Business

Before we get onto the budget and what Rachel Reeves might do to fiddle her fiscal rules and give herself a little more room to spend, I want you to ponder, for a moment, a recent report from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). This wasn’t one of those big OBR reports that get lots

An investor in one of Britain’s most popular price comparison sites is exploring the sale of its stake in a deal that could value it at more than £4bn. Sky News has learnt that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is lining up advisers to assess whether to sell its 30% holding in Compare

Ministers are plotting a shake-up of Britain’s drive to attract inward investment days before a summit they will claim demonstrates the country is “open for business”. Sky News has learnt that officials are drawing up plans to merge the Office for Investment – a joint venture between the Department for Business and Trade and Number

The UK needs a strategy to meet growing demand for data centres or risk losing its advantage in the race to develop artificial intelligence (AI), one of the sector’s largest players has told Sky News. Data centres – warehouses housing processors that power cloud computing – are central to the digital economy. They provide the

The boss of the UK motor industry’s lobby group has blamed “criminal activity” for UK-made luxury cars finding their way into sanction-hit Russia. The chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) Mike Hawes was speaking just over a week after Sky News uncovered a system of getting vehicles from the UK

Blackstone, the private equity giant, has hired one of Wall Street’s leading banks to sell the corporate events business which runs some of the world’s largest trade shows. Sky News understands that Blackstone has engaged Goldman Sachs to handle an auction of Clarion Events which is expected to value it at more than £2bn. The

Financial markets are now pricing in a shock interest rate cut for the UK at the next Bank of England meeting following remarks by its governor. There was a huge shift in expectations after Andrew Bailey told the Guardian newspaper the bank could be “a bit more aggressive” in its approach. He talked about inflation

Compass Group, the FTSE-100 catering giant which counts the Wimbledon tennis championships among its most prestigious contracts, is in talks with its investors about increasing its boss’s potential pay package by millions of pounds a year. Sky News has learnt that Compass is consulting its biggest institutional shareholders about substantial hikes to the annual bonus

Israel is fighting on at least four fronts, threatening a war across the oil-rich Middle East, but there is no great sense of fear yet as far as financial markets are concerned. Israel’s actions against Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and the ultimate sponsors of these groups, Iran, has proved

Saga, the London-listed financial services and travel provider for over-50s consumers, is in detailed talks with one of Europe’s biggest insurers about a deal that will allow it to repay a chunk of its huge debt pile. Sky News has learnt that Saga is in exclusive negotiations with Ageas, a Belgian insurer which tried to

Mulberry, the struggling UK luxury brand, has rejected a proposed takeover bid by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group. Frasers, which is majority owned by the tycoon and best-known for its Sports Direct brand, made an offer on Monday that valued Mulberry at £83m. The company is the second largest shareholder in Mulberry, with a 37% holding.

A lawyer representing people affected by a “second Post Office IT scandal” has said they “must not” have “a long, hard battle ahead for exoneration and compensation”. A report today found it is “a reasonable likelihood” that Capture software “created shortfalls” for sub-postmasters prior to the Horizon scandal. The system, which was the predecessor to

Mike Ashley’s sprawling retail empire Frasers Group has revealed a takeover bid for Mulberry, the struggling luxury brand, claiming it wants to save the company from a potential Debenhams-style collapse. Frasers, which already owns 37% of Mulberry’s shares, said it had made a non-binding approach for the stock it does not already hold. Its 130p-per-share

The UK’s biggest steelworks will cease production today after more than 100 years, leading to thousands of job losses across South Wales. Blast Furnace 4 – the final furnace operating at Tata Steel’s plant in Port Talbot – will be fully shut down at about 5pm, with the last steel made late on Monday evening.

Ordinary investors will be given the chance to participate in a £500m flotation of Applied Nutrition, the fast-growing sports supplements maker, when it unveils plans for an initial public offering in London this week. Sky News has learnt that Liverpool-based Applied Nutrition will issue an announcement signalling its expected intention to float on Monday morning,

Carlyle, the American investment giant, has become the latest global fund to weigh an investment in Thames Water as the stricken utility races to avoid being nationalised. Sky News has learnt that Carlyle, which has roughly $435bn in assets under management, is at the very preliminary stages of assessing whether an investment in Thames Water

A former owner of Missguided, the youth fashion brand, is in talks to buy Kurt Geiger, the upmarket shoe and accessories retailer. Sky News has learnt that Alteri Investors, which was backed by the global private equity giant Apollo Management when it launched a decade ago, is among a number of parties in discussions about

The private equity giant which owns a stake in rugby’s Six Nations Championship is weighing a bid for a stake in one of Britain’s biggest online travel agents. Sky News has learnt that CVC Capital Partners is among the suitors considering making an offer to become a partial owner of Loveholidays. The travel company, which

One of the UK’s largest water companies is considering shipping supplies from Norway to the UK. Southern Water said the idea was a “last-resort contingency measure” in case of extreme droughts in the early 2030s. Up to 45 million litres per day could be brought to the UK in tankers under the proposals. The Financial

Boeing and union negotiators will meet later in a fresh bid to end strikes by workers that have hammered plane production, exacerbating the fallout from the company’s safety crisis. The company, which is bidding to revive its fortunes under a new chief executive, has more than 32,000 staff refusing to work. They walked out of