Wednesday newspaper round-up: Starbucks, JPMorgan, Santander
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Wednesday 29 Jan 2025
(Sharecast News) - Rachel Reeves is unveiling plans to create "Europe's Silicon Valley" between Oxford and Cambridge as she stakes the government's success on kickstarting economic growth and putting more pounds in people's pockets. The chancellor will announce a blueprint to improve infrastructure across the region that will add up to £78bn to the UK economy within a decade, according to industry experts, and put it at the forefront of science and technological advances. - Guardian
Starbucks reassured Wall Street with a smaller-than-expected drop in comparable sales, an early sign that its efforts to revive sluggish demand could be bearing fruit. The world's largest coffee chain, which earlier this month announced that people using its cafes cross North America need to buy something, is in the midst of a turnaround bid to win back customers. - Guardian
JP Morgan is in talks to lease space at Credit Suisse's former UK headquarters in Canary Wharf after it demanded staff return to the office five days a week. The investment bank is understood to be discussing a deal with UBS to rent 150,000 sq ft of space at One Cabot Square office complex. Although the space amounts to less than a third of the 540,000 sq ft building, it is understood that the bank could expand its presence there further to lease as much as half of it. - Telegraph
China is building a gigantic laser-ignited fusion power laboratory that is 50pc larger than its US counterpart as the two superpowers spar for energy supremacy. The part-built research centre near the city of Mianyang, in the Sichuan province, has been observed in satellite imagery, with experts warning it could be used to advance both power generation and nuclear weapons. - Telegraph
The proposed Sizewell C nuclear plant will start generating electricity in 2035 if it gets the go-ahead by the summer, its developers claimed, despite repeated delays plaguing its sister station. The first reactor from the Suffolk nuclear plant will enter commercial operation in 2035 and the second in 2036, according to a presentation published by Sizewell that described a final investment decision by this summer as "essential". EDF has previously given vaguer guidance of Sizewell starting up in the "mid 2030s". - The Times
The chairman of Santander's British business is to leave this year in a surprise exit that will fuel City speculation about the Spanish bank's future in the UK. William Vereker's impending departure from Santander UK was announced little more than a week after the group was forced to deny reports that it is reviewing its operations here and could decide to withdraw from British high streets. - The Times
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