Business

The private equity giant which owns a stake in rugby’s Six Nations Championship is weighing a bid for a stake in one of Britain’s biggest online travel agents. Sky News has learnt that CVC Capital Partners is among the suitors considering making an offer to become a partial owner of Loveholidays. The travel company, which

One of the UK’s largest water companies is considering shipping supplies from Norway to the UK. Southern Water said the idea was a “last-resort contingency measure” in case of extreme droughts in the early 2030s. Up to 45 million litres per day could be brought to the UK in tankers under the proposals. The Financial

Boeing and union negotiators will meet later in a fresh bid to end strikes by workers that have hammered plane production, exacerbating the fallout from the company’s safety crisis. The company, which is bidding to revive its fortunes under a new chief executive, has more than 32,000 staff refusing to work. They walked out of

The fallout from parasite-contaminated water in part of Devon cost South West Water £16m, the utility has revealed. It had to implement a boil water notice when people in the Brixham area became sick after diarrhoea-causing cryptosporidium was found in a reservoir in May. The notice remained in place for eight weeks with roughly 17,000

Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates has threatened legal action if financial redress for victims doesn’t come soon. Sir Alan, speaking after accepting a knighthood for services to justice, told Sky News: “If we need to fundraise for a court case, we will.” In a letter sent to hundreds of former sub postmasters last week,

The UK remains at risk from “lingering” inflation but its economy is among nations showing “robust” growth, according to a biannual report which upgrades its expectations for output both this year and next. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) saw UK gross domestic product (GDP) rising by 1.1% this year – faster than

A Fujitsu boss has told the Horizon IT inquiry he raised “serious concerns” about the “behaviour” of the Post Office investigations team earlier this year. More than 900 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted and received criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015, as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system made it appear as though money was missing at

The price of oil has risen as worries about a broader Middle East conflict increase. The benchmark price of oil rose by about a dollar as news of the latest bout of Israeli bombing in Lebanon broke. A barrel of Brent crude now costs $74.95, close to the highest point since the start of the

Most sub-postmasters are still reporting issues with the Horizon IT system that led to hundreds being wrongly convicted, a survey suggests. The inquiry into the Post Office’s Horizon accounting software, and the associated prosecution of 700 sub-postmasters for theft and false accounting, is taking place to establish a clear account of the implementation and failure

An Australian company owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has launched its third attempt to buy UK property website Rightmove. The REA Group of property sites announced on Monday it had upped its offer for Rightmove to £6.1bn. Earlier efforts to acquire the London Stock Exchange-listed Rightmove had been rejected. One offer valued the company

The boss of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, will attend the new government’s flagship investment summit next month amid suggestions that it is struggling to attract large numbers of high-calibre international business figures. Sky News has learnt that Larry Fink, BlackRock’s chairman and chief executive, will attend the October 14 gathering, which will be

A British hypersonic aviation pioneer is this weekend closing in on a £20m rescue deal that will see a Gulf-based sovereign fund becoming its biggest shareholder. Sky News has learnt that Reaction Engines is racing to finalise a two-part financing that will include leading shareholders extending loans to the company before providing a further equity

“It all begins with an NDA.” A former personal assistant of Harvey Weinstein sums it up quite nicely. What is going wrong in the workplace when it comes to widespread sexism, harassment, and bullying, particularly for women? The most serious consequence of which is sexual and physical violence as outlined, yet again, by the alleged

A trio of property giants has lodged a protest against a radical financial restructuring that will see Cineworld imposing steep rent cuts on its landlords. Sky News has learnt that British Land, Landsec and Legal & General Investment Management all voted against the cinema operator’s restructuring plan this week. Cineworld has confirmed plans to close

The Caucasus Mountain range in Georgia is one of the great sights in the south of Europe. Towering peaks, higher than any in the Alps, rise up from green meadows and grassy hills covered in wildflowers. Winding roads thread through deep valleys, overlooked by ornate Orthodox churches and monasteries. But when I visited recently, I

Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates has blamed government “flimflam artists” for dragging out financial redress for victims. In a newsletter, seen by Sky News, he criticises the GLO (Group Litigation Order) scheme for being a “gravy train” for government lawyers, He adds it is “seemingly to ensure maximum income for the lawyers and minimal

There has been no change to the UK interest rate despite the US and European central banks all moving to cut in the last week. The Bank of England has kept the interest rate at 5% as official figures this week showed some measures of price rises grew. It follows the first cut in more

The owner of the UK arm of the restaurant chain TGI Fridays (TGIF) has gone into administration, putting 4,500 jobs and 87 outlets at risk. Hostmore, which runs the UK franchise for TGIF, has appointed administrators and delisted its ordinary shares after struggling to find a “lasting solution” to save the business amid heavy losses

US interest rates have been slashed for the first time in more than four years – and by more than many expected – amid fears the world’s largest economy is flagging. Not since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic has there been a drop in the cost of US borrowing as the US central

There’s been no change in the rate of price rises, official inflation figures showed. The rate of inflation stood at 2.2% in August, the Office for National Statistics said, the same as a month earlier. The announcement comes the day before interest rate setters at the Bank of England decide on the cost of borrowing,

Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, will hold talks with union bosses and business leaders on Wednesday as the government pursues its ambition of ending “exploitative” zero-hours contracts. Sky News understands that Ms Rayner, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds and Justin Madders, the employment rights minister, will meet representatives of major business groups including the CBI

Traffic could soon be banned from part of London’s most popular shopping area, under new plans by the capital’s mayor.  A scheme announced by Sadiq Khan could see a 0.7-mile stretch of Oxford Street – between Oxford Circus and Marble Arch – pedestrianised with the aim of boosting the experience of shoppers, residents, workers and

The iconic Belfast company that built the Titanic is to collapse into administration. Harland & Wolff has announced it is insolvent and will appoint administrators. An administration order will likely be made this week, it added. Jobs are likely to be lost, the company said, but it did not detail how many. “Workers, their families

The Premier League’s long-awaited hearing into Manchester City’s alleged breaches of financial rules will begin later. City, the reigning Premier League champions, face 115 charges under Premier League rules, which they allegedly breached by failing to provide accurate financial information over a nine-year period starting in 2009 until 2018. During that period the club won

Legal & General, the FTSE-100 insurance and asset management giant, will this week pick a new home for Cala Group, its housebuilding subsidiary. Sky News has learnt that Sixth Street, the US-based investor, has emerged as the frontrunner to buy Cala, which ranks among Britain’s ten biggest housebuilders. Sixth Street has teamed up with Patron

Babcock International, the London-listed defence contractor, is weighing a possible bid for some of the assets of Harland and Wolff, the shipbuilder which is close to collapse. Sky News has learnt that Babcock, which has a market value of £2.4bn, has expressed an interest in Harland and Wolff’s Belfast shipyard which is famous for having

Two of Britain’s biggest newspaper publishers are taking the axe to their US workforces, slashing scores of jobs in the latest evidence of mounting financial pressures across the media sector. Sky News has learnt that News UK, the publisher of The Sun, and DMGT, owner of the Daily Mail, have this week announced sweeping internal

A London-listed automotive components supplier has become the latest British-based company to draw overseas takeover interest after receiving a series of offers from a Canadian rival. Sky News has learnt that TI Fluid Systems has received at least two bid proposals from ABC Technologies Holdings, a Canadian competitor. City sources said on Friday evening that

The lawyer for those affected by Capture software predating the faulty Horizon system says his “belief” is that the “report is going to be positive”. Neil Hudgell, a solicitor at Hudgell Solicitors, is representing over 40 former sub-postmasters who used Capture in the 1990s. Dozens who used it claim they were wrongfully accused of stealing

Tesco says it will accept a Supreme Court ruling in a so-called ‘fire and rehire’ case amid government efforts to bolster workers’ rights. The Union of Shop Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw), along with three of its members at Tesco who also represent the union, took legal action over proposals in 2021 to fire staff

The gap between how much money the state takes in and its spending will triple in the next 50 years, according to independent forecasters. Public debt will rise due to an ageing and ill population as well as climate change, the fiscal watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has said. The ratio between debt

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has signalled her first budget as chancellor could be a painful mix of spending cuts, tax rises and increased borrowing. Speaking to Sky News after official figures showed the economy flatlined in July with GDP growth of 0.0%, she refused to rule out increasing business and wealth taxes, or further cuts to

The chancellor has defended the government’s £500m steel industry subsidy, with thousands of jobs set to be lost at Britain’s biggest steelworks. When asked why the government is spending money on jobs that are going to be scrapped, Rachel Reeves said the steel industry was “incredibly important” to the UK economy. The government, Ms Reeves