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In Brief: Rolls-Royce’s multi-million-pound egg; Renault seeks billions in loans

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Time 9:05 am, April 11, 2020

Rolls-Royce reveals Spirit of Ecstasy Faberge Egg

It is Easter, so Rolls-Royce is celebrating in a typically opulent fashion, by revealing pictures of a multi-million-pound egg. In previously unreleased images, the firm has shown off its Spirit of Ecstasy Faberge Egg first unveiled in 2018.

The history of the eggs is closely linked with Easter and a Russian tsar who started giving them as gifts back in 1885. In 2014, one sold for a reputed £26.5m. 


The Rolls-Royce egg is 160mm high, weighs 400g and is made from 18 carat white gold. It has arms of rose gold, white diamonds and amethyst, and Rolls-Royce owners will soon be seen wearing them as brooches. They won’t really, we made that last bit up…

Renault seeking up to 5 billion euros in state-backed loans

Renault is seeking billions in state-backed loans as it tries to weather the coronavirus crisis. The company is also cancelling its dividend for 2019 and its chairman is taking a pay cut.


Jean-Dominique Senard’s salary will be cut by 25 per cent for the second quarter of 2020. The company will cancel £263m-worth of dividends that had been intended to be paid to shareholders for last year too.

Senard said Renault was not seeking to be nationalised but was working to secure state-backed bank loans to cushion the shock of the Covid-19 crisis that has slashed demand for vehicles and shut down production. He said the loan amounts had not been fixed but could be as much as £4.4bn.

Global deal to cut oil output in sight after Mexico signs up

Opec and nations including Russia have agreed to boost oil prices by cutting as much as 10 million barrels a day in production. 

The agreement between Opec and partner countries aims to reduce output by 10 million barrels per day until July, then by eight million barrels per day through to the end of the year, and six million a day for 16 months beginning in 2021.

Mexico had initially blocked the deal, but an agreement was finally reached for compensation with America. 

Spending stays local as coronavirus alters shopping habits

Households’ spending on commuting costs has plunged by nearly 90 per cent compared with a year ago, while fuel expenditure has fallen by 55 per cent, according to a bank’s analysis of customer habits.

Lloyds Bank compared trends under life on lockdown with a year ago, based on the debit card spending of its customers. People are also travelling around half the distance they would normally to spend.


The median average distance people are travelling from home to use a debit card is down 57 per cent from 3.7km last year to 1.6km. Cutting out non-essential travel is having a huge impact on where people’s money is going, too.

MotoGP goes virtual racing again

After the huge success of the first-ever MotoGP Virtual Race two weeks ago, the event will be repeated tomorrow (Sunday) in Austria at 3pm local time (GMT+2). The second race will see 10 riders from the top class battle each other on the MotoGP 19 videogame.

The MotoGP Virtual Race II will be held on a 10-lap distance at the Red Bull Ring circuit. A five-minute qualifying session, in ‘time-attack’ mode, will decide the grid positions. The race will be broadcast live on motogp.com 

Entry List

Repsol Honda Team: Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez

Ducati: Danilo Petrucci, Michele Pirro

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP: Valentino Rossi, Maverick Viñales

Petronas Yamaha SRT: Fabio Quartararo

Pramac Racing: Francesco Bagnaia

LCR Honda Idemitsu: Takaaki Nakagami

Reale Avintia Racing: Tito Rabat 

Workers warned to think carefully before giving up valuable pension benefits

Workers are being urged to think carefully about the valuable benefits they could be throwing away if they are considering ditching pension saving to ease the pressure on their finances.

With many employees facing financial pressure due to the coronavirus crisis, some may be thinking about opting out of workplace pension saving. But Sir Steve Webb, a former pensions minister who is now a partner at pension consultants LCP (Lane Clark & Peacock), said people should check carefully whether opting out will leave their family with less protection if they die.

He said death benefits varied considerably according to the type of pension, but in some cases opting out of the pension scheme could leave a worker with a much smaller lump sum payout for their family if they were to die.

MPs eligible for £10,000 grant from councils over constituency office closures

Hundreds of politicians are entitled to a £10,000 one-off cash grant from their local authority to cover the costs of closing constituency offices, the PA news agency understands.

The money is available – in some cases automatically – despite each MP already being offered a separate £10,000 payment from parliamentary authorities to set up remote working for their staff. It is unclear whether MPs intend to apply for the grant or return any payment made.

The funds are part of a package for small businesses unveiled by chancellor Rishi Sunak as the government attempts to keep companies afloat during what economists predict will be the worst global recession in living memory.

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Source: PA Media

James Baggott's avatar

James is the founder and editor-in-chief of Car Dealer Magazine, and CEO of parent company Baize Group. James has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years writing about cars and the car industry.



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