Business

A rescue deal for the British operations of TGI Fridays which will salvage more than 2,000 jobs is on the verge of being finalised this weekend. Sky News has learnt that Breal Capital and Calveton, which jointly own the upmarket restaurants business D&D London, could agree a deal to acquire the majority of TGI Fridays

Before we get onto the budget and what Rachel Reeves might do to fiddle her fiscal rules and give herself a little more room to spend, I want you to ponder, for a moment, a recent report from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). This wasn’t one of those big OBR reports that get lots

Ministers are plotting a shake-up of Britain’s drive to attract inward investment days before a summit they will claim demonstrates the country is “open for business”. Sky News has learnt that officials are drawing up plans to merge the Office for Investment – a joint venture between the Department for Business and Trade and Number

The UK needs a strategy to meet growing demand for data centres or risk losing its advantage in the race to develop artificial intelligence (AI), one of the sector’s largest players has told Sky News. Data centres – warehouses housing processors that power cloud computing – are central to the digital economy. They provide the

Saga, the London-listed financial services and travel provider for over-50s consumers, is in detailed talks with one of Europe’s biggest insurers about a deal that will allow it to repay a chunk of its huge debt pile. Sky News has learnt that Saga is in exclusive negotiations with Ageas, a Belgian insurer which tried to

Mulberry, the struggling UK luxury brand, has rejected a proposed takeover bid by Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group. Frasers, which is majority owned by the tycoon and best-known for its Sports Direct brand, made an offer on Monday that valued Mulberry at £83m. The company is the second largest shareholder in Mulberry, with a 37% holding.

A lawyer representing people affected by a “second Post Office IT scandal” has said they “must not” have “a long, hard battle ahead for exoneration and compensation”. A report today found it is “a reasonable likelihood” that Capture software “created shortfalls” for sub-postmasters prior to the Horizon scandal. The system, which was the predecessor to

The UK’s biggest steelworks will cease production today after more than 100 years, leading to thousands of job losses across South Wales. Blast Furnace 4 – the final furnace operating at Tata Steel’s plant in Port Talbot – will be fully shut down at about 5pm, with the last steel made late on Monday evening.

Ordinary investors will be given the chance to participate in a £500m flotation of Applied Nutrition, the fast-growing sports supplements maker, when it unveils plans for an initial public offering in London this week. Sky News has learnt that Liverpool-based Applied Nutrition will issue an announcement signalling its expected intention to float on Monday morning,

Carlyle, the American investment giant, has become the latest global fund to weigh an investment in Thames Water as the stricken utility races to avoid being nationalised. Sky News has learnt that Carlyle, which has roughly $435bn in assets under management, is at the very preliminary stages of assessing whether an investment in Thames Water

A former owner of Missguided, the youth fashion brand, is in talks to buy Kurt Geiger, the upmarket shoe and accessories retailer. Sky News has learnt that Alteri Investors, which was backed by the global private equity giant Apollo Management when it launched a decade ago, is among a number of parties in discussions about

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,

Morrisons, the supermarket chain, has struck a £370m deal to unlock value from its vast property portfolio as its owners seek to further shrink the company’s debt pile. Sky News has learnt that the private equity-backed grocer has agreed a mammoth ground rent transaction with Song Capital, a real estate investor. Under the deal, which

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