Business

One of Britain’s biggest listed property groups is facing demands from an American hedge fund to break itself up and hand over a board seat in the latest example of shareholder activism targeting a major UK company. Sky News has learnt that Countryside Properties, which has a market capitalisation of over £2bn, has been told

After an £85m refurbishment, the Royal Lancaster hotel was set to take its place as one of London’s premier locations. Then came the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the immaculate lobby is empty. Sebastian, the concierge who worked his way up the ranks over 16 years, waits patiently behind his visor. Image: Sally Beck says ‘resilience, creativity

The high street tycoon Sir Philip Green is this weekend trying to secure tens of millions of pounds in fresh funding to keep his TopShop empire afloat. Sky News has learnt that Arcadia Group has approached several potential lenders about borrowing roughly £30m to prop up the business after seeing its pre-Christmas trading plans wrecked

Greggs has announced plans to cut more than 800 jobs as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The boss warned that the bakery chain “will not be profitable as a business” if sales continue at the rates they have been in lockdown. In a statement posted on its employee information website earlier this week,

Donald Trump’s White House has fuelled tensions with Beijing by banning US investment in firms it says have ties to the Chinese military. The executive order, due to come into force on 11 January, is designed to stop American businesses, pension funds and others from buying stocks in 31 companies designated by the Pentagon earlier

The boss of the British company supplying a crucial ingredient of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has warned that avoiding Brexit border disruption will be “a crucial step” in ensuring it is available to millions of people. Yorkshire-based Croda International has provided a key chemical element of the vaccine to Pfizer in the trial phase, and

Rishi Sunak has declined to rule out further measures similar to the Eat Out To Help Out scheme when the economy reopens after the latest lockdown. Mr Sunak told Sky News that the government would look at a “range of things” to “get consumers spending again and people out and about”. The Eat Out To

People earning more than £19,500 a year would pay more under a £40bn tax hike plan to boost the public finances in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. The Resolution Foundation makes the case for a range of tax changes by the middle of the decade to avoid a return to austerity and tackle the

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has notched up sales of more than £42bn for its annual Singles’ Day sales event – but the extravaganza threatened to be overshadowed by plans for new regulation. The running total announced by the company shortly after midnight showed the event was already 16 times bigger than US online retailer Amazon’s

Supermarket bosses have launched a fresh lobbying drive to extend Sunday trading hours ahead of a Christmas shopping rush that they are warning ministers could put customers’ safety at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sky News has learnt that major grocers including J Sainsbury and Wm Morrison have been urging the government in recent weeks

A record 314,000 redundancies were recorded in the three months to September as the coronavirus took a further toll on jobs. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also showed the unemployment rate rose to 4.8%, its highest level since November 2016 and up from 4.5% the month before. ONS data for October also

Stock markets have responded very strongly to news from the US drugs giant Pfizer and the German biotech company BioNTech that their COVID-19 vaccine has proved to be more than 90% effective in late stage clinical trials. The positive outcome to the trials, which to date have involved almost 44,000 people globally, have raised hopes

Stock markets in Asia have rallied after Joe Biden’s US election victory. Japan’s Nikkei was the most notable gainer, hitting a 29-year high after the confirmation of the result over the weekend. Mr Biden’s defeat of Donald Trump has eased fears about a continuation of a damaging trade war between the US and China, the

Joe Biden has made no secret of his opposition to Boris Johnson’s career-defining flagship policy: Brexit. Mr Biden claims – wrongly, according to the prime minister – that the Good Friday Agreement is threatened by the Internal Market Bill, currently going through the House of Lords. Image: Boris Johnson will be hoping to have a

One of Britain’s fastest-growing genomics companies is selling a stake to Tencent, the giant Chinese technology investor, as part of a funding round that also includes a major UK pensions provider. Sky News has learnt that Cambridge-based Congenica will on Monday announce that it has secured $50m (£39m) in a Series C fundraising. Legal &

Supermarkets – including Tesco and Sainsbury’s – are reportedly blocking off access to parts of their stores following advice from the UK government for the English lockdown. It comes after controversy over similar sights in Wales when they went into a two-week national lockdown last month. Following guidance published by the UK government on 5