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Wednesday newspaper round-up: M&S, WPP, KPMG, over-55 homeowners
Marks & Spencer is to close its distribution centre near Warrington, putting 450 jobs at risk. The decision brings the total number of job losses at M&S this year to more than 1,300. In January, M&S said it was closing 14 stores, affecting nearly 500 jobs. The retailer also ditched its Neasden distribution site in London, putting a further 380 jobs at risk. - Guardian
WPP has hired a New York-based recruitment firm as it begins the global search to replace founder and chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell. Russell Reynolds, a top five global executive search firm, is understood to be working with Frances Illingworth, WPP's global head of recruitment. The move to bring in an external executive search firm is extremely rare for WPP, which traditionally handles most of its executive recruitment in-house. - Guardian
KPMG has been kicked off public sector contracts in South Africa as the accountancy giant's woes in the country deepen. The consultancy has been mired in controversy in South Africa over the last year, over its past links to companies run by the billionaire Gupta family and most recently for alleged shortcomings on the audit of collapsed bank VBS. - Telegraph
Tesla has called a halt to production of its Model 3 electric sedan for the second time this year in another setback for Elon Musk's first mass-production car, though said it will move to around-the-clock production once its sites reopen. Production will stop at its factory in Fremont, California for four or five days as Tesla battles to meet ambitious targets set by billionaire Mr Musk. There is also planned downtime at its Gigafactory 1, the battery production facility in Nevada. - Telegraph
America is considering whether to act against China's restrictions on big technology companies, threatening to escalate their trade dispute. Officials in the United States are understood to be examining how to retaliate against Beijing's longstanding tight regulation of digital services including cloud computing, which affect companies from Amazon to Microsoft. - The Times
Older homeowners are reducing their property wealth in record numbers to support retirement plans, help relatives on to the housing ladder or pay off interest-only mortgages. Figures from an industry trade body show that a record £870 million was borrowed by homeowners over the age of 55 using equity release plans between January and March. This was the highest figure since records began and a 120 per cent increase from the same period two years ago, the Equity Release Council said. - The Times