Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng wades into graphene maker takeover

Pointing to strong jobs data and a jump in the cost of living, the US central bank said it ‘will soon be appropriate’ to end the era of ultra-low borrowing costs.

Citi launched a £100m overhaul of its tower in Canary Wharf, despite predictions that foreign banks would leave in droves after Brexit.

Ocado said shoppers will be able to pick from a supermarket range, at supermarket prices and have groceries delivered in as little as two hours.

The Sage will open in Gateshead in 2024 between the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (pictured) and the Sage Gateshead music venue.

Western leaders have threatened to impose crippling sanctions on Moscow after Russia began building up troops on the Ukrainian border.

British Airways owner IAG was the biggest riser on the FTSE 100 – up 7.4% – as investors hoped the industry would see a return to normality.

Sky Bet shared data with third-party companies to profile the ‘very high-value’ gambler that they needed to ‘win back’ and ‘grow’ after he quit.

Jes Staley, who resigned from Barclays amid a row over his relationship with Epstein, spent more than 30 years at JP Morgan before leaving in 2013.

Lynch (pictured) faces fraud charges in America over the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

Mike Lynch’s long legal and media campaign, aimed at avoiding extradition to the US over fraud allegations is running out of rope.

Barclays is understood to be competing with digital rival Starling for the lender, which is backed by investment giants Blackstone and Sixth Street.

The energy exploration firm said its net debts at the end of 2021 fell to around $2.1billion from $2.4billion the prior year and were about 25 per cent lower than its levels in 2019.

The Hungarian company recorded a €267.5million loss for the final three months of 2021 compared to €116.4million during the same period last year.

The 103-year-old brand will make a 10 year investment in its Crewe plant as a vote of confidence in Britain and ‘a major boost for the UK economy’.

Three of Britain’s biggest mutuals are finally set to increase the interest rates on a number of savings deals, following last month’s Bank of England base rate rise.

British Gas found that drivers in the South generally have access to more devices but have to pay more to use them.

The FTSE 100 closed up 1.33 per cent or 98.32 points to 7,469.78 this afternoon, while the FTSE 250 index finished up 1.05 per cent or 227.37 points to 21,873.08.

The rate rises would cost someone with a £200,000 mortgage and a 10% deposit £26,000 extra in interest over a 26-year term.

Savvy Britons will be looking at ways to negate the cost of living crunch – and one way is to take advantage of bribes on offer to switch current account.

The Automated Vehicle Act would aim to resolve the biggest grey area concerning bringing self-driving technology to our roads.

For an undisclosed fee, a division within Mini’s Plant Oxford will strip out the original car’s A-series engine and replace it with a 121bhp electric motor and battery.

Bestinvest will offer two paid-for advice services with one-off fees, alongside free investment coaching, delivered by its own advisers.

Poppy Brown (pictured) saved £950 by ditching takeaways, switching to Aldi for groceries and making coffees at home among other measures.

Even hardened hagglers like me become weary in the face of nonsensical pricing decisions.

The Department for Work and Pensions has faced a barrage of criticism over the fiasco which saw 134,000 mostly women miss out over decades.

Telecoms firms are set to inflict increases of around 10%, despite inflation hitting a 30-year high. Mobile phone companies are ramping up bills even higher.

I visited Morrisons in Holyhead on October 27. It was a particularly stormy day. When I returned to my car I found a loose trolley embedded in the rear light.

Fears of an invasion of Ukraine continue to escalate, with both the U.S. and UK governments removing some diplomats from the Ukrainian capital.

The jobs and earnings catastrophe for the City and UK plc, predicted so loudly by so many in the ‘remain’ camp, never materialised.

Last week we reported how parents like Jackie and James Taylor(pictured) were being bombarded with messages from crooks posing as their children.

Britain’s ambition to be the ‘go to’ place for tech and fintech listings was underlined in two keynote government reports last year.

The £5.1bn Oyu Tolgoi copper mine in Mongolia’s South Gobi region (pictured) has been beset by delays and cost overruns.

The FTSE 100 rebounded 1% while the FTSE 250 rose 0.9% after JP Morgan analysts said London-listed firms looked ‘exceptionally cheap’.

The Swiss lender was weighed down by the collapse of lender Greensill Capital last year and the implosion of hedge fund Archegos Capital.

The world’s richest man (pictured) is set to secure five tranches of shares worth around £5.2bn each in the coming months, according to analysts.

Chris Corbin and Jeremy King (pictured with his wife Lauren) run top London restaurants including The Wolseley, which is popular among celebrities.

Gilbert (pictured) who set up Aberdeen Asset Management, has agreed to buy River through his investment vehicle Assetco.

US semiconductor giant Nvidia is understood to have conceded that the deal is unlikely to complete after a fierce backlash from regulators worldwide.

HR Owen Bugatti London has taken delivery of the UK orders this week and pictured the trio parked in formation inside the dealership’s workshop.

Traders buying back into cheaper shares sent the stock market up today, but investors remain on a knife edge after yesterday’s 2.6% FTSE 100 fall.

It now expects to deliver an average of 37,000 to 43,000 barrels each day in 2022, and for production to expand throughout the year and exit rates to surpass the high end of its forecast range.

This afternoon, the FTSE 100 has closed up 1.02 per cent or 74.31 points to 7,371.46, and the FTSE 250 index has finished up 0.9 per cent or 193.21 points to 21,645.71.

The insurer’s investment arm, Aviva Investors, has told businesses it will judge them ‘on biodiversity and human rights as much as climate and executive pay’.

MPs condemned the underpaid state pension scandal as a ‘shameful shambles’ last week, and we published new cases of DWP payment chaos. ROS ALTMANN explains how to tix the crisis here.

A total of £4.8bn was borrowed in equity release mortgages in 2021, an increase of 24% compared to 2020.

As part of the deal, R&M shareholders will be entitled to receive 0.073 AssetCo new shares for each R&M share they hold.

Pets at Home has pipped First Direct to the post and been hailed as the top UK business when it comes to satisfying customers, the Institute of Customer Service, said.

The North West county beat southern regions Hampshire and Surrey to the unwanted title according to reports logged on the Fill That Hole website in 2021.

Energy and insurance bills fell marginally over 2021, with annual costs falling by £37 during the past 12 months, new research has revealed.

Well-known tonic water maker Fevertree Drinks is one of the 195 AIM-listed companies that hands cash back to investors through divis, but there are also some less-known names that do so.

On a day of turmoil on financial markets worldwide, the FTSE 100 index fell 2.6% or 196.98 points while the FTSE 250 plunged 3.6% or 810.74 points.

It has added a pure electric Renault Zoe van to its fleet in a UK-first trial to understand how it will be able to use EVs after new petrol and diesel vans are banned from 2030.

Last September the company, which owns B&Q and Screwfix in the UK and Castorama and Brico Depot in France and other markets, committed to purchase £300million of its shares for cancellation.

The FCA said it planned to act amid a rise in the number of firms developing proposals, like Scheme of Arrangements, to deal with hefty liabilities to consumers, in particular redress liabilities.

A new savings and resilience barometer launched by Hargreaves Lansdown looked at how likely people at different ages and income levels are to achieve a moderate income or above.

Filing a self-assessment tax return can also prevent those on higher incomes from being caught out by charges for breaching how much they can put in their pension pot each year.

We are joint executors but don’t get on. He failed to turn the water off and a ceiling collapsed in our parents’ home. Lawyer Gary Rycroft replies.

Vodafone shares jumped 4.5% after it emerged the firm held talks late last year about buying rival UK mobile network Three from CK Hutchison.

The online retailer’s stock fell 18.7%, taking losses since the start of 2022 to 47%. The shares are down 76% from their 500p float price in September 2020.

Mike Corcoran (pictured) said he was leaving the troubled lender immediately. The company refused to disclose the reasons for his departure.

KKR’s purchase of the European bicycle giant, which is based in the Netherlands, comes after cycling boomed during the pandemic.

Andrew Forrest (pictured), founder and chairman of Fortescue Metals, will buy the unit, based in the Oxfordshire, to help it reach its green targets.

Element’s wide-ranging work includes testing Rolls-Royce plane engines and checking how corrosive oil and gas pipelines are.

The Australian financier (pictured), who sparked the biggest lobbying scandal in a generation, has returned to his humble roots in rural Queensland.

The arrival of Nelson Peltz (pictured) and his £6bn-plus activist Trian Partners on the Unilever share register gave its equity a rare boost.

Trian Partners, run by billionaire Nelson Peltz, has reportedly built up a position in the consumer goods giant, which makes Dove soap.

The FTSE 100’s losses gathered pace through the day, with the leading UK stock market index closing down 2.6 per cent, or 197 points, at 7,297.1.

The M&G (Lux) Diversity and Inclusion Fund will be managed by Thembeka Stemela Dagbo (pictured) and will have a portfolio of between 30 and 40 stocks.

Genflow’s focus is on the Sirtuin 6 gene, or SIRT6 for short, which is seen as the ‘master regulator of healthy ageing’.

The Vauxhall Corsa is now the top selling car in the UK, but is it better than a Fiesta? Cars & motoring editor Rob Hull puts it to the test.

When Richard Ansell received notification of his new premium, he was shocked – a 15 per cent increase, so he decided to turn detective.

Emma Spencer fell foul of the scam after receiving a text, supposedly from Royal Mail, claiming a parcel couldn’t be delivered unless she paid a £2 fee.

It considers itself a steady eddie, delivering a respectable income and capital return through thick and thin.

Vodafone held talks late last year with Asian conglomerate CK Hutchison, owner of Three UK, about buying its rival.

Shareholders needing to find some cash as tax and credit card bills loom may choose to reduce their holdings. Others should keep the faith.

Recent years have undoubtedly been harsh for Hargreaves Services but the business has now been transformed. At £4.00, the shares are a buy.

I tried to sign on to claim state pension credits (anticipating gaps) but the DWP automatically closed my claim down when I tried to do this online.

Following anger from locals, the government will require second home owners to prove their property is rented for 70 days a year to get small business tax relief.

City sources said the owner of upmarket PetLab – Chris Masanto – is working with adviser Raymond James on a ‘strategic review’, which could lead to a sale.

As Larry Fink implies, some causes branded woke today will be viewed in future as right and just.

UK businesses made up five of the 12 deals completed in Europe, totalling around £2.4billion, according to research from law firm Mayer Brown.

L&G’s Rebuilding Britain Index showed that in 12 months there had been declines in healthcare and housing access, but less unemployment.

Halifax’s ‘green test’ means the lender will examine whether buyers of ‘green’ homes may have extra disposable income because their energy bills will be lower.

The board of the FTSE 100 insurer is finalising a blueprint for the payout which will get the sign-off next month.

Adverts for cryptocurrencies will be treated in the same way as other financial promotions, the watchdog now says.

They don’t seem to care about customers’ financial wellbeing – even when they have the perfect opportunity to give savers a little more. Disgraceful.

Dividends from UK-listed firms jumped by 46 per cent to £94.1billion, according to the latest UK Dividend Monitor from Link Group.

Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments, Bellway, Persimmon and Berkeley Group are all worth less than they were a year ago.

While its share price has now settled after crashing back down again, the GameStop share frenzy has had a lasting impact that reverberates to this day.

Me & My Money: Journalist, campaigner and TV presenter Dame Esther Rantzen would increase wages for care workers if she were made Chancellor.

A new set of 50p pieces will be put into circulation while Royal anniversary gold sovereigns will also be released in limited numbers.

After much correspondence, the loan was cancelled, but when I applied for a mortgage, NatWest said my credit record was unacceptable.

Supermarkets and customers love ‘25% off wine for 6 bottles or more’ offers but where do you stand when not all six arrive.

I’m in the process of having solar panels and a storage battery installed but am struggling to get a second generation smart meter and an affordable night time tariff. Can you help?

Murria, who is the company’s largest shareholder, is attempting to take it private through a tie-up with investment firm AdvancedAdvT.

Firms paid £94.1billion in dividends in 2021, similar to mid-2017 levels, according to tech firm Link Group.

The number of 16-24-year-olds contacting the FOS for debt help has risen sharply. We explain how to get your finances back on track.

Industry sources say AstraZeneca is closing in on a contract with the Government to buy significant supplies of its drug Evusheld.

The League One football club, which is owned by the fans, wants to raise money to repay a bridging loan for the development of its stadium.

Bert Flossbach urged chief executive Alan Jope to stick to improving performance rather than chasing costly deals.

Ed Woodward has contributed to a seed funding round for My Supper Hero. Klass and Barber launched the business late last year.

Court documents show Stanford contacted private equity fund Lion Capital, claiming ‘rightful ownership’ of 62 per cent of the shares.

Has the great rotation begun? That’s the phrase given to the idea that investors will switch out of the shares of high-tech companies, and back into the solid corporations.

James Congdon, who runs the Quest research unit at broker Canaccord Genuity, said Aston Martin’s equity does look ‘vulnerable’.

A string of retailers including Next and Ocado have introduced policies which limit sick pay for unjabbed employees who have to self-isolate.

Baldridge is coming to London for a charm offensive with media and officials examining the deal, which is its biggest ever takeover.

Armed with a thermal imaging camera, Toby put their tips to the test at his drafty home where he spends £3,000 a year keeping it vaguely warm.

Mark Mitchell has resigned from his role running Avant Homes, which was bought by Fairburn’s Berkeley DeVeer with backing from US hedge fund Elliott.

The lender, which is owned by BC Partners and Pollen Street Capital, has also started discussions with other investors about possibly taking a stake.

I’ve been driving one ahead of first deliveries to remind myself how far the Czech marque has come in the two decades since its launch.

Matthew Chamberlain will step down from the City institution at the end of April to run an obscure crypto-currency startup.

Hermann Hauser said that Arm could list as a standalone company with some of its largest customers taking stakes.

Chairman Anita Frew has begun drawing up a list of successors for East, who has led the most prestigious name in British engineering since 2015.

In the US, the Nasdaq has fallen 10 per cent since the start of the year. And there were big pre-weekend falls on Europe’s exchanges.

The former boss of Lloyds Bank had a weekend of sporting fun in July, when he should have been at home isolating due to travel restrictions.

Ministers bowed to pressure after protests from green groups and ordinary citizens, who claimed the mine would wreak environmental destruction.

So certain is Mark Zuckerberg of the potential of the next phase of the internet that Facebook, the company he founded and leads, is known as Meta Platforms.

A Spac is a special purpose acquisition vehicle, an ’empty shell’ company floated on a stock exchange.

There are worries that an invasion will result in sanctions, which could impact supplies of Russian oil and gas to the wider market.

Microsoft is predicted to report income for the period of around $17.5billion and revenues of about $50.9billion.

The company’s trading update in November saw it hike its adjusted underlying earnings guidance for 2021 to between £73million and £79million following a market-beating recovery.

Bentley’s Flying Spur Hybrid is a petrol-electric plug-in hybrid that marks an important early step in the car-maker’s drive towards electrification.

The FTSE 100 has closed down 1.2 per cent at 7,494.1, posting its first weekly decline since mid-December, while the FTSE 250 has ended the day 2 per cent lower at 22,263.24.

The estate-agent owned website, which is looking to disrupt Rightmove’s dominance, also forecast to make a profit in both the half and full-year, instead of just breakeven as it said in October.

Bitcoin has dipped below $40k as investors dumped cryptocurrencies amid a wider tech selloff as investors prepare for an interest rate hike.

2020, when Best of the Best was one of the year’s best performers, seems a long time ago as the weekly online competitions firm saw its shares slump 34 per cent.

Britishvolt’s facility in Blyth, Northumberland, will create 3,000 UK jobs and build the fuel cells needed for 300,000 electric car batteries.

Judges said the EV6 was the unanimous winner having ‘stood out for setting new benchmarks for electric cars’ from when it hit the market late last year.

People 70s-plus often put off thinking about giving money away to their children when they were younger, but by then there is not much time left, explains Osbornes Law.

London benefitted from a faster expansion of its infrastructure, with 102 devices per 100k population, while areas like the North West have just 24 per 100k.

The spread of the Omicron variant has left many UK companies nursing a drop in sales in December, but there are signs the economy is picking up again this month.

The £1billion underpaid state pensions scandal has seen women miss out on pensions they are due, we explain how to find out if you are owed money.

A 78-year-old Eon customer saw her monthly energy bill surge from £78 a month to over £1,800 per month for December 2021 and January 2022.

The Ladbrokes and PartyPoker owner forecasts making between £875million and £885million in underlying earnings for the 2021 financial year.

MPs accuse the DWP of showing ‘litte interest’ in helping women suddenly receiving large backpayments with the knock-on effects, like cuts to benefits or financial assistance with care bills.

After hearing from the DWP, many members of the committee remained concerned that the human cost of this organisational disaster still wasn’t fully appreciated, says SNP MP Peter Grant,

People are continuing to use less cash after new figures revealed the number of ATM withdrawals fell 6% annually.

Ben van Beurden (pictured) said it was ‘deeply troubling’ that the oil giant was being singled out for the way the world uses energy.

JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Citigroup collectively doled out over £104bn in pay and benefits in 2021.

The Chancellor said he was ‘looking at lots of things’ to support companies and households as they battle with soaring energy costs.

The 73-year-old Irish businessman’s consortium JKO Play had been planning to offer 750p per share for the FTSE 250 group, valuing it at around £3bn.

Fund manager Terry Smith (pictured) has taken a second pop at Unilever in as many weeks, accusing its bosses of playing ‘gin rummy management’.

The High Street discount retailer, which employs some 29,000 staff, will cut the roles from its 191 UK stores in response to rising cost pressures.

The accumulation of market power by the digital giants is frightening. Yet US politicians show no inclination to embrace anti-trust crusading.

The food delivery firm’s shares rose 1.4%, or 2.4p, to 172p after it flagged a 42% rise in orders to 80.8m in the fourth quarter of 2021.

In this interview with Simon Lambert, Steven tells us his story, how he got ahead and his tips for anyone else wanting to start a business.

About 15,300 new clients joined the online investment platform between October and December, taking its total customer base to 398,066.

Of all the driver retraining courses attended last year, 86 per cent were speed awareness sessions offered to those motorists who have been caught exceeding a limit.

After a major drop in car insurance prices at the start of 2021, prices have been on an upward trend – adding to the cost of living pressures facing many households.

Enquiries from buyers looking to move on or up the property ladder increased in December, but homes on estate agents’ books remain low, Rics said.