Business

The owners of Virgin Media O2 have kicked off talks to raise hundreds of millions of pounds from investors to fund the rollout of fast fibre broadband to millions more British households. Sky News revealed on Sunday that initial discussions with infrastructure funds got underway in recent weeks, with the aim of selling a large

Plans to “breathe fresh life into disadvantaged communities” across England have been announced as part of the government’s Levelling Up White Paper. Wolverhampton and Sheffield will be the first of 20 areas picked to benefit from a “radical new regeneration programme” launched by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). The chosen locations

Downing Street will next week unveil a gender-balanced line-up of business advisers to Boris Johnson, which includes the bosses of some of Britain’s fastest-growing technology companies. Sky News has obtained the list of members of the prime minister’s new business council, which is expected to be published as early as Monday. Half of its 28

The owner of Britain’s biggest chain of upmarket holiday villages is to launch a £4bn auction of the business after recording the most profitable half-year in its history in spite of pandemic-related operating constraints. Sky News has learnt that Brookfield Property Partners, the Canadian property giant, is paving the way to sell Center Parcs UK

Home Secretary Priti Patel has approved the extradition of a British entrepreneur to the US to answer criminal fraud charges. But Mike Lynch’s lawyers say they will file an appeal at the High Court as they fight the order which was earlier signed by Ms Patel following a midnight deadline. It comes on the day

UK entrepreneur Mike Lynch has lost a multi-billion pound fraud action brought over the sale of software company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard (HP) in 2011. The High Court judge found that HP had “substantially” succeeded in its bitter civil case but indicated that the US firm would get considerably less than the $5bn it had

Apple has shrugged off the impact of chip shortages to deliver record quarterly sales of $123.9bn (£92.6bn) and said the constraints will start to ease. The iPhone maker’s revenues for the three months to Christmas were 11% higher than a year ago even though the shortages put a $6bn dent in the figure – something

The competition watchdog has launched a wide-ranging investigation into the music streaming market. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed last October an intention to examine the sector but was yet to determine the full scope of its inquiry. It followed hot on the heels of a report by MPs the previous month that raised

The head of America’s central bank has declared there is “quite a lot of room to raise interest rates” as it stepped closer to a March hike. Jerome Powell, chair of the US Federal Reserve, made the remarks in a news conference after the bank declared that a hike would “soon be appropriate” – as

The chief executive of a major household energy supplier has cast doubt on whether the sector and government will be able to spare households from a huge spike in bills from April. Greg Jackson, the founder of Octopus Energy, used a letter to the three million households on its books to explain the options facing

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has taken an axe to its global growth forecasts while listing a string of threats to the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The world’s lender of last resort downgraded a prediction, made in October, for 4.9% growth in collective gross domestic product this year, saying it now expected a

Consumer goods giant Unilever has confirmed plans to cut 1,500 jobs under a shake-up of its global operations. The maker of Dove soap-to-Marmite, which made the announcement after details were apparently leaked on Monday evening, said the cuts to senior and junior management roles were the result of a new, simpler organisational structure. The company

Consumer goods giant Unilever is preparing to cut thousands of management jobs across the business in a “major initiative” due to be announced within days. The cuts will form part of a shake-up, flagged last week by the Marmite to Domestos maker, intended to “drive greater agility, improve category focus, and strengthen accountability”. Unilever declined

Wholesale gas costs have risen sharply while Bitcoin and stock market values have plunged further as tensions over Russia’s intentions concerning Ukraine add to the cocktail of concerns being juggled by global investors. The market volatility builds on heavy sell-offs that saw the US Nasdaq index come under particular pressure and endure its worst week

The quoted bid vehicle pursuing a takeover of M&C Saatchi has tabled a fresh offer which includes a partial cash alternative for investors in the London-listed advertising group. Sky News has learnt that AdvancedAdvT, which is backed by the technology entrepreneur Vin Murria and serial dealmaking group Marwyn, submitted a revised bid to the board

Dame Carolyn Fairbairn has joined the race to head Channel 4, the state-owned broadcaster, two years after leaving the CBI after a period of fractious ties between Britain’s biggest employers’ group and Boris Johnson’s administration. Sky News has learnt that Dame Carolyn is among a handful of contenders shortlisted to become Channel 4’s next chairman

The FTSE 100 has joined a global markets sell-off as it followed Wall Street into the red amid jitters over rate rises and the outlook for tech stocks. London’s leading share index fell by more than 100 points, or about 1.5%, while Germany’s Dax and France’s Cac 40 were each down by around 2%. The

People should “get back to work” after Plan B rules were eased, the business secretary has said. Kwasi Kwarteng extolled the benefits of office-based staff interacting directly as he called for a return to “some degree of normality”. The comments came after the government this week dropped working from home guidance that was reintroduced late

Plans for a new British-owned battery gigaplant in Northumberland have been boosted by the commitment of around £100m of government funds to the £3.8bn scheme. The Britishvolt project intends to manufacture power cells for 300,000 electric vehicle battery packs a year at a new factory on the site of the former Blyth Power Station. The

One of the only facilities in the world that uses carbon capture and storage technology to reduce the emissions of hydrogen production has the same carbon footprint as 1.2 million petrol cars, according to a new report seen exclusively by Sky News. In a first-of-its-kind investigation into the plant, which is owned and operated by