Business

A former boss of Camelot, the National Lottery operator, will be named this week as the next chairman of the Post Office as ministers seek to draw a line under the ugly row surrounding the exit of his predecessor. Sky News has learnt that the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has offered the chairmanship

Border checks on food and plant imports will add billions of pounds to the cost of doing business with the European Union, industry figures have warned. From Tuesday European imports considered a “medium risk” to UK biosecurity will face physical inspection as part of a new border regime introduced almost eight years after the Brexit

Getir, the grocery delivery app, has abandoned a European expansion that is set to result in the loss of about 1,500 jobs in the UK. Sky News had previously revealed that the Turkey-based company, which means “to bring” in Turkish, had successfully raised money from investors to fund its withdrawals from the UK, Germany and

Blackstone, the American private equity behemoth, is this weekend finalising a revised offer to buy the company which owns the music catalogues of Shakira and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sky News has learnt that Blackstone is preparing to lodge an improved bid for Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF) as early as Monday. Its offer will

Monzo, the fintech which has become one of Britain’s biggest consumer banking groups, is this weekend putting the finishing touches to an expanded fundraising involving one of the world’s best-known technology investors. Sky News has learnt that Monzo has agreed terms with Hedosophia, an early backer of Airbnb and Uber, for it to become a

Jeremy Hunt is convening a summit aimed at enticing more companies to London’s stock market amid an accelerating exodus of businesses being picked off by overseas and financial predators. Sky News has learnt that the Treasury has invited the bosses of some of Britain’s most prominent private companies to attend a meeting next month at

The owner of Superdry’s flagship store in central London is weighing a challenge to a rescue plan that would impose steep haircuts on the struggling chain’s landlords. Sky News has learnt that M&G, the London-listed asset manager, has engaged lawyers from Hogan Lovells to scrutinise a restructuring plan launched by Superdry earlier this month. The

NatWest Group has become the latest UK banking giant to report a sharp drop in earnings for the first three months of the year. The lender said pre-tax profits in the first quarter of 2024 were £1.3bn – a fall of nearly 28% on the same period a year ago. However, the figure was better

There’s a trade war brewing between China and the West, at stake is who will dominate the global market for electric vehicles. Outside the port city of Ningbo, Chinese car company Zeekr is rolling out luxury EVs and growing fast. The factory has only been up and running for three years, but this year it’s

The extraordinary, unprecedented and largely unexplained flows of millions of pounds of British luxury cars into states neighbouring Russia continued in February, according to new official data. Some £26m worth of British cars were exported to Azerbaijan in February, according to data from HM Revenue & Customs. The numbers show that in the latest quarter

A former top Post Office executive has told the inquiry into the Horizon scandal that she never “knowingly” did anything wrong. Angela van den Bogerd, who held various roles over 35 years at the organisation, made the comment after opening her evidence on Thursday by saying she was “truly, truly sorry” for the “devastation” caused

Shares in Meta, the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, have fallen sharply after the company revealed it had raised its cost forecast for the current year. Investors sent the stock 10% lower in after-hours trading in New York when Meta‘s first quarter results showed further bills were expected to fund new artificial intelligence (AI)

Shipping traffic through the vital Suez Canal artery has plunged by 66% since cargo was forced to divert due to attacks on vessels, according to official figures. The data, from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), covered the period from mid-December to the beginning of April. It is important as it represents the scale

The post office scandal extends “greatly beyond” faulty Horizon software, according to a lawyer for victims. Paul Marshall, representing former sub-postmasters, says problems with third party systems in branches, such as ATMs, have been “overlooked”. A 2013 report commissioned by the Post Office, and not made public at the time, states: “Removing the ATM reduces

A former HR director at the Post Office, whose misconduct claims against chief executive Nick Read were dismissed following an internal investigation, has written to MPs in a bid to plead her case. Jane Davies, who was in post for seven months from December 2022 until she was dismissed, claimed Mr Read led a “deliberate

The FTSE 100 has ended a long wait to achieve a new record high. The index, which comprises the 100 most valuable companies on the London Stock Exchange, closed Monday’s session on 8,023 points following a jump of 128 points or 1.6%. That was the highest closing sum since February last year when the 8,000

The UK’s biggest water company has put forward an investment offer that could increase customer bills even more than the 40% rise it already requested. Thames Water, which serves 16 million customers in the south of England, has proposed increasing spending by £1.1bn and revealed another potential £1.9bn investment in its network as part of

A pack of private equity investors have left the starting grid in a race to buy TeamSport, the pan-European go-karting operator. Sky News has learnt that several buyout firms have tabled initial offers for the company, which is expected to fetch more than £150m. Insiders said on Sunday that EMK Capital and Livingbridge were among

The private equity titan Blackstone is this weekend drawing up plans for a £1.2bn takeover bid for the owner of songs performed by Blondie, the Kaiser Chiefs and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sky News can exclusively reveal that Blackstone has already tabled several offers to buy Hipgnosis Songs Fund (HSF), the London-listed music rights

Bitcoin’s rare halving event has taken place, according to crypto analysis firm CoinGecko. It slashes the number of new Bitcoin entering the market by cutting the rewards earned by Bitcoin miners by 50%. Taking place roughly every four years, it’s designed to cap supply at 21 million by 2140. It means just 450 Bitcoin will