1 A record number of manufacturers are raising prices, with factory gate inflation of up to 10 per cent becoming “built in” to customers’ expectations, a survey by the trade body Make UK has revealed. Companies have increased their prices for the fourth quarter in a row, it showed.
2 Rupert Soames, the boss of Serco, the London-listed outsourcer and one of the government’s biggest contractors, has warned that the socially responsible investment industry that ministers helped to create is penalising the very companies the state needs to supply vital services.
3 Sir Paul McCartney is among a group of investors behind a £7.2 million funding round for the music start-up Audoo. The former Beatle joins existing investors Edinv and Tileyard London, alongside Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus, in financing the company. Page 39
4 The launch of Bank of London a fortnight ago was an unusually eye-catching affair in a staid sector The founder Anthony Watson hopes his new business, which has a banking licence from the Bank of England, will be a disruptive force in the world of payments, clearing, settlement and transaction banking.
5 Women now account for a majority of independent directors at Britain’s largest public companies, research has found. The biggest 150 groups listed on the stock market now employ 442 female non-executive directors, compared with 422 men, a report from Spencer Stuart, a headhunting firm, shows.
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6 Lending to companies is forecast to have fallen this year in a sign that some businesses are making progress in paying down the debt piles that corporate Britain amassed to survive the pandemic, according to EY Item Club.
7 Investor rebellions against company directors have risen this year as fund managers increasingly use the power they wield over boards to hold listed businesses to account, according to a report by Thomson Reuters.
8 The energy watchdog will today unveil plans to unlock billions of pounds of new investment in electricity links between Britain and its neighbours. Ofgem will invite bids to build more interconnectors, which are the undersea cables that link the UK’s electricity network to continental Europe.
9 The number of homes for sale has fallen to the lowest level on record in a sharp slowdown from the hectic pace of buying and selling during the pandemic, figures from Rightmove, the property portal, indicate.
10 Fulham Shore, the operator of the Franco Manca and Real Greek restaurant chains, is expected to start paying dividends at its full-year results after strong trading.