1 Pension investigators could latch on to the support provided by Sir Philip Green to BHS in the four years before its controversial sale for £1 to force the billionaire businessman to pay millions of pounds to fill a hole in the retailer’s retirement fund.
2 Seven years after it launched a VAT claim over its Spot The Ball game, Sportech came tantalisingly close to recouping £97 million from HM Revenue & Customs. Celebrations were somewhat muted as HMRC has until the end of next week to decide whether to apply for permission to take its appeal to the Supreme Court.
3 The big four supermarkets are finding things tough. Overall supermarket sales in the 12 weeks to April 24 were up only 0.1 per cent on a year ago, according to Kantar Worldpanel. Like-for-like sales, adjusted for new stores, have fallen every month for the past 17 months.
4 Greece defied its creditors as it refused to agree to €3.6 billion in extra cuts to meet an IMF order to set up a contingency scheme in the event that the cash-strapped country fails to meet fiscal targets. The country is sinking deeper into a six-year depression that has already wiped out a quarter of the national output since 2010.
5 EDF’s former finance chief tried to persuade the French energy giant to postpone plans to build an £18 billion nuclear power station at Hinkley Point, Somerset, for at least three years, he told French MPs.
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6 Land Rover has placed a bet that the buyers of its cars, and a new generation of outdoor enthusiasts and extreme sports fans, will want to own the equivalent of a four-wheel-drive smartphone.
7 Paddy Power Betfair, the bookmaker and betting exchange, said that operating profits came in 36 per cent higher on a pro-forma basis at £42 million for the first quarter of the year. That was after customers claimed £20 million from backing winners at Cheltenham in March when short-priced favourites were first past the post.
8 New EU rules that ban menthol cigarettes and impose standard packaging on tobacco will be brought in over the next 12 months after three separate legal challenges were dismissed by the European Court of Justice.
9 Federal prosecutors in Brazil are seeking £30 billion from Samarco and its owners BHP Billiton and Vale for a dam disaster that killed at least 19 people in November. The civil lawsuit was filed by public attorneys.
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10 The FTSE 100 slumped to a one-month low and back to about 1,000 points off its record high as equity markets across the world beat a retreat amid renewed jitters over global economic growth.