Shop prices climbed at their fastest rate for nearly three years last month and the increase looks set to accelerate, according to a monthly report published by the retail industry. Figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) showed prices in December were 0.8% up compared with a year earlier, the highest rate since March 2019.
Business
David Bowie’s back catalogue has been sold to Warner Music Group in a deal reported to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The deal covers songs from the 26 studio albums released within the star’s life as well as the posthumous album Toy, and two he made with the band Tin Machine. It spans
One of Britain’s most acquisitive insurance companies has struck a £400m deal to snap up the group which distributes policies for the likes of Marks & Spencer and the RAC. Sky News has learnt that Markerstudy has agreed to buy BGL Insurance, which is owned by the group behind the Comparethemarket price comparison platform in
Twenty Conservative politicians have urged Boris Johnson to scrap energy taxes as bills continue to rocket. The MPs and peers have written a letter in the Sunday Telegraph to ask the prime minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak to help consumers facing “fuel poverty”. Energy prices in the UK are being forced up faster than any
Microsoft says it is aware of a programming flaw which saw some customers’ Exchange servers stop processing emails just as the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve. System administrators, who are sharing workarounds on social media, have dubbed the bug Y2K22 – in the style of the Y2K bug which affected some computers at
Guy Hands, the billionaire financier, is plotting the sale of the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) biggest landlord in what could be one of Britain’s biggest private equity deals of 2022. Sky News has learnt that Mr Hands’ Terra Firma Capital Partners has begun talks with investment banks about overseeing an auction of Annington Homes. City
Tencent Holdings, the Chinese technology behemoth, is taking a stake in Monzo, the British-based digital bank which has confounded expectations by securing a $4.5bn (£3.3bn) valuation. Sky News has learnt that Tencent, which has become a prolific investor in Europe‘s burgeoning tech sector, has subscribed to shares as part of a $100m (£74m) top-up to
New rules banning a loyalty penalty for car and home insurance customers take effect from 1 January. The rules mean customers renewing their policy will have to be offered a price no higher than if they were a new customer. They are designed to tackle the practice of “price walking”, where firms offer below-cost deals
On the final day of the year, Alex Proud’s nightclubs are still not sold out for New Year celebrations. The founder of the Proud Group who runs a club on the Embankment in London told Sky News the situation is “disastrously bad”. “We’re not yet sold out but the whole of the UK is like
The owners of Shawbrook, one of Britain’s biggest challenger banks, are exploring plans to list it on the London Stock Exchange less than five years after taking it private. Sky News has learnt that BC Partners and Pollen Street Capital, the two private equity firms which each own 50% of Shawbrook, are holding talks with
Liquidators of the Thomas Cook travel empire which became one of Britain’s best-known companies during its 178-year history have launched a bid to offload its stake in the company behind the UK’s air traffic control operations. Sky News has learnt that AlixPartners, the professional services firm, launched a process shortly before Christmas to sell Thomas
Households face an average hit of £1,200 to their incomes from the double whammy of rising energy bills and taxes, a think tank has said. The Resolution Foundation (RF) says families are facing a “cost-of-living catastrophe” when the energy price cap goes up and National Insurance contributions (NICs) rise by 1.25 percentage points in April.
Footfall at shopping sites across the UK on Boxing Day fell to almost half of levels seen pre-pandemic, figures show. Shopping centres, usually filled with Boxing Day sale bargain hunters, saw footfall plunge by almost 50% compared to the same day in 2019, while high streets and retail parks saw falls of 38% and 40%.
The Premier League is facing a fresh bout of boardroom upheaval with the resignation of its longest-serving independent director amid the COVID-induced chaos that has hit the top flight of English football. Sky News has learnt that Kevin Beeston, who joined the Premier League board in 2015, has informed colleagues that he plans to step
People are expected to do more post-Christmas sales shopping online but spend more in previous years, a survey has found. Shoppers plan to spend on average of £247 each in the end-of-year sales, an increase of £85 on last year and £61 more than in 2019, in a reassuring sign for online retailers, according to
Central London saw the biggest drop in footfall of anywhere in the country as concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant kept shoppers at home. The number of shoppers in the capital was 30.3% lower on the morning of Christmas Eve than it was on the previous Friday, new data from Springboard has shown.
The university spin-out venture chaired by Lord O’Neill, the former Treasury minister and Goldman Sachs economist, has secured backing from a syndicate of City investment giants. Sky News has learnt that funds managed by M&G Investments, Lansdowne Partners and Columbia Threadneedle are to invest in Northern Gritstone, a collaboration between the universities of Leeds, Manchester
Selfridges has been bought by a Thai retailer and Austrian property company in a £4bn deal, according to reports. The luxury department store chain was bought by the Weston family in 2003, who then went on to establish the Selfridges Group in 2010. But the Selfridges portfolio, which includes 18 sites across England, Ireland and
Lloyds has apologised after some customers were unable to access their online banking accounts on Thursday evening. Users began tweeting they were having problems logging in to the app and website just after 9pm. For some, a message popped up on some screens reading: “We are sorry that our internet banking is currently unavailable. Please
The businessman drafted in by Boris Johnson to advise on the supply chain problems which hit the British economy in the autumn has concluded that major infrastructure changes are needed to avert repeated crises. Sky News has seen an email sent by Sir Dave Lewis, the former Tesco chief executive, to participants in his review