Thursday newspaper round-up: Tesco, Airbnb, Merlin Entertainments, Royal Mail
A top official at the Bank of England has warned the government it has less than 12 weeks to agree a transition deal with the EU to prevent City firms starting to move jobs and business out of the UK. Sam Woods, a deputy governor at the Bank, said City firms would activate their Brexit contingency plans if there was no deal on a transition period by Christmas which would mitigate the impact of a hard Brexit in March 2019. Woods also repeated his warning of the strain being put on the Bank’s ability to police the financial sector as a result of the changes firms needed to make. - Guardian
Tesco staff were under pressure and at least one executive feared jail over actions they were alleged to be taking to meet 2014 financial targets that looked “insurmountable”, a whistleblower has told a court in London. Carl Rogberg, former finance director of Tesco UK, together with John Scouler, former commercial director for food, and Christopher Bush, former Tesco UK managing director, are allcharged with one count of fraud by abuse of position and one count of false accounting. The three deny any wrongdoing and have pleaded not guilty. – Guardian
Airbnb is looking to grab a larger slice of the business trip market in partnering with WeWork to offer those staying in accommodation listed on its website the option to rent a desk in their nearest office. The trial, which launches on Thursday, covers WeWork offices in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, and Washington, DC and is expected to run for a few months. – Telegraph
Merlin Entertainments, the owner of Legoland and Thorpe Park, has reportedly made an offer for part of SeaWorld's business. It is thought this part could be the Busch Gardens theme parks. The news that Merlin approached SeaWorld about a potential deal, first reported by Bloomberg, comes just months after Merlin chief financial officer Anne-Francoise Nesmes said the group was potentially interested in the Busch Gardens assets. – Telegraph
Businesses rounded on the Conservatives after a “let down” of a conference season that left them confused about the government’s free market principles, questioning its economic strategy and increasingly worried about Brexit. The budget in November will have to be bold and ambitious if the government is to rescue “wavering confidence in the wider economy”, the Institute of Directors said after the prime minister’s speech. Others warned that companies would turn their back on the UK unless it steps up its efforts to secure a transition deal with the European Union. – The Times
Royal Mail has claimed that a national postal strike at Christmas is unlikely and that there would definitely be no walkouts around Black Friday, the new pre-festive season internet shopping and e-commerce delivery bonanza at the end of November. Royal Mail says that while postal workers represented by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have voted in favour of strike action, the union is legally bound to what could be a drawn-out mediation process. – The Times