Refile: PRESS DIGEST-British Business - January 20

WH Smith

20/01/2026 02:00

Corrects dateline

Jan 20 (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

     - The insurance giant Zurich ZURN.S has launched what could be one of 2026’s biggest takeovers as it bid 7.7 billion pounds ($10.33 billion) for Beazley BEZG.L, the London-listed insurer, in a proposed deal.

- WH Smith SMWH.L has hired veteran Leo Quinn as executive chairman, offering him a potential £24.5 million payout as the travel retailer seeks to recover from a damaging accounting scandal

The Guardian

     - Water companies could be let off fines for polluting the environment under changes announced in the government’s new white paper. Under the plans, there would be a new turnaround regime to force companies that are failing, either financially or in terms of sewage pollution and water outages, to fix their problems faster.

The Telegraph

     - British PM Keir Starmer is poised to miss his goal of making Britain the fastest-growing economy in the G7, new forecasts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggest.

Sky News

     - Ministers in Britain are launching a consultation on banning under-16s from social media after coming under pressure from dozens of their own backbench MP's.

     - Norges Bank Investment Management, which oversees Norway's vast oil wealth, has started selling a "significant" number of holdings in UK-quoted small- and mid-cap stocks in recent weeks.

($1 = 0.7457 pounds)

 (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)

 ((globalnewsmonitoring@thomsonreuters.com))