Summary

  • UK-China nuclear plant deal agreed worth £18bn

  • Fiat and Starbucks must repay tax - EU regulator

  • Chinese tourists to get cheaper visas - FT

  • Ferrari shares close higher on stock market debut

  • Argos owner warns of 'unpredictable' Christmas

  1. Home Retail Group: 'Investors rightly spooked'published at 11:52

    Shares in Argos owner, Home Retail Group are down almost 16% after it warned over profits.

    Julie Palmer, from Begbies Traynor - the business turnaround specialists -  commented: 

    Quote Message

    With reports that Christmas trading volumes within its Argos business are at best uncertain, while increased investment in its home delivery and store collection propositions are expected to hold back full year profits too, investors are rightly spooked by management’s lack of confidence, which experience tells them may be an early warning sign of more bad tidings to come

  2. Syngenta boss departspublished at 11:28

    Mike MackImage source, Getty Images

    Mike Mack, the boss of Syngenta, is stepping down just two months after the Swiss agrochemicals group company spurned a $47bn offer from US rival Monsanto. 

    Syngenta, the world's largest maker of pesticides, has been under pressure to boost shareholder returns after rejecting the takeover deal. Its third-quarter sales also  fell more than expected last week.

    Mr Mack, 55, has been chief executive since 2008. 

  3. Chinese keen for London to help renminbipublished at 11:20

    BBC News Channel

    "British policy makers are concerned about the fact that Britain has lagged behind France and Germany in engaging with China economically," says Niv Horesh, the director of the Chinese Policy Institute at Nottingham University on BBC News.

    He says there are two issues at stake during this visit. The first is the investment in the nuclear power plant.

    But also the Chinese are hoping that the City of London can turn the Chinese currency, the renminbi, into more of a global reserve currency. 

    The Chinese are very keen on promoting this, says Mr Horesh.

  4. How the Bank of England could help EU out campaignpublished at 11:08

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  5. Tax probe - just the start, EC sayspublished at 11:01

    EC competition commissioner Margrethe VestagerImage source, AP

    EC competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that other member states were being investigated for tax-break deals that lured corporations to their countries. 

    It follows news that Luxembourg and The Netherlands must recoup back taxes from Fiat and Starbucks.

    "This will remove the unfair advantage they have enjoyed," Ms Vestager says.

    Fiat's taxes "would have been 20 times higher if calculations had been done at market conditions,'' she added.

    "We do not stop here. We continue the enquiries into tax rulings. More cases may come if we have indications that EU state aid rules are not being complied with.'' 

  6. Luxembourg responds to Fiat tax rulingpublished at 10:42

    Quote Message

    Luxembourg disagrees with the conclusions reached by the European Commission in the Fiat Finance and Trade case... Luxembourg will use appropriate due diligence to analyse the decision of the Commission as well as its legal rationale. Luxembourg already notes that the EC has used unprecedented criteria in establishing the alleged State aid. In particular, the Commission has not established in any way that Fiat Finance and Trade received selective advantages with reference to Luxembourg’s national legal framework. Luxembourg does not consider that Fiat Finance and Trade has been granted incompatible State aid... Luxembourg adheres to international standards, in particular those relating to the arm’s length principle applicable with respect to transfer pricing, and with State aid rules

    Luxembourg press statement

  7. Fiat and Starbucks must repay taxpublished at 10:28

    More on the news that the EU has ruled that "sweetheart" tax deals between companies and member states is illegal.

    Under ruling, Luxembourg must recover €20-30m from Fiat, and The Netherlands recover the same amount from Starbucks.

    The issue turned on whether the deals that companies struck with individual member states constituted state aid.

  8. Fiat and Starbucks must repay taxpublished at 10:21

    Margrethe Vestager

    Here's what European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager says about the EU's decision to rule that special tax deals between individual states and corporations are illegal:

    "Tax rulings that artificially reduce a company's tax burden are not in line with EU state aid rules. They are illegal. I hope that, with today's decisions, this message will be heard by member state governments and companies alike.

    "All companies, big or small, multinational or not, should pay their fair share of tax.".

  9. EU demands repayment of tax breakspublished at 10:16

    The European Union is demanding that Starbucks and Fiat repay up to €30m each in tax breaks they received from EU nations. EU antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in support of the ruling that "all companies, big or small, multinational or not, should pay their fair share of tax.'' 

  10. Oil price fall hits Middle East revenuespublished at 10:08

    The International Monetary Fund says a fall in oil prices and deepening turmoil in parts of the Middle East will keep growth subdued this year at 2.5%. The IMF's Middle East economic outlook says the region's oil exporters have lost $360bn in revenues this year due to the fall in prices. It said reforms in Gulf Arab countries that create more jobs and economic diversification are "all the more urgent".  

  11. Stop subsidising BT, says Virgin bosspublished at 09:54

    Tom Mockridge

    Virgin Media chief Tom Mockridge has been on Radio 4 talking about why the government should scrap a subsidy given to BT to improve broadband access in areas of the UK that don't have it.

    Private firms would step in if there was a level playing field, he says, and the money could be used elsewhere. "There are plenty of demands for public money in this country."

    He also disputes official figures saying that four million people don't have access to broadband. "Pretty much everyone in the UK has access to broadband. The issue is, not everyone has access to good broadband," he insists.

  12. Investigation into VW's 'missing file'published at 09:37

    VW headquartersImage source, Getty Images

    The AP news agency is reporting that the German state of Lower Saxony has filed a criminal complaint after discovering that a file on scandal-hit Volkswagen had disappeared.

    A spokeswoman for the state government says the file, which included internal government memos on the emissions scandal, was last seen on 9 October.

    Lower Saxony is a minority shareholder in Volkswagen and its governor sits on the company's supervisory board. The spokewoman, Anke Poerksen, said staff had been questioned but so far "no concrete results" indicating the whereabouts of the file had emerged.      

  13. Starbucks and Fiat face EU tax billpublished at 09:19

    BBC Business Live

    We're expecting a ruling this morning from European competition authorities over tax deals made between Starbucks and the Netherlands, and Fiat and Luxembourg.

    The EU has been looking at whether those deals amount to state aid.

    "It's important to realise that the EU is not going after the companies, it's going after the member states," said Glyn Fullelove, chairman of the international tax committee at the Chartered Institute of Taxation.

    "It's saying to the Netherlands and Luxembourg: 'You gave illegal state aid'. So it's up to the states to defend themselves," he added.

  14. Tea culture 'practically destroyed' in 20th centurypublished at 09:12

    BBC Business Live

    Nirmal Sethia, founder Newby Teas created a foundation that has the biggest and finest collection of tea pots and tea sets in the world and includes Lord Nelson's teapot.

    He says that tea culture was "practically destroyed" in the 20th century, as tea bags meant that "everything could be concealed".

    A big change came in the early 1960s when tea auctions in London ended he said.

    Business LiveImage source, bb
  15. CBI backs Britain in a reformed EUpublished at 09:04

    EU flag

    The CBI employers' group has weighed into the Brexit debate, warning that leaving the European Union would have "serious downsides" for Britain.

    It says that the EU needs reforming and that there are "downsides" to saying in. But these "are significantly outweighed by the benefits".

    The CBI's report comes ahead of a speech later by Bank of England governor Mark Carney, who is expected to outline the potential economic consequences of leaving the EU.

  16. Pearson shares slumppublished at 08:59

    It's been a bad start to the day for Pearson shares, down 13.64% and by far the worst performer in the FTSE 100. The education publisher has warned, external that earnings will be at the bottom end of its forecast due to lower enrolments at some US colleges and poorer trading in South Africa. The slump in the shares is Pearson's sharpest fall for 15 years.

    "The key cyclical and policy-related factors which have been hurting our markets for some years have yet to improve," chief executive John Fallon says.

  17. Spending on nuclear 'more than Olympics and Crossrail'published at 08:48

    Simon Jack on Business Live

    At £25bn, the spending on the new Hinkley nuclear power station will be as much as the spending on the Olympics and London's Crossrail project combined, according to Simon Jack on Business Live.

    The electricity the plant produces is going to be expensive, at £92.50 per megawatt hour. That is double the current price, he says.

    "But who knows, in 25 years that might look like a great deal, but at the moment we just don't know," Simon says.

  18. All employers will have to organise pensionspublished at 08:22

    BBC Radio 5 Live

    For bigger companies auto-enrolment in pensions began back in 2012. 

    Now the government, external is telling very small firms that they need to join the scheme too.

    If staff are over age the of 22 and earn more than £10,000 an employer has to automatically enroll them in a pension.

    If staff earn less than that or are younger, but request a pension, you have to set-something up, 

    "If you employ somebody, then you have now in the UK an obligation to consider setting up a pension ... that's the norm now," Ros Altman the Pensions Minister tells Radio 5 live. 

    Ms Altman says the information campaign "personified the pension as a giant, friendly, multi-coloured character who you can engage with and its good for you to engage with."

    That's a bit weird.

  19. Home Retail Group shares plunge; FTSE opens lowerpublished at 08:19

    Shares in Home Retail Group (the owner of Argos) have plunged 14% after it warned over disappointing annual profits.

    But shares in computer chip designed Arm have surged 7% after its third quarter results.

    Overall the FTSE 100 is 0.3% lower in early trading.

  20. Nuclear deal a 'big day' for UK industrypublished at 08:07

    BBC Breakfast

    Quote Message

    A whole spectrum of jobs across Britain's manufacturing base will benefit from this multi-billion pound deal and it's a really bright spot on the horizon for UK industry and remember this will be the first of several of these very large nuclear reactors that will be built. This is, I think, is an excellent day for British industry and will help secure tens of thousands of jobs for decades to come, it's brilliant news."

    Lord Hutton, Chairman, Nuclear Industry Associaton