Business

By The Telegraph

North Sea
North Sea needs a £200bn investment to stay afloat
The Telegraph - By Jillian Ambrose
The UK’s North Sea oil basin needs £200bn of investment to survive for another generation after the steady decline in spending fell to its lowest in 15 years. Investment into the aging basin fell for fifth
Financial Conduct Authority
Watchdogs must do more to help struggling consumers, NAO warns
The Telegraph - By LaToya Harding
Regulators are failing to provide clarity on their goals to help consumers, are poor at measuring their own performance, and lack common standards, a report from the Parliamentary spending watchdog has
Sainsbury's
Sainsbury’s complaints about merger feel desperate
The Telegraph - By Ashley Armstrong
A billion pounds – it’s a nice, eye-catching, round number, isn’t it? It’s the amount that Sainsbury’s and Asda are telling the competition watchdog they can shave off their shop prices if only the dastardly
Market report: Gym Group climbs to top of market
The Telegraph - By Tom Rees
Low-cost fitness chain The Gym Group powered to the top of London’s market after outlining plans to capitalise on the high street slump by moving into struggling retailers’ stores. The fitness giant regained
London Stock Exchange
Private equity firms make fresh bid for Inmarsat
The Telegraph - By LaToya Harding
The satellite operator Inmarsat has attracted its fourth takeover bid in less than a year after a consortium led by Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus made an approach valuing the company at £2.5bn. The
Military
Defence chiefs ditch contract for 'private airforce' for RAF to train against
The Telegraph - By Alan Tovey
A defence contract to provide a “private airforce” for the RAF to train against has been ditched by the Ministry of Defence. The deal worth up to £1.2bn and known as Air Support to Defence Operational
Financial Conduct Authority
FCA fines UBS £27.6m for misreporting millions of transactions
The Telegraph - By Lucy Burton
The City watchdog has fined Swiss banking giant UBS a record £27.6m for misreporting over 136m transactions for almost a decade. The bank "failed to ensure it provided complete and accurate information"
Sainsbury's
Sainsbury's promises £1bn in price cuts in last-ditch bid to seal Asda deal
The Telegraph - By Ashley Armstrong
Sainsbury's has promised price cuts of £1bn a year for shoppers and committed to selling stores in a last-gasp effort to convince the competition watchdog to approve its £12bn merger with Asda. The supermarket
Coal Mining
First deep-level coal mine in decades gets green light in Cumbria
The Telegraph - By Jon Yeomans
The first new deep-level coal mine in the UK in decades has won planning permission from Cumbria County Council. West Cumbria Mining (WCM) hopes to create 500 jobs by mining coking coal for export. This
British Airways
Nationalising railways won't fix the problems, says review chief
The Telegraph - By Oliver Gill
Nationalisation is not the answer to Britain's train conundrum, the leader of the biggest railway review for a generation has signalled. Keith Williams, the former British Airways executive leading a and
Royal Dutch Shell
Big oil’s electric dream offers a double-edged sword
The Telegraph - By Andy Critchlow
Oil companies want to become power utilities to meet rising demand from electricity in transport and from growing populations. The strategy makes perfect sense but could be risky for regulators and consumers
Investing
Barclays warns investors not to give activist Ed Bramson a board seat
The Telegraph - By Lucy Burton
The chairman of Barclays has launched a scathing attack on corporate raider Ed Bramson, warning investors not to give him a seat on the board. In his first letter to shareholders since it came under fire
Business (UK)
Panic buying risks causing the very shortages stockpilers fear, warns OBR
The Telegraph - By Tim Wallace
Stockpiling ahead of Brexit could cause shortages, the nation’s top economists have warned, as panic buying by families risks exhausting shops’ entire supplies of goods. Worries over access to foreign
Financial Conduct Authority
MP demands probe into 'distressing' collapse of savings firm
The Telegraph - By Lucy Burton
MPs have warned that the Government and the City watchdog must do as much as possible to "prevent history from repeating itself" following the collapse of London Capital & Finance (LCF). Nicky Morgan,
Office Outlet becomes latest retailer to go into administration, putting 1,200 jobs at risk
The Telegraph - By Sophie Smith
The stationery chain Office Outlet, formerly known as Staples, has collapsed into administration, putting 1,200 jobs at risk. The struggling retailer has been a fixture in British retail parks since 2016,
Labor Economics
Live
The Telegraph - By Tom Rees
The strongest surge in jobs added to the UK economy in more than three years has pushed employment levels up to a record high as the labour market continues to defy Brexit uncertainty. Unemployment dropped
Service Companies
Wood Group hails Amec takeover as orders surge
The Telegraph - By Alan Tovey
Wood Group has hailed the success of its takeover of rival Amec Foster Wheeler, saying it has delivered greater savings than expected and helped it to win work it would not have managed on its own. The
Marks & Spencer
Ocado shares hit record on reassurance after warehouse fire
The Telegraph - By Ashley Armstrong
Ocado sales growth has been dented following a fire at its Andover warehouse but the company reassured the City by claiming initial investigations had left it “very confident” that neither its robot technology
Asos too firmly in fashion as US warehouse struggles to cope
The Telegraph - By Chris Johnston
Asos became a victim of its own success after a new warehouse in Atlanta struggled to cope with a volume of orders that was three to four times higher than expected. The online fashion retailer was forced
Lloyds Banking Group
Win for Standard Life Aberdeen as arbitration rules Lloyds was wrong to pull £100bn contract
The Telegraph - By Charlie Taylor-Kroll
Standard Life Aberdeen has landed a major victory after a tribunal ruled that Lloyds Banking Group was wrong to pull a £100bn contract in the latest twist in a long-standing dispute. Lloyds decided to
Boeing 737 MAX
Boeing chief issues personal message in wake of 737 Max crashes
The Telegraph - By Alan Tovey
Boeing’s boss has released a video message and open letter addressed to “airlines, passengers and the aviation community” in an attempt to provide reassurance after two crashes in five months involving
Surfing
Golfers, beware - the surfers are coming
The Telegraph - By Paul Nuki
Putting greens and fairways from London to Edinburgh are being sized-up for conversion to inland surfing parks by a new breed of non-Pringle wearing entrepreneur. Advances in computing have - after decades
Business (UK)
Jobs miracle defies Brexit as employment hits new record high
The Telegraph - By Tim Wallace
Unemployment fell to its lowest level in 44 years at the start of 2018 as Britain’s businesses defied Brexit worries to put on a new hiring spree. Employment surged by 222,000 in the three months to January,
Investing
We need more companies to go public - and a Facebook-style share structure is the price to pay
The Telegraph - By Matthew Lynn
It will create another Facebook, with an unaccountable founder becoming increasingly erratic. It will mean that the actual owners of the business are not really in control. And it will undermine standards
Business (UK)
Industrial strategy failing the 'everyday economy', say MPs
The Telegraph - By Alan Tovey and Tim Wallace
MPs have attacked the Government’s industrial strategy, saying it is too focused on high-tech sectors and fast-moving companies and ignores traditional industries. The Business Select Committee report
Goldman Sachs
Goldman bankers told their pay will be hit if they fail to push for more diversity
The Telegraph - By Lucy Burton
Bank bosses at Goldman Sachs could see their pay packets slashed or lose out on high-profile promotions if they do not help the banking giant become more diverse. The bank, which is fighting to change
Advertising
Is television advertising entering full recession?
The Telegraph - By Christopher Williams
It’s Advertising Week Europe, when the good men and women of adland gather in London to imbibe of such exhilarating discussions as “How to grow like a badass unicorn” and “Collaboration is dead: long collaboration”.
The Swiss people are teaching us how to deal with an EU trade ultimatum
The Telegraph - By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Meanwhile, the EU’s other showdown with a democratic European state is going badly wrong. The Swiss are holding out against the hegemony of the European Court and an attempt to gut their national sovereignty.
Deutsche Bank
German banking mega-merger is a another disaster waiting to happen
The Telegraph - By Juliet Samuel
Here’s my gut reaction: the mooted merger between Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, despite being blessed by the German government over the weekend, won’t happen. And despite market enthusiasm for the deal