1 Britain’s armed forces are up to £4 billion worse off because of a 200-year property deal. The National Audit Office says that the Ministry of Defence’s decision more than 20 years ago to sell 55,000 military houses to Annington Property Ltd and lease them back had ensured “a great deal for the landlord”.
2 Theresa May has been accused of a “baffling” decision to overlook China as she prepared to leave for her first trade mission to the country amid concerns that David Cameron’s drive for closer ties with Beijing has slowed.
3 Employers should provide quiet spaces at work that will help staff to switch off so that they can sleep better at night, according to the first guidance of its kind. It was drawn up by Business in the Community, an employers’ organisation, with Public Health England.
4 Stock markets are heading for sharp falls in the coming months, but investors should use the dip to buy shares, Goldman Sachs has recommended. A correction was a “high probability” but would not be prolonged, the investment bank predicted.
5 Growing disquiet that the new chief executive of Easyjet landed at the airline on a bigger salary than his successful, and female, predecessor Dame Carolyn McCall has prompted the new man to take a 4.5 per cent pay cut. Eyebrows were raised when it emerged that Johan Lundgren’s basic salary would be £740,000 — £34,000 more than Dame Carolyn’s £706,000.
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6 The company behind the Joe Bloggs and Elizabeth Emanuel fashion brands has gone into administration and is selling its assets, including its intellectual property rights and £7.5 million of stock.
7 One of Britain’s most senior accountants, four of his boardroom colleagues at Carillion and the audit firm KPMG will be the subject of the Financial Reporting Council’s largest ever investigation.
8 Crowdfunding investors have threatened legal action after a company they had funded announced its closure only months after it had secured more than £1 million in backing. Ridelink, which allowed people to rent out their cars, had said the plan would make it a world leader.
9 Relx, the FTSE 100 former publishing house that has turned itself into an information group, is buying a company that specialises in detecting fraud. It is paying £580 million for Threat Metrix in its fourth acquisition in Silicon Valley in only two years.
10 Strong sales of the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet helped Lockheed Martin to beat Wall Street’s estimates for its fourth-quarter results. Sales of the aircraft, which the company builds with BAE Systems, rose by 38 per cent.