The Times
Dyson hits out at plan for greater openness: Government plans to force private companies to be more transparent will harm Britain’s competitiveness and impose unfair and expensive burdens on the most innovative businesses, Sir James Dyson has said.
Train builders set for joint HS2 bid: Britain’s two train manufacturers could team up to build £2.75 billion of superfast rolling stock for the High Speed Two rail project. With HS2 due to start canvassing soon for bids to deliver 60 225mph trains, each able to carry 1,000 passengers by 2026, Bombardier and Hitachi seem increasingly likely to pitch together for the contract.
Profits go supersonic as hairdryer blows away opposition: Demand for supersonic hairdryers and reliably solid sales of bagless vacuums have helped Dyson to report another stellar year where its profits soared after stealing market share from rivals.
New broom will not sweep old brands out of her stable: Emma Walmsley is understood to have decided against a spin-off of Glaxosmithkline’s consumer healthcare division as she prepares to take formal charge of the pharmaceutical giant next week.
UBS set to secure a Very good role: UBS is poised to land the lead role in advising the owners of Shop Direct on a possible sale or stock market listing of the retailer behind the Very and Littlewoods brands.
Energy firm pulls plug on face-to-face sales team: Ovo Energy, one of Britain’s biggest independent energy suppliers, is shutting its face-to-face sales operation with the loss of about 100 jobs.
Bank’s spending on legal fees triples: The bank’s average annual payments to City of London law firms are running at nearly £7 million, compared with an average of £2 million between 2011 and 2013 and the number of lawyers the bank employs has increased by nearly 50% from 46 in 2014 to 68 in 2016.
Shetland find lifts North Sea oil hopes: Hurricane Energy has made another oil discovery near the Shetland Islands, bolstering hopes that it may have the biggest find in British waters this century.
The Independent
No Brexit deal would mean a ‘painful and costly’ EU departure, manufacturers warn: Theresa May’s suggestion that no Brexit deal was better than a bad deal risked condemning U.K. manufacturing to a “painful and costly” exit from the EU, an employers’ body warns.
Theresa May faces ‘legislative swamp’ after she triggers Article 50, Tory MPs warn: Tories have warned their leader Theresa May that she faces being “swamped” in years of complex parliamentary and legal wrangling once she triggers the Brexit process.
Donald Trump printed out made-up £300 billion NATO invoice and handed it to Angela Merkel: Angela Merkel will reportedly ignore Donald Trump’s attempts to extricate £300 billion from Germany for what he deems to be owed contributions to NATO.
Home ownership now out of reach for most young people, study finds: Home ownership is increasingly out of reach for young people without “the bank of Mum and Dad”, a study warns – demanding “radical action” from the Government.
Financial Times
Oil trading surge strengthens grip of big commodity houses: The world’s largest independent commodity houses have expanded their oil trading volumes by more than 65% during crude’s near three-year slump, marking them out as the biggest beneficiaries in the industry from oil’s protracted downturn.
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Chinese overtake Singapore as top Malaysia property investors: China has eclipsed Singapore as the biggest source of investment in Malaysian real estate, as soaring domestic property prices push mainland investors to hunt for bargains abroad.
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London and New York lose ground to Asian rivals in finance rankings: London remains top of a ranking of global financial centres but saw its overall score slide on concerns about its competitiveness in the wake of Brexit.
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Brussels close to approving $140 billion Dow-Dupont tie-up: Brussels is set to deliver its verdicts on two big corporates deals this week with authorities expected to bless the $140 billion union of U.S. agrichemical giants Dupont and Dow Chemical while formally vetoing the €29 billion merger of the London Stock Exchange Group and Deutsche Börse.
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Reviving Deutsche Bank in U.S. is priority for CEO John Cryan: Just over a year ago, when shares in Deutsche Bank were tumbling, the bank started putting out messages on screens in the lifts and lobbies of its building in lower Manhattan, assuring staff that it had plenty of capital to absorb losses and cash to pay bills.
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Standard Chartered and Barclays face investor ire over CEO pay: Two of Britain’s leading banks have drawn criticism from some big shareholders over decisions to lower the hurdles for long-term bonuses for their Bosses, in the latest example of U.K. companies coming into conflict with their investors over Executive pay.
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Credit Suisse pays out SFr250 million to retain top bankers and traders: Credit Suisse paid its top investment bankers and traders almost SFr250 million ($252 million) under a special scheme created to stop them jumping ship during the bank’s restructuring, its annual report reveals.
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Advertisers demand Google discounts after YouTube backlash: Advertisers are demanding from Google prime space at discounted prices, after this month’s revelation that many brands had appeared next to extremist content on YouTube, the Google-owned site.
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Britain’s shopkeepers struggle to absorb minimum wage rises: Thousands of British shopkeepers are set to take a pay cut next month because of a minimum wage rise that is part of the U.K. government’s plan to wean the economy off low-paid work.
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Samsung looks to Galaxy S8 to win back consumer trust: Samsung will seek this week to draw a line under the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone safety scandal with the launch of the South Korean technology company’s latest handset, the Galaxy S8.
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BT hit with record £42 million Ofcom fine: BT has been hit with a record £42 million fine by the telecoms regulator Ofcom and has agreed to pay £300 million to its rivals over the use of a loophole that artificially reduced the amount it compensated companies including Vodafone when it failed to connect a line in time.
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Lex:
Arconic/Elliott: lock them up: The “Secret August Voting Lock-Up” is not an upcoming thriller at the cinema. Activist investment fund Elliott Management may soon pen that screenplay, however. It is currently in a heated proxy fight hoping to dump Klaus Kleinfeld, Chief Executive of Arconic, the former Alcoa affiliate separated last November. Elliott’s intrigue-filled title spices up the situation, highlighting an odd corporate arrangement at Arconic.
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Iceland banks: vote of confidence: Catharsis has given way to optimism in Iceland. In what amounts to the largest foreign equity portfolio investment in the country’s history, Goldman Sachs, Och-Ziff and two more hedge funds acquired just short of 30% of Arion Bank this week in a private placement worth IKr49 billion ($444 million).
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The Daily Telegraph
Fading Trump rally threatened by rare contraction of U.S. credit: Credit strategists are increasingly disturbed by a sudden and rare contraction of U.S. bank lending, fearing a synchronised slowdown in the U.S. and China this year that could catch euphoric markets badly off guard.
WeWork launches fund for U.K. start-ups amid plans to double its London presence: U.S. shared offices company WeWork will almost double its space in London this year, as it launches a £1.2 million award scheme to back U.K. start-ups.
Ladbrokes may be looking up after better Cheltenham for the bookies: Bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral could be facing better odds this year as the profits from a less punter-friendly Cheltenham Festival emerge.
Theresa May’s red tape burden ‘too much for listed companies’ says Legoland Boss: The Chief Executive of Britain’s biggest quoted leisure group has called for a “sanity check” on the Government’s corporate governance agenda as he warned management time is being “soaked up” with even more U.K.-led red tape.
National Grid prepares for ‘summer excess’ with calls to use more power: National Grid is gearing up for summer with the start of a scheme which pays companies to use more electricity when wind and solar power surges past demand.
Lendlease to build first ultra-green homes in central London: Development company Lendlease is to pioneer ultra-energy-efficient homes in central London, monitoring the residents over several years to see how new technology could change the housing market.
Booths, ‘the Waitrose of the North’, sets up shop in Malaysia: Booths, the upmarket northern grocery chain, has chosen to set up shop 6,588 miles away rather than attempt to crack the South of England.
The Guardian
Snapchat ‘will be bigger than Twitter, Yahoo and AOL with advertisers’: Snapchat could become more popular with advertisers than Twitter, Yahoo and AOL within three years, with the messaging app company forecast to bring in revenues of more than $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year before the end of 2019.
‘Bank of mum and dad’ making housing market more unfair, study finds: The number of first-time buyers relying on family loans from the “bank of mum and dad” to fund their deposits is exacerbating inequality and impeding social mobility, a government-backed study has warned.
Uber suspends fleet of self-driving cars following Arizona crash: Uber has suspended its fleet of self-driving cars while it investigates a crash in Arizona involving one of its vehicles.
Brewdog accused of hypocrisy after forcing pub to change name: Brewdog, the craft beer company that prides itself on a “punk” ethos, has been accused of acting like “just another multinational corporate machine” after forcing a family-run pub to change its name or face legal action.
Daily Mail
Lancashire’s textile industry wins Brexit boost as uniforms return to U.K…. but a big City jobs drain begins: Lancashire’s textile industry has won an unexpected Brexit boost as one of Britain’s largest providers of workers’ uniforms has brought manufacturing back to the U.K.
800 jobs rescued as investment firm Endless revives Jones Bootmaker £11million deal: Footwear retailer Jones Bootmaker has been bought by private equity firm Endless in an £11 million deal, saving around 840 jobs. But 262 jobs will be lost at 25 stores and six concessions considered underperforming and not part of the deal.
Europe’s top banks relying heavily on stashing profits offshore in tax havens to save cash: The 20 biggest banks in Europe have been accused of funnelling £18 billion of profits through tax havens in a bid to save cash.
How cavemen and yoga raves have put Gymbox in great shape with yearly profits of £2.4 million: A fitness chain with a difference is booming on the back of yoga raves, caveman jumping, circus training and even a workout that aims to make you taller. Gymbox sales grew last year from £13 million to £17 million, with pre-tax profits of £2.4 million, as it cashes in on a trend for unorthodox fitness classes.
Daily Express
Lloyds of London Chairman plays down Brexit challenges: Lloyd’s of London Chairman John Nelson says insurance market veterans view the challenges thrown up by Brexit as a “walk in the park” compared to the difficulties that nearly obliterated the business just decades ago.
Why after reporting a 2.6 billion loss would a company gives its Boss a 20% pay rise?: For some reason, the head of Pearson’s remuneration committee Elizabeth Corley and her colleagues think otherwise, awarding Chief Executive John Fallon a 20% pay rise, taking his total pay packet for 2016 to £1.52 million.
Larvae-ly solution to animal testing problem: Tech firm seeks crowdfunding for new project: University spin-out BioSystems Technology is looking for investment as it seeks to transform live animal testing by enabling researchers to use insect grubs instead of small mammals like rabbits and mice.
The Scottish Herald
Construction firms negative on Brexit: Nearly four times as many construction companies in Scotland fear Brexit will be negative for the sector as expect it to be positive, a survey has revealed.
U.K. financial services firms expand but signal caution: The U.K. financial services sector has achieved faster growth in business volumes in the first quarter than it had expected but expansion is projected to slow over the coming three months, a survey shows.
Enterprising teacher looks overseas for her inspiration: With the outlook for the economy uncertain we hear from an entrepreneur who reckons authorities at national and local level still need to do more to help the small and medium sized enterprises that play a vital part in supporting employment.
OnGen signs up key clients as funding increases: The green energy business called “the first step in an energy revolution” by early investor Ian Marchant has raised a further £200,000 in funding, and signed major clients.
‘Overlooked engine room’ firms key to Brexit talks: With overseas revenue of £5 billion, the needs of high-growth entrepreneurial mid-sized businesses must be considered in negotiations over the U.K.’s exit from the European Union, according to accountancy firm BDO, writes Kevin Scott.
Small offices targeted for energy boost: Environmental technology firm NetThings is targeting smaller commercial, and residential, properties for the first time with the launch of a web-enabled monitoring and control system that can reduce energy consumption by up to 20%.
Booker to update on trading ahead of expected probe into £3.7 billion Tesco merger: Wholesaler Booker will update on trading on Thursday amid mounting calls for a competition inquiry into its £3.7 billion merger with supermarket giant Tesco.
The Scotsman
Top Scots attractions outperforming rest of U.K.: Scotland’s leading visitor attractions are outperforming the rest of the U.K., according to new figures which showed they attracted more than 15 million visitors last year.
Labour sets out six ‘red lines’ on final EU deal: Labour will reject Theresa May’s Brexit deal with the EU if it doesn’t deliver the “exact same benefits” as being in the European single market and customs union, the party has warned.
City A.M.
Export support needs more long-term planning and stability, the British Chambers of Commerce has warned: One of the U.K.’s largest business lobbyists is calling for more “stability” in export planning ahead of the formal launch of Brexit talks.
Visitor figures for the Royal Academy and the Tate Modern pushed up by blockbuster exhibition and popular new extension: London’s cultural attractions welcomed 66,938,947 visitors last year, with the Tate Modern and the Royal Academy doing particularly well.
Gulf Arab states want to secure a speedy trade deal with the U.K. post-Brexit: Gulf Arab states are pushing for an early deal on free trade with Britain in the wake of Brexit.
Sentiment in the financial sector has stabilised in the three months to March despite falling throughout 2016: A robust economy has helped stabilise sentiment in the financial sector in the three months to March despite falling throughout 2016, according to a CBI/PwC financial services survey.
U.K. trade will grind to a halt if goods have to be declared after Brexit, warns the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA): As Brexit talks draw nearer, another industry has taken the chance to press the government for a suitable outcome.
