Monday newspaper round-up: Carillion, GKN, Barclays, diesel cars
Ministers are facing questions about why hundreds of millions of pounds of work was awarded to a public contractor even after it issued a string of profit warnings. Last night the fate of the company, an employer of almost 20,000 people in the UK, lay in government hands after lenders indicated they would not rescue it without ministerial help. - The Times
Retailers suffered in the run-up to Christmas as shoppers steered clear of the high street and margins were squeezed by higher costs, Black Friday discounts and online shopping. Total footfall dropped 3.5pc in December compared with last year, the biggest fall since March 2013, according to figures from the British Retail Consortium and retail analysts Springboard, with high streets and shopping centres the hardest hit. - Telegraph
GKN is exploring the option of selling its aerospace business to fend off more potential approaches after an unsolicited £7 billion offer for the engineering group last week. A number of US private equity firms and industrial rivals are thought to be running the rule over the aircraft and car parts maker now it is in play. Melrose Industries, a listed specialist at turning around troubled engineers, made a cash and shares offer that GKN rejected as “entirely opportunistic” on Friday. - The Times
Thousands of jobs in the UK car industry are under threat as diesel vehicle sales slump due to tax increases and negative publicity, experts have warned. According to sources, executives are preparing for redundancies, with the rush to embrace electric vehicles adding to the pressure on diesel. Last year, sales of diesel-powered vehicles in the UK plummeted by 17.1% to just over 1 million. - Guardian
The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) is set to accelerate the race to ensure Britain’s roads are ready for a driverless car revolution by the end of the decade. The Government hopes to begin testing autonomous vehicles on British roads by 2019, before they operate freely from 2021, as part of a multibillion pound plan to build an economy fit for the future. - Telegraph
Barclays has admitted that people wanting to object to its ringfencing plans have been stymied by “a glitch” on the High Court’s computer system and the bank’s own failure to provide enough information. Like most big banks, Barclays has to restructure as part of government plans to strengthen the financial system in the wake of the 2008 crisis and to reduce the risk of taxpayers having to bail out banks. - The Times
The average price of a property coming on to the market in January is up by nearly £2,000 compared with December, but sales are down by 5.5% on the same period a year ago. Rightmove, which tracks 90% of the UK property market, said there had been a “busy start” to 2018, with more than 4m visits a day to its site, up nearly a tenth on last year. The average price was up 0.7% to £297,587. - Guardian
Businesses owe the taxman £4.4 billion in overdue corporation tax and VAT, the latest sign that some are struggling to cope with rising operating costs and customers paying late. Corporation tax arrears were £1.9 billion last year, a record high, while £2.5 billion of VAT payments were overdue. - The Times
Greece is set to adopt more austerity measures today, clearing the last significant hurdle to receiving €5 billion in aid from its eurozone partners. Athens has relied on three multibillion-euro lifelines since 2010, when its economy crashed. It wants to end its bailout programme in August. - The Times
The Conservative Party’s favourite advertising agency M&C Saatchi has bolstered its board with the appointment of experienced media banker Lorna Tilbian as a non-executive. Ms Tilbian, who was part of the senior team that founded the mid market stock broker Numis, is expected to join M&C as soon as today. - Telegraph
One of the country’s biggest litigation finance firms is considering an initial public offering, which would give investors a chance to share in the spoils of corporate and class action lawsuits. Richard Hextall, the newly appointed head of Vannin Capital, one of the world’s largest and longest-established players in the legal finance market, said that a listing on the London stock exchange was under consideration as the firm expands. - The Times
BHS may be gone from the UK high street but its renaissance online appears to be going well with sales soaring in the final quarter of the year. The “start-up” online retailer BHS.com said total sales had jumped by 43 per cent in the last three months of last year. - The Times
Ford Motor Co will significantly increase its planned investments in electric vehicles to $11bn by 2022 and have 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles in its model line-up, the company’s chairman, Bill Ford, said at the Detroit auto show. The investment figure is sharply higher than a previously announced target of $4.5bn by 2020, Ford executives said, and includes the costs of developing dedicated electric vehicle architectures. - Guardian
The rising demand for smart and fashionable homes for the over-65s who are looking to downsize has led to the creation of one of the biggest retirement developers in the country. Pegasus Life, which specialises in delivering stylish retirement homes in areas from Hampstead in London to Cotswolds villages and Devon beachfronts, has acquired Renaissance Retirement, a smaller competitor, as it attempts to boost its output. - The Times
If 2017 was the year of bitcoin, 2018 could be the year of a joke digital currency created in honour of an excitable dog. Or maybe investors will pour their money into Trumpcoins and Putincoins instead. There are more than 1,400 digital currencies in circulation with a combined value of $704 billion, figures from Coinmarketcap suggest. Bitcoin, which is valued at $230 billion, is the most highly sought-after, followed by ether, which is worth $130 billion, and XRP, or ripple, which is valued at $73 billion. - The Times
The career move from butcher to blockchain entrepreneur might sound an unlikely one, but Kieran Kelly’s experience in both fields is proving extremely valuable in his current business. Arc-net uses the technology that powers bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to build a trustworthy record of an animal’s life all the way from farm to supermarket shelf. - The Times