Business

The Chinese owner of Stemcor, the historic British steel trader, is exploring a sale less than a year after it last changed hands. Sky News has learnt that Stemcor, which was founded by the father of Dame Margaret Hodge, the veteran Labour MP, has been the subject of discussions about a fresh change of ownership

The troubled online estate agent Purplebricks has revealed a sale of the business to rival Strike, for the token sum of just £1. Purplebricks Group, which put itself up for sale in February after a series of profit warnings, said it had entered a conditional agreement to transfer its business to Strike that would include

The chief executive of JD Sports Fashion has told Sky News he sees further price increases ahead following a year of record profits for the retailer. The company, which has not been immune from the energy-led surge in costs linked to the war in Ukraine, reported profit before tax and exceptional items of £991.4m for

Ian King’s speaking to Andrew Opie at the British Retail Consortium about today’s summit looking at food inflation and supply issues. Chris Gray, Director at ManpowerGroup UK, reacts to rising unemployment figures, Jaeger Glucina, the managing director of AI company Luminance, talks about law-focused Artificial Intelligence; and there’s analysis of the headlines from The Times’

WhatsApp users will soon be able to lock and hide conversations, thanks to a new feature. Chat Lock will remove a chat thread from the app’s regular onscreen inbox and place it into a new folder that can only be opened by a password or biometric, such as facial recognition or a fingerprint. Calling it

For all its seaside delights, Margate in Kent is one of the most deprived parts of the UK. Amid the cost of living crisis, many families are struggling to make ends meet. Falling ill can become a headlong plunge into poverty – as Kyra Lloyd, a 25-year-old shop assistant, discovered when she began experiencing agonising

The governor of the Bank of England has told Sky News he expects inflation to fall “rapidly” in just weeks – but warned two thirds of the pain from interest rate rises is yet to come. Andrew Bailey made the comments after interest rates were increased for a record-breaking 12th successive time, lifting the cost

Google has announced its first folding smartphone, with a market-leading starting price of £1,749. That puts the Pixel Fold well ahead of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4, the world’s most expensive foldable handset, which comes in at £1,649. Like its competitor, Google‘s effort has a familiar smartphone form factor when closed but opens up into

One of the world’s biggest private equity investors is in talks to buy United Living Group, a social housebuilder and provider of property and infrastructure services. Sky News has learnt that Apollo Global Management has entered exclusive negotiations to buy the privately held business. One source said United Living’s valuation was expected to be well

JD Sports Fashion will complete the overhaul of its top executive team this week when it raids the owner of the Comparethemarket price comparison site to appoint its new finance chief. Sky News has learnt that the London-listed retailer has finalised the appointment of Dominic Platt, who is currently chief financial officer at privately held

A not-for-profit company set up nearly a decade ago in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal will this week appoint a veteran City banker as its next chair. Sky News understands Jonathan Moulds has been lined up to head the Financial Markets Standards Board (FMSB), with an announcement expected to be made on Tuesday.

One of the co-founders of Funding Circle, the London-listed fintech, is taking the helm of a solar energy start-up which promises to bring down the cost of renewable power for households and small businesses. Sky News understands that Rainbow Energy, which was founded in 2020, will announce this week that it has recruited Andrew Mullinger

BP is exploring a sale of two of the companies owned by its early-stage ventures arm in a move which could raise tens of millions of pounds. Sky News has learnt that the FTSE 100 company’s Launchpad division has begun contacting prospective buyers of Lytt and Onyx Insight in recent weeks. Lytt transforms large amounts

Apple has beat Wall Street expectations and market trends in reporting increased iPhone sales in its second quarter results. Both revenues and profits were above investor predictions as a record number of iPhones were sold for the second three month period in its financial year. Sales for the year ending 1 April dropped overall –

A defence-focused British artificial intelligence software company chaired by a veteran of City boardrooms has raised a substantial round of funding to fuel its expansion. Sky News has learnt that Adarga, which helps the Ministry of Defence and national security-focused clients identify threats more effectively by sifting vast amounts of information, has secured £17m from

The future of commercial king salmon trolling in Southeast Alaska has been thrown into doubt after a court ruled on the threat it poses to the protected fish and endangered killer whales that eat them. Trolling involves dragging a baited line through the water and the valuable industry supports around 1,500 fishing jobs. Wild Fish

The big four accountancy firm KPMG is racing to resolve an embarrassing administrative mix-up which has left British-based employees being given erroneous information about their tax payments. Sky News has learned that the professional services giant is close to resolving an issue which emerged last week, according to insiders. The fiasco is understood to have

Shakespeare and the Spice Girls were used by environmental protestors to repeatedly disrupt the Barclays annual general meeting (AGM) in central London on Wednesday morning. Activists from Extinction Rebellion, Fossil Free London and Climate Choir were protesting the UK high street bank’s investment in new fossil fuel projects despite heavy security at the AGM venue.

Elon Musk is wrong to call for a global pause in the development of AI, which would play into the hands of rogue regimes, a new report has warned. The SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter owner was one of 1,000 people to put his name to a letter saying humanity faced “profound risks” due to the

Apple and Google have teamed up to thwart people who try to track others using devices designed to help find lost keys and luggage. The rival tech giants do not often collaborate on new features for their smartphones, with a joint initiative to create contact tracing software during the pandemic one of few past examples.