Press Digest: British Business - Aug 21
21/08/2019 01:55
Aug 21 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the
business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified
these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
The Times
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tell German Chancellor
Angela Merkel on Wednesday that parliament cannot stop Britain
leaving the European Union without a deal on Oct. 31. He will
warn the German chancellor over dinner in Berlin that there will
be no Brexit agreement unless the European Union backs down and
agrees to scrap the Irish backstop. http://bit.ly/30mrgwv
- The Hong Kong investor buying Greene King GNK.L is under
pressure to provide further assurances that it will not cut
jobs. Union leaders have demanded an urgent meeting with CK
Asset Holdings which on Monday agreed a 4.6 billion pounds
($5.60 billion) takeover of the pub operator and brewer. http://bit.ly/2Zcg0pr
The Guardian
- The online fashion retailer Asos Plc ASOS.L has asked
its suppliers for a 3% discount on the clothes and accessories
it buys from them, as the company struggles to repair its
finances after issuing two profit warnings. http://bit.ly/2ZqI0G1
- NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc RBS.L
customers have been hit by computer problems preventing them
from accessing credit card information, and the bank's call
centres are unable to deal with credit card queries. http://bit.ly/2ZgvhWg
- Britain's nuclear watchdog has agreed to allow one of the
country's oldest nuclear reactors to restart, one year after it
was shut down to investigate cracks in its graphite core. EDF
Energy, British arm of France's EDF EDF.PA , is expected to
restart reactor 4 at its 40-year-old Hunterston B nuclear plant
within weeks after the Office for Nuclear Regulation said the
plant was safe. http://bit.ly/2ZgvZmo
The Telegraph
- China's Weichai, part of giant state-owned conglomerate
Shandong Heavy Industry, is in detailed discussions to buy
struggling bus company Wrightbus and has lodged a bid believed
to be in the region of 50 million pounds ($60.84 million). http://bit.ly/2ZiFmSr
- A Turkish pension fund's deal to rescue British Steel from
insolvency has come under fire from a major newspaper closely
connected to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Monday's edition of
Sabah said Oyak OYAYO.IS , a pension fund owned by the Turkish
military, had numerous "unanswered questions" about its swoop on
British Steel, including its failure to disclose how much it was
paying for the troubled UK manufacturer. http://bit.ly/2ZchEr7
Sky News
- National Grid Plc NG.L is facing an investigation by
Ofgem over a major power cut earlier this month, as it blamed a
lightning strike for the outage. The regulator, which has the
power to fine firms up to 10% of UK turnover, said it was
looking into whether the grid and other electricity companies
breached their licence conditions. http://bit.ly/30nxb4s
- A French-led consortium is in advanced talks to buy a big
chunk of Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc RR.L civil nuclear
operations as part of a deal that will continue the
transformation of one of Britain's most important industrial
groups. Framatome, which is majority-owned by the French energy
group EDF, is close to sealing a deal to buy Rolls-Royce's
international instrumentation and control division http://bit.ly/30kDUvX
The Independent
- Boris Johnson will pull British officials and ministers
out of most EU decision-making meetings from September as the
government gears up for the Brexit deadline. Civil servants and
ministers will now only attend EU meetings where the UK has a
significant national interest in the outcome, such as on
security. http://bit.ly/30psIOQ
($1 = 0.8219 pounds)
(Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)
((globalnewsmonitoring@thomsonreuters.com))