Business

The battle for control of Thames Water’s future has deepened after a second group of bondholders tabled a fully underwritten offer to provide £3bn of new debt. Sky News has learnt that the utility’s class B bondholders submitted a proposal to the company on Thursday morning which aims to trump a rival offer from its

Rachel Reeves has said she is “confident” trade flows with the United States will continue under President-elect Donald Trump despite his proposal to put up tariffs. The chancellor was asked what implications the result of the American election will have on her plans for growth as she faced questions from the Commons Treasury Committee. Politics

Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates has written to Sir Keir Starmer to remind him the “clock is still ticking” on a compensation deadline for victims. In his letter to the prime minister, Sir Alan demanded a March 2025 deadline for compensation for sub-postmaster victims of the Horizon scandal. Earlier on Tuesday, Sir Alan told

Planned strikes by London Underground drivers have been suspended after they received an “improved offer” over pay. Members of Aslef were due to walk out on Thursday and again next Tuesday – which would have heavily impacted Tube services. The Rail, Maritime and Transport union had already called off strikes by its members after resolving

A £15bn merger between two of the UK’s biggest mobile networks could get the green light – if they stick to their commitments to invest in the country’s infrastructure, the competition watchdog has said. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the merger of Vodafone and Three had “the potential to be pro-competitive for the

Business leaders expressed frustration with ministers on Monday amid a growing budget backlash that bosses said would trigger an “avalanche of costs” and leave them with no choice but to slash investment and increase prices. Sky News has learnt that bosses of large retail and hospitality companies and trade associations told Jonathan Reynolds, the business

There’s fear in some quarters of another Donald Trump presidency but will the economics be that bad? Not a single vote has been counted but the policies of a possible second Trump presidency have already influenced financial markets. The cost of US and UK borrowing – measured through 10-year revenue-raising instruments called bonds – has

Navantia, the Spanish shipbuilder, is racing to finalise a takeover of the stricken shipyard-owner that built the Titanic amid urgent talks to reshape a major government contract. Sky News has learnt that Navantia is attempting to negotiate more favourable terms for a deal to build three Fleet Solid Support ships (FSS) for the Royal Navy

The joint owner of Chelsea Football Club has joined forces with one of his fellow board members to bid for the most valuable team in English cricket’s Hundred competition. Sky News has learnt that Todd Boehly is backing a bid spearheaded by Jonathan Goldstein, a British property entrepreneur, in an offer for a large stake

Restaurant chain TGI Fridays has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US. The bankruptcy protection filing was made by TGI Fridays Inc, a Dallas-based American arm of the casual dining brand, which operates 39 restaurants in the US. It comes after the company faced financial challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic and after a deal

The business secretary will next week hold talks with dozens of private sector bosses as the government contends with a significant corporate backlash to Labour’s first fiscal event in nearly 15 years. Sky News has learnt that executives have been invited to join a conference call on Monday with Jonathan Reynolds, in what will represent

UK markets stabilised on Friday, offering some reassurance to Rachel Reeves as investors, policy makers and business continued to absorb the scale and implications of her first budget. Thursday saw an unusually large increase in the cost of UK government borrowing in response to the massive package of tax rises and increased borrowing. Yields on

The cost of government borrowing has jumped, while UK stocks and the pound are up, as markets digest the news of billions in borrowing and tax rises announced in the budget. While there was no panic, there had been concern about the scale of borrowing and changes to Chancellor Rachel Reeves‘s self-imposed borrowing rules. At

First things first: don’t panic. What you need to know is this. The budget has not gone down well in financial markets. Indeed, it’s gone down about as badly as any budget in recent years, save for Liz Truss’s mini-budget. The pound is weaker. Government bond yields (essentially, the interest rate the exchequer pays on

Google has reportedly racked up a fine of more than two undecillion rubles – two followed by 36 zeros – after it removed state-run and pro-government accounts from YouTube. Put another way, an undecillion is a trillion times a trillion times a trillion. The fine is far greater than the world’s total GDP, estimated at

In the lead up to this week’s budget, the government has been criticised for strongly hinting at a number of policies coming down the pipeline. But that signalling of what today’s budget would mean for companies appears to have contained much of the market fallout, with steep tax rises coming as little surprise. That’s not