Sunday newspaper round-up: Brexit, Vodafone, Babcock, Barclays, PPI claims
By Digital Look
Date: Sunday 11 Nov 2018
(Sharecast News) - Theresa May has been plunged into a deeper crisis after Brussels rejected her key Brexit proposal, which was intended to avoid the UK being trapped in an indefinite customs union. The prime minister had hoped to unite her cabinet and overcome the final hurdle in negotiations with the EU by offering to create an "independent mechanism" to oversee how the UK might leave a temporary customs arrangement if Brexit talks collapsed. - Sunday Times
POLITICS CORNER
Theresa May's Brexit plan will be blocked by MPs even if she is able to "bounce" the Cabinet into signing it off, the Prime Minister has been warned. Senior members of the Eurosceptic grouping of Tory backbenchers and the Democratic Unionist Party figures are publicly uniting to insist they will vote against Mrs May's proposals unless she backs down. - Sunday Telegraph
Theresa May was accused last night by a former cabinet colleague of planning the "biggest giveaway of sovereignty in modern times", as she faced a potentially devastating pincer movement from Tory remainers and leavers condemning her Brexit plans. The day after Jo Johnson resigned from the government and called for a second referendum on Brexit, former education secretary Justine Greening launched an attack on the prime minister, saying her plans would leave the country in the "worst of all worlds". - Observer
Michel Barnier's negotiating team told EU ambassadors on Friday evening that a new architecture for the Irish border backstop had emerged from negotiations. The latest idea foresees three options, with both sides reviewing their choices in July 2020. The first option would be a successor agreement, possibly a full EU-UK economic partnership, which would guarantee no hard border in Ireland. - Sunday Times
The shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, has attempted to calm Labour dismay at Jeremy Corbyn's announcement that "we can't stop Brexit", by insisting the option of campaigning for a second referendum was still on the table. The senior Labour politician said the vote to leave the EU "ought to be abided by" and that there were still "several stages" before the party would back a "people's vote", but that "all the options remain on the table". - Observer
David Miliband is poised to return to the UK amid growing speculation that a new centrist party could be launched within months. Labour MPs who have been involved in talks about a new party believe Miliband and his family will move back to London next year. - Sunday Times
Now that the Democrats control the House of Representatives, many are talking about stalemate in Washington. But members of the Trump administration and its dealmaker-in-chief have gone out of their way to emphasize certain shared priorities with the Democrats. And the one area where they agree on most is the state of our country's roads, bridges, utilities and airports. - Observer
Ministers have met the fracking industry 31 times in three years but anti-fracking campaigners from the targeted areas only once. The disclosure comes weeks after fracking was interrupted at a shale gas exploration site in Lancashire by a third minor earthquake. - Sunday Times
Some fund managers say a divided Congress after last week's midterm elections could curb Trump's excesses, while locking in his growth-boosting tax reforms. "With the Democrats winning the House, there is no prospect of further fiscal stimulus," said Richard Buxton, chief executive of Merian Global Investors. "This means fewer interest rate rises by the US Federal Reserve and a less strong dollar. That is helpful for all non-US markets, which have been suffering from a stronger dollar and higher rates." - Sunday Times
VODAFONE, UP IN ARMS, SUPERMARKETS
Nick Read, the new Vodafone boss, is poised to defy pressure to cut the telecoms giant's dividend to bring its mounting debt pile under control. He took over as chief executive from Vittorio Colao last month and already faces calls to curb the shareholder payout this week alongside his first set of half-year results. - Sunday Telegraph
Amazon could escape the government's new 'tech tax' as the internet giant's profits are too low, according to analysis of documents released last week. It was initially hoped the new tax, which is due to come into effect in April 2020, could help high street shops as they battle internet giants which are undercutting their prices. - Mail on Sunday
Germany's ban on selling arms to Saudi Arabia could jeopardise BAE Systems' deal to sell a further 48 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to the kingdom. The Franco-German aerospace giant Airbus builds the central fuselage for each Typhoon in Germany, with the Saudi jets due to be assembled at BAE's Warton factory in Lancashire. - Sunday Times
Shareholders in beleaguered defence giant Babcock are pushing for a boardroom shake-up after a prolonged fall in its share price and amid concerns over a "breakdown of trust" between the company and the City. The brewing row places long-serving chairman Mike Turner, who has been in the post for a decade, squarely in the sights of disgruntled investors. - Sunday Telegraph
Supermarkets, retailers and major drinks brands are set to pay tens of millions of pounds more towards recycling their used packaging under the government's new waste strategy expected to be published this month, the Guardian understands. Supermarkets and other major producers of packaging waste currently pay a small fraction of the cost of collecting and recycling the 11m tonnes of packaging waste produced in the UK. - Observer
Britain's pension industry is bracing itself for thousands of claims from people mis-sold unconventional investments, including burial plots, tree plantations and hotel rooms, after a landmark court ruling. A judicial review has upheld a ruling by the financial ombudsman that pension providers are required to confirm that investments are genuine and appropriate - or face payouts to clients for lost savings. - Sunday Times
A fresh wave of claims for mis-sold payment protection insurance may soon be allowed by the City's chief regulator. The Financial Conduct Authority is considering letting people who previously had claims rejected to have them revisited - which will lead to banks being forced to write to 150,000 customers explaining they can have another go at getting compensation. - Mail on Sunday
Energy giants SSE and Npower could be forced to invest up to an extra £1 billion to seal their proposed merger. Analysts have warned the suppliers would need to pump in extra cash to satisfy credit rating agencies that the new business, valued at £3 billion, deserves an investment grade rating. - Mail on Sunday
MIKE ASHLEY, BARCLAYS, I NEWSPAPER
Mike Ashley is said to be readying another round of House of Fraser closures after landlords refused to agree to his new proposed terms. The Sports Direct billionaire is understood to have met with property agents at CBRE last week to decide which of the stores at the centre of the dispute should be shut. - Sunday Times
Up to 85,000 retail jobs disappeared from Britain's high streets in the first nine months of this year after a surge in the number of businesses going bust and closing stores. Nearly 1,000 retail businesses - from big employers such as House of Fraser, Evans Cycles and Poundworld to independent traders - went into administration between January and September, the highest number in five years. - Observer
British Land and Land Securities are due to report half-year results this week, with investors expecting Britain's biggest landlords to slash the valuation of their retail assets. Analysts at Numis expect both companies to devalue their retail portfolios outside London by more than 6%. - Sunday Times
The Restaurant Group's blockbuster takeover of Wagamama is under threat as concerns mount over the logic of the deal. Shares in the London-listed owner of Frankie & Benny's and Garfunkel's plunged last week after the £560m purchase of the popular noodle chain was unveiled. - Sunday Telegraph
The owner of the Daily Mail is reported to be lining up a bid for the i newspaper. Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is weighing an approach for the title as its owner, Johnston Press, fights for survival. - Sunday Times
A top Barclays shareholder has hit out at Edward Bramson as the bank's bosses prepare to meet the activist investor in New York. James Lowen, manager of the JO Hambro UK Equity Income fund, said Bramson's calls to scale back the markets division of Barclays' investment bank came "at a very odd time" and would be tantamount to "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory" as investment banking returns improved. - Sunday Times
The ailing transport operator FirstGroup has reaped £159m in dividends from its Great Western Railway (GWR) franchise over four years, dwarfing its promised payouts to the government. Newly filed accounts reveal the line running between London, the West Country and Wales earned First a £40m dividend last year, despite a drop in punctuality. - Sunday Times
The new boss of Co-op Bank has insisted he has no desire to put the bank up for sale amid speculation that it is about to be put on the block. Former Lloyds executive Andrew Bester, once tipped as a potential successor to Lloyds boss Antonio Horta-Osorio, told The Sunday Telegraph he was not interested in a "quick fix" as the stricken bank fights to recover from its near-collapse five years ago. - Sunday Telegraph
ROYAL MAIL, UTILITYWISE, WOODFORD, PERSIMMON
At the end of March, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) hailed a "massive vote" by its members for reforms to pay, pensions and working conditions at Royal Mail. However, experts are now warning that postmen and women could face sharp cuts to their incomes in retirement if they signed-up to the new type of pension being proposed. - Sunday Times
Prices are rising fastest in London and slowest in Yorkshire, regional analysis of inflation shows. Research by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research found underlying inflation in London was 1.2 per cent in the year to September. - Mail on Sunday
Concerns are growing that energy broker Utilitywise could become the latest casualty in the energy market as it emerged that founder and former chairman Geoff Thompson has dumped his remaining 6pc stake in the troubled business. The news comes just weeks after Utilitywise announced a string of job cuts at the Newcastle upon Tyne company. - Sunday Telegraph
Star fund manager Neil Woodford has sent shockwaves through the stock market by dumping an estimated £1.4bn of shares in the past six months, scrambling to raise cash as unhappy investors withdraw money from his funds. The investment manager, who earned a reputation as Britain's best stockpicker during 25 years at Invesco Perpetual, has sold large tranches of shares in companies such as Forterra, Hostelworld and Horizon Discovery, in a spree that has drawn criticism from some observers. - Sunday Times
Ousted Persimmon boss Jeff Fairburn will pocket an extra £21 million on top of the £75 million bonus already lined up, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Fairburn was sacked from the FTSE 100 housebuilder last week - a year after The Mail on Sunday's revelations about his pay triggered fury.
BARRICK, ELECTRIC CARS, NUCLEAR, SHIPPING SCANDAL
The world's biggest listed gold miner could join the London Stock Exchange, the company's incoming boss has signalled. Barrick Gold, listed in Toronto and New York, will be worth about £14bn after its takeover of Randgold Resources is completed early next year, robbing the LSE of its own largest gold miner. - Sunday Times
Britain's hopes of securing a place at the forefront of the electric car revolution have been boosted after a battery research centre was given the go-ahead to be built in the Midlands. Planning permission has been granted for the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC) in Coventry, which will spearhead cutting-edge research into battery manufacturing technology. - Sunday Telegraph
The business secretary Greg Clark held a crunch meeting with Hitachi in Tokyo last week over its planned £15bn Welsh nuclear power station, as a rival Japanese project collapsed. Toshiba killed off its NuGen power station plan in Cumbria last week after the ailing industrial giant struggled to find a buyer - denting Britain and Japan's nuclear ambitions. - Sunday Times
A city financier and former Conservative Party treasurer known as "Mr Copper" has shut one of his hedge funds following a sweeping overhaul. Sources said that Red Kite, which was co-founded by Tory donor Michael Farmer in 2005 and is one of the biggest metals traders in the world, has closed its Tamarisk Fund seven years after it was set up. - Sunday Telegraph
Shipping firms are preparing to invest billions of pounds into controversial machines that critics say will pump our oceans with polluted water. US investment bank Goldman Sachs estimates that up to 5,000 vessels will spend up to $10m in the coming years fitting so-called scrubbers, which stop sulphur emissions from being pumped into the air through exhaust pipes - but the vast majority of the devices then divert the waste into the sea. - Mail on Sunday
Property veteran David Coffer is eyeing a multimillion-pound windfall after putting his Dirty Martini cocktail chain up for sale. His company, CG Restaurants & Bars, which owns 12 sites in cities including London, Cardiff and Manchester, has hired advisers to find a buyer after receiving a number of approaches. - Sunday Times
Foreign "smart cities" could face GDPR fines for misusing EU citizens' data, a Government smart city tsar has warned. Dr Jacqui Taylor, strategic advisor to the UK Government on smart cities, said that public bodies and companies based abroad could face fines worth millions of pounds if they fail to follow strict rules which protect EU residents from data misuse. - Sunday Telegraph
British companies are planning to microchip some of their staff in order to boost security and stop them accessing sensitive areas. Biohax, a Swedish company that provides human chip implants, told the Telegraph it was in talks with a number of UK legal and financial firms to implant staff with the devices. - Sunday Telegraph
A fledgling online estate agent that allows homeowners to buy their next property chain-free by providing a cash advance has raised £120m from backers of Spotify, Betfair and Revolut. Nested offers movers an advance worth up to 94% of the value of the property they are selling so they can pay cash for their new one, with the rest of the value paid when their old home sells. - Sunday Times
Workers making Pixel phones and parts for Google products are overworked, underpaid and operating in unsafe conditions, an internal investigation by the tech giant has found. It found 399 violations of its supplier code during 44 on-site inspections across eight countries last year. - Sunday Telegraph
Britons must eat less red meat - and more vegetables - if the UK is to meet its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the government's climate change watchdog will warn this week. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has calculated that "enteric fermentation" in Britain's sheep and cattle, which causes them to fart and burp, produces the equivalent of 23m tons of CO2 a year. - Sunday Times
He was the first head teacher in England to move start times for lessons to 10am so teenagers could have a lie in - and now he wants offices to follow suit. Dr Paul Kelley, the former headmaster of Monkseaton community school on Tyneside and a research associate in sleep science at the Open University, is calling on workplaces to scrap the traditional 9am-5pm day. Some workers should be allowed to start at midday, he says, though a 10am start would suit most employees. - Sunday
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