr. Heavey will no doubt cast a long shadow over his successor. To muddy the murky water further, Tullow’s board has decided to pay his Chief’s salary for six months after he becomes Chairman at the end of April. That looks wrong.
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MetLife: Brighthouse’s dark day: MetLife made a $5 billion pre-tax loss on derivatives in its most recent quarter after the insurer increased positions that would gain in value if interest rates remained low. Rates surprisingly spiked in November. There is a double irony here. First, insurers tend to thrive when interest rates are high. Steep bond yields produce better returns for insurers’ low-risk investment portfolios. At the same time, the value of potential future claims is discounted more steeply, reducing their liabilities. Second, the derivatives in question were designed to protect capital in a block of “universal life” business at Brighthouse Financial, a division that MetLife intends to spin off and a business line that it has been phasing out.
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Obamacare reform: lucrative paralysis: U.S. employers have enjoyed a significant tax benefit when providing the cover. The subsidy is worth a whopping $260 billion annually. The Republican reform plan aims to cancel various tax hikes associated with Obamacare. To pay for those, one idea was to cap the tax deductibility of generous employer healthcare. However, a revolt from companies and unions seems to have killed that idea. The reform appears underfunded by hundreds of billions.
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Lombard:
G4S seeks to lose its ‘outsourcer’ tag: With the U.K. media’s attention focused on the Chancellor’s Brexit Budget, the world’s biggest security company managed to let the story of its remarkable turnround slip under the radar. G4S, under Ashley Almanza, has changed the narrative on financial performance and future strategy. Good news now emanates from revenue figures, up 6% at constant exchange rates, and from earnings, up 17%. Good news emerges on net debt, too: cut to 2.8 times earnings from 3.4 times just over a year ago.
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Schut up, says Schroders: With the value of active fund management under scrutiny, do you, as an industry leader: a) claim widespread outperformance, but not make obvious you are quoting a subset of funds, gross of fees; b) force an apology from a brokerage that questions your numbers; c) see red over the use of the word “disingenuous”; d) all of the above. Schroders, it seems, chose d) and gets a D-. Broker Numis, for at least trying to bring more rigour, deserves an A+.
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The Daily Telegraph
Pubs giveaway not enough to ease the pain of business rates: Industry leaders accused the Government of ignoring calls to reform the archaic business rates system and likened the outlined £435 million cut to a “drop in the ocean” compared with the £25 billion burden.
Wandisco shares fall despite cutting losses: Shares in the cloud computing company Wandisco slumped on Wednesday as it reported another year of losses despite some evidence that it had recovered from a tumultuous year.
High Court approves Premier League crackdown on Kodi streaming piracy: Football fans who watch live matches for free via popular Kodi set-top boxes face a crackdown after the High Court approved a Premier League effort to shut down unlicensed streams online.
Admiral latest victim of ‘eccentric’ personal injury change as it takes £105 million profit hit: The Chief Executive of Admiral has admitted that his first year in the job hardly got off to a “flying start”, as the U.K. insurer became the latest victim of an injury compensation rule change he called “an eccentric Government decision”.
Chiquito owner Restaurant Group looks to new menus and airports to boost sales: A radical menu overhaul at Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito alongside a beefed-up presence in U.K. airports will be key strands of new Restaurant Group Chief Executive Andy McCue’s plan to revitalise the business.
L&G sees benefits from an ageing population: An ageing population is giving Legal & General an extra shot of confidence for the future, with the insurer’s retirement arm boasting a 27% boost in profits for 2016.
Foxtons’ profits more than halve as London’s slumping property market hits home: Profits at London-based estate agency Foxtons have more than halved as it said it expected the capital’s sluggish property market to remain “challenging” in 2017.
The Questor Column:
Follow these two top ‘contrarian’ fund managers and buy Sainsbury’s: It’s not surprising that just three U.K. equity funds currently feature J Sainsbury among their top 10 holdings, judging by a quick search of the Morningstar database. Mr. Mundy said Sainsbury’s valuation had “begun to look somewhat anomalous versus that of its peers”: if you looked at “enterprise value” (in effect, how it would be valued by the stock market if it had no debts), Sainsbury was currently valued at about 25% of its sales whereas Morrison and Tesco were valued at more than 40% of their revenues. Another high-profile manager to hold the shares is Julie Dean, formerly of Schroders and now at Sanditon Asset Management. We rated Sainsbury’s a sell at 251.1p in June last year, seeing the shares as expensive at the same earnings multiple of 11 at a time when profits were falling. We feel that these managers may have caught the bottom of the group’s fortunes and suggest that you follow them into the stock. Questor says ‘Buy’.
The Guardian
Philip Hammond breaks manifesto pledge with budget tax grab: Philip Hammond sparked a political row on Wednesday with a tax grab on self-employed workers that breached a Conservative manifesto pledge not to raise national insurance rates.
Prospect of £1.7 billion fine looms large over PM’s talks with EU leaders: The prospect of a £1.7 billion fine imposed on the U.K. by the EU’s fraud watchdog is expected to loom large in Theresa May’s meetings with European leaders at a summit on Thursday.
U.K. economy will grow 2% this year but slow next, OBR predicts: The U.K. economy will confound forecasts for a Brexit-related slowdown through 2017, but will then quickly run out of steam as rising prices hit consumer spending, the Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted.
John Lewis broke advertising rules by pulling Apple Watch deal: John Lewis has been reprimanded by the advertising watchdog for running a Black Friday promotion offering the Apple Watch on sale, only to pull it from its website until the next day when it was marked up to full price.
Pret a Manger: just one in 50 job applicants is British, says HR Boss: Just one in 50 applicants for jobs at Pret a Manger is British, its Director of human resources told a parliamentary committee.
Daily Mail
Funeral provider Dignity dives 16.9% as it warns lower death rate and increasing competition could see business slow: On a day when there was little or no FTSE reaction to the Chancellor’s Budget, it was Dignity which was among the biggest tumblers, as it claimed there could be significantly fewer deaths this year.
Barclay’s new investment banking Chief urges more risk-taking: Barclays’ new head of investment banking, ex-JP Morgan Aussie Tim Throsby, 50, who arrived in post in January, has been busy reinvigorating his new unit, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox said it ‘welcomed’ a Government review into Sky deal: Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox said it ‘welcomed’ a Government review into its £11.7billion deal to buy the 39% of Sky it does not already own.
High-flying celebrities turn London into the private jet capital of Europe: More private jets fly in and out of London and its regional airports than any other European destination, underlining its attraction to the super-rich.
Saudis take £6 billion stake in U.K. tech giant ARM just six months after it was bought by Japanese firm SoftBank: Saudi investors are taking a 25% stake in British chip designer ARM just six months after it was bought by Japanese firm Softbank.
Daily Express
Blow for pensioners as tax-free dividend allowance slashed: Philip Hammond dealt a blow to investors and pensioners relying on dividend income by revealing that the tax-free allowance would be more than halved.
Entrepreneurs and sole traders set to be biggest losers: Entrepreneurs and sole traders could end up the hardest hit in the Spring Budget, business groups said, reacting to the hikes in national insurance charges and reductions to the dividend allowance announced by the Chancellor.
Sugary drinks will be taxed at 24p per litre to slash childhood obesity: The most sugary drinks will be taxed at 24p per litre in a bid to slash childhood obesity. A two-tier levy of 18p on drinks with 5g of sugar per 100ml, and the higher rate on those with more than 8g per 100ml, will be introduced from April 2018, the Chancellor confirmed.
Red tape reforms ease costs for small co-operatives: Key audit demands that cost smaller co-operatives thousands of pounds are to be lifted, the Chancellor announced in his Spring Budget.
Pound tumbles to 7-week lows against euro and dollar amid 2017 Budget: The pound has tumbled further against the euro and dollar, after the Philip Hammond’s U.K. 2017 Budget continued to put pressure on Britain’s exchange rate.
The Scottish Herald
Cairn eyes more North Sea deals: Cairn Energy Chief Executive Simon Thomson has said the oil and gas firm is on the hunt for new opportunities in the North Sea after raising $75 million (£61 million) from selling an interest in a giant field off Shetland.
Storm brewing over National Insurance for tea entrepreneur: Tea trade entrepreneur Erica Moore found ‘s Budget was a bitter pill to swallow after hoping the Chancellor would provide meaningful help for small firms.
Tax advisers face cash penalties in evasion crackdown: Chancellor Philip Hammond has vowed to further tighten the screw on businesses that evade, avoid or engage in non-compliance of tax – and penalise professional advisers who help them to do so.
‘The worry we have in this industy is the quantum of tax we pay, including levies’: Hotelier Stephen Leckie, Chief Executive of Crieff Hydro, is all for businesses paying their fair share of tax. But he warned the multiplicity of taxes faced by hospitality businesses risks the health of one of Scotland’s most important industries.
Wood move to diversify sees it win U.S. work: Aberdeen oil services company Wood Group has highlighted its continuing diversification into other sectors by announcing the start of a second construction services contract for a facial tissue and paper towel production site in Ohio.
Skypark refurbishment complete: Office complex Skypark has completed work on the contemporary office refurbishment of Skypark 5 located in the Glasgow’s Finnieston area.
Eighth year of growth for owner of Taggarts car group: The owner of Taggarts and the former Lomond Audi business has grown underlying pre-tax profit by 7% to £77.1 million as revenue grew 17% to £4.3 billion, in an eighth successive year of growth.
Events firm acquires capital rival: Dundee events firm Red Pepper has acquired Edinburgh-based agency Origin Events.
The Scotsman
Cairn eyes end to India tax row as ‘busy year’ looms: Oil and gas explorer Cairn Energy is “very confident” that an arbitration panel will rule in its favour over a $1 billion (£823 million) tax dispute with the Indian authorities.
Menzies profit soars after ‘transformational’ year: Logistics group John Menzies said its annual profits jumped by almost a third in a year that saw its aviation arm boost its presence in North America with a bumper takeover deal.
Dundee property firm moves into student accommodation: A privately-owned property and investment firm that already has hundreds of rental properties on its books in Scotland has entered the student accommodation market.
EU trade deal ‘vital’ to avoid damaging agriculture: A cross-party group of MPs has warned the U.K. government of the damage that could be done to agriculture by going down the route of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules if it fails to get the Brexit trade deals it desires.
Concern over staff shortages as jobs market rebounds: Scotland’s labour market is on the rebound with permanent staff placements rising for the first time in five months, a key survey indicated.
East Lothian gin distiller cheers plans for new site: NB Distillery, the North Berwick-based venture launched in 2014 by husband and wife Steve and Viv Muir, is to build a new distillery in East Lothian.
City A.M.
U.S. cereal maker Post Holdings wants to have its Weetabix and readies £1.5 billion bid, as the race to buy the breakfast brand narrows to just two bidders: An American firm is lining up a £1.5 billion bid for Weetabix, as it prepares to go head-to-head with another company interested in snapping up the breakfast cereal brand.
RBS’ Chief exec Ross McEwan just got awarded shares worth £1.2 million in the loss-making bank: Royal Bank of Scotland’s Chief Executive was awarded £1.2 million worth of shares this afternoon, as benefits from the loss-making lender’s long-term incentive plans (LTIPs) were paid out.
European company results are beating analysts’ expectations: Fourth quarter revenues of nearly 61% of companies in the Stoxx 600 that have reported to date have exceeded analysts’ estimates, according to research from Thomson Reuters.
Former Chancellor George Osborne to make £650,000 a year for a four-day-a-month role at BlackRock: Former Chancellor George Osborne will be paid £650,000 a year to advise BlackRock four days a month, it has been revealed.
Real wages predicted to rise after growth revised upwards this year by OBR: Real wages are set to grow steadily for the next five years, the government’s Budget watchdog said, as it upgraded growth predictions for this year.
