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Sunday newspaper round-up: Interest rates, Brexit, RBS, Lloyds, O2 IPO
Signs of accelerating wage growth have convinced a deputy governor of the Bank of England that swifter rises in interest rates are needed. The change of heart for Sir Dave Ramsden, until now one of the doves on the Bank's monetary policy committee (MPC), will add to a growing conviction in the City that a further increase to 0.75% is coming in May. - Sunday Times
Lloyds Banking Group executives plotted to profit from troubled clients at the height of the financial crisis, court documents claim. The papers allege the exploitation of firms recently revealed to be prevalent at Royal Bank of Scotland was also happening at Lloyds. - Mail on Sunday
Royal Bank of Scotland is working on plans to reinstate its dividend in the second half of this year - if it can reach a settlement with the US Department of Justice over mis-selling claims. The taxpayer-backed bank broke into the black for the first time in a decade last week, reporting a full-year profit of £752m. - Sunday Times
Interserve is struggling to put together a crucial debt refinancing deal after the collapse of Carillion spooked its lenders. The troubled British outsourcer is racing to raise fresh funding from a syndicate of eight banks by the end of March, though some of its main creditors suffered big losses when Carillion went under, which has dampened the appetite to provide financial support for the troubled sector. - Sunday Telegraph
The mobile operator O2 is dialling up preparations for a £10bn stock market float as soon as September once a big money auction of airwaves has put its network on a firmer footing. Advisers and executives are on alert for what would be the biggest listing in years, amid growing confidence in the London market for new stocks. - Sunday Telegraph
BREXIT BULLETINS
MPs could be forced to sit during the six-week summer recess to deal with the weight of Brexit legislation making its way through parliament. The proposal is a response to fears that parliament could be overwhelmed by the huge volume of legislation and secondary laws needing to be agreed before Britain leaves the EU in March 2019. - Sunday Times
The shadow Brexit secretary has formally confirmed that Labour wants the UK to effectively remain permanently in the EU's customs union. Sir Keir Starmer told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One on Sunday the shadow cabinet had unanimous support for the new policy, which Jeremy Corbyn will flesh out in a speech in Coventry on Monday. - Observer
Three cabinet ministers warned Theresa May during private talks on Brexit at her Chequers retreat last week that her government could collapse this year. Julian Smith, the chief whip, told May there was a "very real threat" that Labour could unite with 15 to 20 Tory rebels to defeat the government on their decision to rule out membership of a customs union. - Sunday Times
Labour's divisions over Brexit are exposed today as an alliance of more than 80 senior figures from across the party warn Jeremy Corbyn that he will be unable to fund his promised investment in schools, hospitals and social care unless the UK stays in the EU single market. On the eve of a keynote Brexit speech by Corbyn, the group of MPs, council leaders, peers and trade unionists say the pursuit of social justice and a leftwing anti-austerity agenda depends on avoiding the "multibillion-pound hit to the public finances that leaving the single market would entail". - Observer
RIO, RECKITT, AIRLINE THREAT
ITV boss Dame Carolyn McCall is this week expected to herald a bounce in the television advertising market. The broadcaster suffered a fall of about 5% in TV ad sales last year as companies trimmed their budgets in the wake of a slowdown in the economy. - Sunday Times
Rio Tinto may have to plough even more cash into a $12bn (£8.6bn) copper and gold mine it is developing in the middle of the Gobi desert. The FTSE 100 giant is coming under mounting pressure from the Mongolian government to accelerate the Oyu Tolgoi development. - Sunday Times
Rakesh Kapoor, the chief executive of Nurofen-maker Reckitt Benckiser, has defended his takeover record amid reports the company is in the final run-off for Pfizer's consumer healthcare unit. Kapoor, 59, has been seeking to reassure shareholders after a 19% decline in the company's share price over the past year, admitting it had been a "tough" 12 months after a cyber-attack and tough competition hurt performance. - Sunday Times
Airbnb is considering launching an airline as it seeks to transform itself from a home-sharing app to an all-round travel conglomerate. Brian Chesky, the tech giant's 36-year-old billionaire founder, told The Sunday Times: "We've seriously considered a lot of things around aviation and we've spent a lot of time exploring different concepts. - Sunday Times
A European Uber rival that was forced out of the UK after just three days last year is plotting a return to London, in a new challenge to the US taxi app. Taxify, which operates in 26 countries across Europe, Africa and Australia, applied for a private hire licence with Transport for London (TfL) this month. - Sunday Telegraph
UNILEVER, PROVIDENT, GREENE KING
The declining fortunes of restaurants have prompted headlines recently, with 12 branches of Jamie Oliver's Italian chain having shut their doors and other major outlets admitting to feeling the pinch. But some owners are fighting back. Restaurateurs from independents to major chains are naming and shaming "no show" guests, requiring deposits and even selling tickets for tables. - Observer
Top shareholders in Unilever have warned the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant over its possible flight from London - claiming it would be part of a ruse to make the company safe from foreign predators. Directors of the £112bn group are expected to hold a vote in the next few weeks to decide whether to move its headquarters to Rotterdam - scrapping its joint head office in London. - Sunday Times
Doorstep loans giant Provident Financial has been sounding out investors about a bumper cash call as it seeks to draw a line under the most disastrous period in its 140-year history. Management want to raise as much as £500m to pay a string of forthcoming fines and repair the firm's battered balance sheet. - Sunday Telegraph
Pub group Greene King is attempting to sell seafood restaurant chain Loch Fyne to shrink its exposure to casual dining, industry sources say. The brewer, which also owns Hungry Horse and Chef & Brewer, is understood to be seeking offers for the 34-strong chain. - Sunday Times
Sandwich chain Eat, one of the biggest in the country, has fallen deeper into the red amid fears its owner is mulling closures. Losses in the year to late June more than doubled to £3.7 million, while sales dipped about 2 per cent to £99 million. - Mail on Sunday
NEWSPAPERS, ARCADIA, BUFFETT
The majority of firms named on the Government's list of shame for their excessive boardroom packages are advised by the same executive pay consultancy. Willis Towers Watson advises seven out of the ten blue-chip companies on Prime Minister Theresa May's fat cat list - where more than 20 per cent of investors revolted over high pay. - Mail on Sunday
Newsquest, the UK's second-biggest regional newspaper group, has held takeover talks with Archant, owner of titles including the Ham & High in London and the New European, as consolidation continues to sweep the industry. However, the talks apparently ended in part due to reticence from Newsquest's parent Gannett, the owner of USA Today and the largest newspaper proprietor in the US. - Observer
Sir Philip Green set out a secret plan to sell his high-street empire over dinner with two of HSBC's most senior bankers, can reveal. A leaked email describes how the billionaire owner of Arcadia Group discussed finding a Chinese buyer for Topshop, his flagship brand, and selling his weaker businesses, which Green denied last week. - The Sunday Times
The NHS could recover up to £500 million from one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies following a lengthy legal battle over the patent for one of its drugs. The health service took the "unprecedented" step of issuing guidance to all GPs and pharmacists stating that when prescribing the drug pregabalin for neuropathic pain they should stipulate that it must be the brand Lyrica, produced by Pfizer. - Sunday Telegraph
Poundworld is lining up restructuring advisers as the private-equity-owned discount retailer struggles amid "brutal" trading. The chain of more than 350 stores, owned by American buyout titan TPG Capital, is understood to have invited company doctors from firms including Deloitte and Alvarez & Marsal to pitch for the turnaround role. - The Sunday Times
Warren Buffett on Saturday reported a record quarterly and annual profit for his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, thanks in part to a $29.1bn boost "delivered" by the Republican tax cut. In his annual letter to shareholders, the billionaire investor wrote: "Berkshire's gain in net worth during 2017 was $65.3bn." - Observer
Gobee.bike, the first of several Asian dockless bike share operators that launched in Paris last year, has announced it is pulling out of the city because thousands of its bicycles were stolen or vandalised. "Over the months of December and January, the mass destruction of our fleet has become the new entertainment of underaged individuals, encouraged by content broadly shared on social media," the Hong Kong startup wrote in an email to its users in the city. - Sunday Telegraph