1 EY’s army of auditors and consultants generated more fees than ever over the past year despite the distraction of its failed break-up plan. The firm’s UK revenues rose 16 per cent to £3.76 billion in the year to end-June, topping its previous record of £3.23 billion in 2022.
2 The boss of Standard Chartered yesterday described third-quarter figures from the emerging markets-focused bank as a “solid set of results”, but shares in the FTSE 100 lender tumbled after it disclosed a hit of almost $900 million from its exposure to China, including a mounting crisis in the country’s property sector.
3 The future of Hipgnosis Songs Fund is in doubt after investors voted against the music investment trust’s continuation in its present form. More than 80 per cent of investors voted down Hipgnosis’s attempt to secure support to keep going as it is for another two years.
4 Girl power, in the form of Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Barbie, has helped to drive the fastest growth in America’s economy in nearly two years. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis said gross domestic product had expanded at an annual rate of 4.9 per cent in the three months to September.
5 Tesco said Jason Tarry, 56, its UK and Ireland chief executive, will step down in March after more than 33 years at the company. He will be succeeded by Matthew Barnes, who joined Aldi Ireland in 2000 and rose to join the executive board of Aldi Süd, its German parent.
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6 The Restaurant Group has said the owner of PizzaExpress could make a takeover offer, starting a bidding war with Apollo Global Management. Wheel Topco has asked for due diligence information as it considers a bid to compete with a £700 million approach from Apollo.
7 A botched software upgrade has been blamed for wiping €22 million from half-year profits at C&C Group, the company behind Magners cider and Tennent’s lager.
8 Unilever will continue to operate in Russia despite pressure on the consumer goods giant to quit the country. Boss Hein Schumacher had pledged to look at its decision “with a fresh pair of eyes” after an injured Ukrainian soldier accused Unilever of “hypocrisy”.
9 The world’s biggest advertising group has cut its full-year forecasts for the second time this year amid a slowdown in spending by the US tech companies. WPP said there had been “continued weakness from technology clients”.
10 A bumper billion-pound holiday season in which Heathrow processed more passengers than ever before lifted the airport to within £19 million of breaking even. But passengers are being more careful with their money, spending less than they did in retail outlets.