Business

A private equity consortium has approached Aggreko, the FTSE-250 temporary power supplier, about a potential £2bn takeover deal. Sky News understands that TDR Capital, which is in the process of buying the British supermarket chain Asda, and I Squared Capital, an infrastructure fund, have tabled an indicative proposal to Aggreko’s board in recent days. The

Around 15 million families will see their energy bills rise by up to £96 after the regulator hiked the price cap. The return to pre-coronavirus levels is mainly as a result of increase in wholesale costs, according to Ofgem. For six months from 1 April the price cap will increase by £96 to £1,138 for

Almost a third of house sales fell through in January as buyers nervously eyed the looming end of the stamp duty holiday, according to a report. Rightmove said 29% of proposed purchases collapsed across Britain during the month – a figure that has slowly accelerated month-on-month since November last year as the clock ticks down

The Bank of England has predicted that the economy will “recover rapidly” this year – as it left interest rates on hold at 0.1%. Latest forecasts from the Bank suggest that after taking a steep downturn during the current period of lockdowns, the roll-out of vaccines and scaling back of restrictions will boost growth for

Boris Johnson has vowed to “do everything we need to do” – including an attempt to override post-Brexit arrangements with the EU – in order to “ensure there is no barrier down the Irish Sea”. Having held talks with Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster on Wednesday morning, the prime minister later raised the prospect

Indecision over state support for Britain’s airports risks leaving a “closed for business” sign hanging over the country, Boris Johnson has been told by one of his most prominent backers for the Conservative Party leadership. Sky News has seen a letter from David Davis, the Tory backbencher, and Lord Blunkett, a former home secretary under

Amazon has announced its founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is to step down from running the business as it reported record revenues for its core Christmas quarter, topping $100bn for the first time with help from the coronavirus pandemic. The e-commerce, cloud data storage and entertainment giant said Bezos would become executive chair during the

Interest-free “buy-now-pay-later” (BNPL) deals face tighter regulation under plans announced by the government. A review published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that the currently unregulated use of BNPL products nearly quadrupled to £2.7bn during 2020 and five million people had used them since the start of the pandemic. It concluded that the market

Silver has become the latest target of a small-time trading frenzy that last week targeted US retailer Gamestop – as the boss of the London Stock Exchange group admitted that the trend was a worry. The price of the precious metal rose 11% to its highest level since Feburary 2013 at more than $30 an

ASOS has agreed to buy Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge – but their 70 stores, employing 2,500 people, are not included in the deal. The online retailer is paying a total of £330m for the brands, plus stock currently held and on order, following the collapse late last year of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia retail

Serco, the outsourcing giant behind NHS Test and Trace, has confirmed that it was hit by a cyber attack – but told Sky News its oft-criticised scheme had not been impacted. The company won several coronavirus-related contracts, including NHS Test and Trace, via a procurement system that came under fire from the public spending watchdog

ASOS is this weekend on the brink of capping one of the most tumultuous months in the history of the British high street by sealing a deal worth nearly £300m to buy TopShop and Miss Selfridge. Sky News understands that the online fashion retailer hopes to sign an agreement with Arcadia Group’s administrators ahead of

Lenders to Virgin Active are preparing for a fight over the future of one of Britain’s biggest gym chains as its owners draw up a radical blueprint to help it survive the pandemic. Sky News has learnt that a syndicate of roughly half a dozen banks held a beauty parade of financial advisers this week

Financial markets have been rocked this week by a battle initiated by ordinary people against those who are usually dubbed market manipulators – hedge funds. This is not being fought on trading floors but online and is a consequence of an explosion in the popularity of amateur share trading by armchair investors and collaboration among

A record percentage of retail space is lying empty as the coronavirus crisis places intolerable pressure on businesses, according to industry data. The latest BRC-LDC vacancy monitor, which excludes stores forced to shut their doors because of COVID-19 restrictions, found 13.7% of all shops were empty in the final quarter of 2020. Store vacancies had

Shares in US retailer GameStop have fallen 44% to lose some of the extraordinary gains fuelled by Reddit users – only to recover again in after-hours trading. Thousands of investors have been buying the shares to try to reap quick gains and impose losses on hedge funds who have “shorted” the company – betting billions