6:40 am, November 29, 2022
Shell to buy renewable gas producer in £1.7bn deal
Shell is to buy Europe’s largest renewable gas producer in a deal worth $2bn (circa £1.66bn).
The energy giant will acquire a 100 per cent stake in Denmark-based Nature Energy, which produces renewable natural gas from agricultural, industrial and household waste.
The move will help Shell speed up its plans to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, it said.
BT to give pay rise to all but highest-paid staff
BT has announced plans for a pay rise to all but its highest-paid staff in a move aimed at resolving a long-running dispute that has led to strikes.
Discussions with the Communication Workers’ Union and Prospect have led to both unions recommending agreement.
The company said it will give a £1,500 pay rise for all UK workers who currently earn £50,000 or less from January 1.
Pub chain Marston’s reveals World Cup drinks boost as results delayed
Marston’s has hailed a drinks boost from World Cup matches as the pub giant pushed back the release of its full financial results because of an auditing delay.
The company, which runs 1,468 pubs, had been due to post its results for the year to October 2 today, but it will now be next week ‘due to a short delay in the completion of audit procedures’ at joint venture Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company.
It also highlighted positive sales around the World Cup, reporting that like-for-like sales were around 30 per cent higher for the two England games than on equivalent days last year.
More than 1.6m social media accounts owned by under-age children
More than 1.6m social media accounts owned by children are falsely registered with an adult age, a survey by the advertising regulator suggests.
Some 93 per cent of young people aged 11 to 17 say they have an account with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch, Twitter or YouTube, with nearly a quarter (24 per cent) misreporting their age when doing so, the Advertising Standards Authority found.
At least 11 per cent of the accounts are registered by children falsely claiming they are 18 or over, the poll of 1,000 children suggests.
BBC to improve complaints procedure
The BBC is to make changes to its complaints process after broadcasting watchdog Ofcom called for it to be more transparent about its handling of the public’s feedback.
Over the next six months, the broadcaster will make its online complaints page easier to find and use through new video content and a restructured website.
It will also seek to better explain how audience feedback is shared and used across its services, and improve how it explains the steps in the complaints process.
easyJet cuts losses and posts best quarter earnings
Budget airline easyJet has posted sharply narrowed annual losses after a record summer performance.
The group reported underlying pre-tax losses of £178m for the 12 months to September 30 against losses of £1.1bn the previous year.
The airline said it notched up its best earnings for a single quarter over the summer, at £674m on an underlying basis, as the ending of pandemic travel restrictions put overseas holidays firmly back on the agenda.
China anti-lockdown protests paused as police flood city streets
There was no word of additional protests against strict government anti-pandemic measures yesterday in Beijing, with police out in force and temperatures well below freezing.
Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities where online calls to gather had been issued were also reportedly quiet.
Rallies against China’s unusually strict anti-virus measures spread to several cities over the weekend in the biggest show of opposition to the ruling Communist Party in decades.
Ferrari’s Vision Gran Turismo is an extreme single-seater concept
Ferrari has created the Vision Gran Turismo as its first car designed for the racing video game series.
The single-seater Vision Gran Turismo is powered by the same 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 engine that’s in the 296 GTB and GTS. But since there are no regulations to comply with, Ferrari has been able to boost the engine’s performance to 1,015bhp.
It’ll be available to players on December 23, with a full-scale model heading on to the display stand at Ferrari’s museum in Maranello until March 2023.
Monday’s headlines on Car Dealer you might have missed
- Used car prices drop 1.2 per cent in November as electric car prices plummet
- Inchcape’s group chief financial officer quits over ‘lapse of judgment’ at event
- Car dealer tried to outrun police after taking Audi from showroom to drive friends from pub to party
- Bassetts Nissan Swansea completes £400,000 overhaul
Market movements
The FTSE 100 lost 12.65 points yesterday to close at 7,474.02. Meanwhile, the Cac 40 was down 47.28 points at 6,665.20, the Dax dropped 158.02 points, ending on 14,383.36 and the Dow Jones shed 497.57 points, finishing on 33,849.46.
Weather outlook
Tuesday morning will see areas of fog and mist clearing slowly, says BBC Weather. The afternoon will have plenty of sunshine in the north, but large areas of low cloud will remain in the south. It’ll be a mostly dry day.
Wednesday will start off foggy for many. It’ll lift later but stay mainly cloudy. Parts of the south-west and far north will be brighter, but it’ll be cloudy with some rain in the north-west.
