BUSINESS LIVE: Capita cuts 900 jobs; Ofcom fines Shell; Workspace swings to a loss

(PA) – The sales process to find a new buyer for the Telegraph and Spectator publications has been paused until at least early December.

It comes a day after an Abu Dhabi backed fund said on Monday it was poised to take control of the publications after striking a deal with previous owners the Barclay family to help repay outstanding debts.

Lenders at Lloyds placed the titles into receivership in July and sought potential buyers to help cover around £1billion owed by the Barclays to the bank.

Receivers at AlixPartners officially launched a sale process last month, with a deadline of Tuesday November 28 for approaches.

However, on Tuesday, the boards of the parent companies for Telegraph Media Group and the Spectator said the process will pause until December 4 ahead of a key court hearing.

A meeting, due to take place on Monday November 20, to potentially liquidate a key holding company for the Barclay family was adjourned and pushed back to December 4.

It is understood it came after the Barclays agreed to repay its over £1billion debts by December 1.

The family are not expected to contest the liquidation at the court meeting if they fail to meet this repayment deadline.

The Artificial Intelligence company, maker of ChatGPT, has revealed that ‘intense discussions’ to stave off a staff mutiny are now underway, Bloomberg reports.

Just before close, the FTSE 100 was 0.23% lower at 7,478.98.

Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 was 1.11% lower at 18,392.32.

CRH has acquired £2.1billion (£1.7billion) worth of building materials assets from US rival Martin Marietta and upgraded its full-year profit guidance.

The deal sees the Dublin-based group buy roughly £1.67billion worth of building material assets in the high-growth Texas market.

For the first time, Metro Bank is offering two savings accounts which sit at the very top of the best buy tables.

Workspace Group shares were the biggest faller on the FTSE 250 Index on Tuesday afternoon after the firm slumped to a heavy half-year loss.

The flexible office provider reported a £147.9million pre-tax loss for the six months ending September, compared to a £35.8million profit during the same period last year.

AO World has hiked full-year earnings guidance after it swung to a first half profit, as its cost-cutting programme begins to yield results.

The electronics retailer posted a pre-tax profit of £13million for the six months to the end of September, compared to a £12million loss the previous year.

Lewis Hamilton and Leonardo DiCaprio-backed synthetic meat restaurant group Neat Meat is set to close four of its eight UK burger venues, This is Money understands.

Neat Meat, which saw losses expand by around 140 per cent last year, currently has Neat Burger restaurants in London’s Camden, Soho, Stratford, Oxford Circus, Canary Wharf, Victoria, Liverpool Street and Wembley.

Electric vehicle (EV) battery production must be incentivised to prevent the decline of the UK car industry, MPs warned.

A report by the cross-party Business and Trade Committee stated that hundreds of thousands of jobs are at risk if the issue is not addressed.

The committee argues that the UK could become a “frontrunner” in building “sustainable and ethical batteries”.

Much of the world’s gigafactories, where batteries are produced, are currently in China.

The report stated: “The UK faces a gigafactory gap, because of insufficient domestic manufacturing capacity to satisfy UK industry’s demand for batteries.

“Satisfying demand from the UK’s automotive industry and other sectors will require 100GWh (Gigawatt hours) of battery manufacturing capacity by 2030.

“That requirement will increase to 200GWh by 2040.”

It warned that the UK’s only existing gigafactory, near Nissan’s car factory in Sunderland, has less than 2GWh of capacity.

“At best, announced plans satisfy a little over half the capacity the nation needs by 2030,” the report added.

Savers will be allowed to open a ‘pension pot for life’ that all current and future employers can pay into under government plans which may be revealed in the Autumn Statement tomorrow.

The move is reportedly part of a wider package of pension changes aimed at using the nation’s retirement savings to boost UK economic growth.

Food delivery firm Deliveroo’s riders cannot be represented by a trade union for the purposes of collective bargaining, the Supreme Court ruled today.

The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) had tried to represent a group of Deliveroo riders in order to negotiate pay and conditions with the company.

The Marks & Spencer boss has warned middle-class shoppers are walking out without paying due to faulty scanners and they think ‘it’s not my fault, I’m owed it.’

M&S chairman Archie Norman said that while shoplifting is on the rise across the country, his shops aren’t ‘attractive’ to criminal gangs because it doesn’t sell as many branded products as its rivals.

Outsourcing giant Capita has warned that up to 900 staff members could lose their jobs as part of a cost savings programme.

The London-based firm, which manages the BBC licence fee, said it would soon launch staff consultations it expects to deliver £60million of annualised cost reductions from the first quarter of next year.

Shell Energy has been fined for failing to prompt out of contract phone and broadband customers, and keeping them in the dark over potential savings offered by a new deal.

Ofcom fined Shell’s UK consumer gas, electricity and broadband operations business £1.4million after it broke ‘important consumer protection rules’ designed to ensure that customers get a fair deal, the communications regulator said.

Public sector borrowing came in at £14.9billion, £4.4billion more than a year earlier and the highest October figure on record outside of Covid.

With the Autumn Statement tomorrow, the attention of savers and investors will be focused on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to see what changes he may have in store for their nest eggs.

Many rumours have been swirling around in anticipation of what changes the Autumn Statement could bring for Isas.

Marks & Spencer will take the battle to raze its Oxford Street store to the High Court after Michael Gove blocked its plans.

The retailer was yesterday granted permission for a judicial review in the latest instalment of the row between M&S chief executive Stuart Machin and the Levelling Up Secretary.

Right-wing libertarian Javier Milei vowed to ‘rebuild’ Argentina’s battered economy after sweeping to victory in the country’s presidential elections.

The former TV pundit beat economy minister Sergio Massa with 56 per cent of the vote having promised to take a chainsaw to public spending and ‘burn down’ the central bank.

Older shoppers are more likely to commit online fraud than younger people, a new report has surprisingly discovered.

Among consumers who confessed to doing something fraudulent online last year, 41 per cent were over 45 years old, while only 17 per cent were between 18 and 24, according to fraud protection platform Ravelin.

The CBI’s boss has urged Jeremy Hunt to freeze business rates and review the tourist tax to kick-start the economy.

Rain Newton-Smith also argued that the headline rate of corporation tax should come down in the long term, to boost Britain.

Meanwhile, she insisted the lobby group has recovered after having plunging into crisis over sexual assault claims.

Workspace swung to a loss of almost £150million in the first half as the London-listed flexible office space provider suffered the impact of higher interest rates.

The FTSE 250 firm, which serves mostly small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurs, posted a pre-tax loss of £147.9million for the six months to 30 September compared with a profit of £35.8million a year earlier.

‘Throughout the first half of the year, we have continued to actively manage our portfolio to meet changing customer needs. We have completed a wide range of smaller unit refurbishments and subdivisions, as well as making good progress on our larger projects.

‘As expected, valuations are down as a result of movement in market yields. However, we have maintained a conservative level of gearing, with the continuing disposal of non-core properties further strengthening our balance sheet and we expect more over the next six months.

‘We go into the second half of the year with good momentum. Our scalable operating platform gives us a competitive advantage and we have a clear pathway to unlock near and long-term income growth, both through capturing reversion on our like-for-like properties and active asset management opportunities.’

Communications regulator Ofcom has fined Shell Energy £1.4million for failing to prompt more than 70,000 phone and broadband customers to review their contract, or let them know what they could save by signing up to a new deal.

Ofcom said 7,750 customers received an end-of-contract notification that contained incorrect information about the price they would pay once their minimum term period came to an end.

Of these customers, 6,054 went on to pay higher charges than they were originally quoted, collectively amounting to £398,417.67 – an average of £65.81 each, Ofcom added.

Shell Enegy, which is the UK consumer gas, electricity and broadband operations business of Shell, is set to be acquired by Octopus Energy by the end of this year.

Microsoft shares hit an all-time high yesterday after it hired OpenAI’s co-founders to lead its artificial intelligence team.

The tech giant, which owns around 49 per cent of OpenAI, signed up Sam Altman and Greg Brockman – days after they left the company behind ChatGPT

San Francisco-based OpenAI ousted Altman before Brockman stood down.

Capita will make up to 900 roles redundant as part of a cost-cutting drive the outsourcers says will save it £60million a year from the first quarter of next year.

Affected staff, whom are primarily within indirect support functions and overhead roles, will be consulted on the job losses soon.

Capita employed about 50,000 people in 2022, according to its latest annual report.

NatWest’s fraud prevention boss left his job after moonlighting at a law firm bringing scam victim claims against banks like NatWest, This is Money can reveal.

Jason Costain was head of fraud prevention at high street bank NatWest, and as a high-profile employee was often quoted in the press.