Vox Markets Logo

Morning Paper Roundup: Amazon considers UK insurance comparison site, new apprenticeships fall by 31%

07:13, 17th August 2018
Simon Edmunds
Paper Roundup
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Below are the key morning headlines from today's papers, featuring the Financial Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.


- Amazon is poised to get into the British insurance market and has sounded out some of Europe’s largest insurers to see if they would contribute to a price comparison website run by the American online retail group.

Three industry executives, who declined to be named, said they had talked to Amazon about a possible launch. The move would be the first big step for Amazon into Britain’s financial services sector. It is unclear what type of insurance would be sold but home and motor insurance policies are typically available on UK price comparison sites.

Shares in Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) FOLLOW and Gocompare.com Group (GOCO) FOLLOW fell on the news.

- Turkey’s finance minister sparked a recovery in the lira after he addressed thousands of international investors, pledging to protect beleaguered local banks and cut public spending to prevent the country defaulting on its loans.

Berat Albayrak, who has faced criticism for failing to tackle the country’s growing financial crisis, spoke to around 6,000 investors on a conference call to rebuff concerns that a funding squeeze on Turkey’s banks and a damaging trade war with the US would force him to seek a rescue bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

- School leavers are being failed by the government’s apprenticeship levy because fewer are getting the training they need than before the scheme came into force, employers have said.

The UK government’s goal of creating 3m apprenticeships by 2020 slipped further from view on Thursday, as the latest official figures showed a further 31% drop in the number of people starting training schemes while in work.

After publication of the latest figures, business groups called once again for urgent reforms of the levy to help more young people into apprenticeships and equip the economy for the future.

- On The Beach Group (OTB) FOLLOW, the online travel agent, has bought luxury package holiday retailer Classic Collection for £20m. Classic Collection is set to take On the Beach in a different direction, as it sells its beach holidays through physical independent high street travel agents.

- Thousands of households who earn more than £100,000 a year are using the government’s Help to Buy scheme to purchase a house, leading to calls for the programme to be reformed.

Since the scheme was introduced in March 2013, figures show that 6,717 households with an income of more than £100,000 have used it. This accounts for 4 per cent of the 169,102 properties that have been sold under Help to Buy, which was intended to get more people on the housing ladder.

- The Takeover Panel has confirmed its ruling that Disney might have to offer at least £14 a share to buy pay-television group Sky (SKY) FOLLOW.

Disney would only be forced to make such an offer if it completes a deal to buy 21st Century Fox's TV and film assets, which include a 39pc stake in Sky, before either Fox or rival suitor Comcast succeed in taking control of the British broadcaster.

Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct (SPD) FOLLOW has decided to cancel and refund all House of Fraser online orders that have not been sent as its row over payment terms with XPO Logistics worsened yesterday.

In a sign of the turmoil engulfing the House of Fraser logistics network, sources close to Sports Direct, which bought the department store out of administration last week, said it “would not be held to ransom by the entirely unreasonable behaviour of XPO”.

- CareTech Holding (CTH) FOLLOW revealed it had finally had its bid for Cambian Group (CMBN) FOLLOW accepted by the company. CareTech is set to pay £372million for Cambian, less than it had originally proposed.

The offer, which will give shareholders 190p in cash or 100p and 0.3 CareTech shares, has already been accepted by a majority of Cambian’s investors.

- A currency war will be inevitable if the US ratchets up tariffs to 25pc on $200bn of Chinese goods this September, economists fear.

The tariffs will open up currencies as a second front in the conflict between the world’s biggest economies, risking a 15pc depreciation in the Chinese Yuan, according to an analysis from TS Lombard.

- Debenhams will slash up to 90 jobs as the struggling department store chain pursues cost savings across its fashion and home departments. The ailing retailer has launched redundancy talks with around 200 workers in the latest phase of its cost-cutting drive.

It follows plans to axe 320 store management jobs in a similar move to supermarket chains Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

TwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Disclaimer & Declaration of Interest

The information, investment views and recommendations in this article are provided for general information purposes only. Nothing in this article should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any financial product relating to any companies under discussion or to engage in or refrain from doing so or engaging in any other transaction. Any opinions or comments are made to the best of the knowledge and belief of the writer but no responsibility is accepted for actions based on such opinions or comments. Vox Markets may receive payment from companies mentioned for enhanced profiling or publication presence. The writer may or may not hold investments in the companies under discussion.

Recent Articles
Watchlist