1 Alan Bates labelled former Post Office executives as “little more than thugs in suits” as he called on the government to sell the company. The campaigner for subpostmasters, who gave up work to fight for justice over two decades, told a public inquiry that bosses during the 2010s had conducted a “cover-up”.
2 HSBC is braced for a billion-dollar hit after a deal to sell its business in Argentina. Grupo Financiero Galicia has agreed to buy the division, which has more than 100 branches, for $550 million. HSBC is likely to take a $1 billion pre-tax loss in the first quarter as a result.
3 Two retail groups have expressed an interest in purchasing Ted Baker’s stricken European retail business. Frasers Group, headed by Mike Ashley, and Next, led by Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise, have contacted administrators.
4 Mike Lynch, the business tycoon facing fraud charges in the United States, has lost the right to appoint a director to the board of Darktrace, ending his formal relationship with the FTSE 250 technology group and removing a drag on its share price.
5 The gap in stock market valuations between European and American oil companies is “a major issue” that makes them more likely to consider switching listings to New York, a former boss of Shell has said. Ben van Beurden cited deeper pools of capital in the US and “more positive” attitudes towards conventional energy.
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6 A London-listed veterinary services company hit by a cyberattack has been without a head of cybersecurity during a period of churn in its senior IT and technology roles. CVS Group revealed that it had detected and responded to an incident that it believes will disrupt its operations for weeks.
7 Boeing has missed analysts’ targets for production and has fallen further behind Airbus, its European rival, amid its continuing problems with the 737 Max. The US aerospace group delivered only 29 commercial aircraft in March.
8 Revenue at Times Media, the publisher of The Times and The Sunday Times, rose to £386 million in 2023, up from £373 million, as the group added 58,000 digital subscribers. Pre-tax profit slipped to £60.9 million from £73.2 million.
9 The chief executive of AstraZeneca is “massively underpaid” and merits an increase on last year’s £16.9 million package, one of the pharmaceuticals group’s largest shareholders said. Rajiv Jain, the chief investment officer of GQG Partners, was speaking before the FTSE 100 company’s annual shareholder meeting.
10 The Barclay family’s Very Group has been dealt a fresh blow with the departure of its chief executive. The exit of Lionel Desclée, 44, a former Walmart boss, after 19 months comes soon after the chairman stepped down.
