Business

Thomas Cook is back selling holidays almost a year after its dramatic collapse which forced the UK authorities to repatriate 150,000 holidaymakers and put 9,000 people out of a job. Sky News revealed last week how a former major shareholder, which snapped up the fallen travel brand for £11m, was to relaunch Thomas Cook as

Britain’s unemployment rate rose to 4.1% in the three months to July as the total number of jobless rose by 62,000, the Office for National Statistics said. The jobless rate was up from 3.9% a month earlier – but is still yet to be fully illustrative of the economic crisis with the Treasury’s soon-to-end furlough

New Look’s biggest landlords will vote against the fashion retailer’s latest rescue plan on Tuesday, throwing its survival into further doubt amid the UK’s deepening high street crisis. Sky News has learnt that British Land, which owns 19 New Look stores, and Landsec, which owns 10, will oppose its planned company voluntary arrangement (CVA) in

UK-based chip designer Arm Holdings is to be sold to America’s Nvidia in a deal worth up to $40bn (£31bn). The new owner said Arm – which licenses its chip designs for use by major electronics brands such as Apple – would remain based in Cambridge and its site expanded. Chip maker Nvidia is buying

The British perfume brand Jo Malone has “deeply apologised” to Star Wars actor John Boyega after he was cut out of the Chinese version of an advert he helped create. Originally, the commercial featured the London-born star walking around Peckham, the neighbourhood where he grew up. The video, entitled London Gent, also made reference to

A pack of turnaround investors, private equity funds and food groups are vying to snap up Hovis, one of Britain’s best-known food brands, in a deal that could be worth well over £100m. Sky News has learnt that firms including Endless, Epiris – the buyout firm which recently snapped up restaurant chains Bella Italia and

The John Lewis Partnership is plotting the takeover of a fast-growing recipe box provider backed by the former Wimbledon champion Sir Andy Murray as it seeks to tap into consumers’ post-pandemic penchant for subscription services. Sky News has learnt that Waitrose is in detailed negotiations to buy Mindful Chef, which provides meal-kits to thousands of customers

Here’s the irony: up until recently, if there was one part of the European Union which most Conservatives said they actually rather liked, it was the state aid regime. This, after all, was the one bit of the single market that Britain put most store by. Indeed, back in the 1980s when it was being

In ordinary times chancellors and prime ministers would trade a limb for a monthly increase in GDP of 6.6%, but these are far from normal days and there are already signs that the post-lockdown bounce back may be losing some of its zip. The positives first. The recovery in July continues the V-shaped trajectory established

The economy remained 11.7% below its coronavirus pandemic peak in July as the UK emerges from its sharpest recession on record, official figures show The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 6.6% in the month as more parts of the economy awakened from the enforced hibernation of the COVID-19

Scottish-born Citigroup executive Jane Fraser is to become the first woman to lead a Wall Street bank after being announced as the firm’s next boss. Cambridge-educated Ms Fraser, who began her career at Goldman Sachs in London, will take over from current chief executive Michael Corbat in February. The 53-year-old’s promotion to one of the

Morrisons has reported a £155m hit to profits from costs related to the coronavirus crisis. The UK’s fourth-largest supermarket chain said, like rivals, it had seen a surge in sales during the first half of its financial year in the run-up to, and during, the COVID-19 lockdown that began in March that saw all non-essential

Leading investors in Pearson, the FTSE-100 educational publisher, are planning to vote against a $9m (£7.4m) pay award for its new chief executive amid fury that the company has forced them into an “all-or-nothing decision” over his appointment. Sky News has learnt that Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), an influential voting adviser, has recommended that Pearson

Ministers are planning to override parts of the Brexit deal with a bill that could be “inconsistent” with it. The controversial Internal Market Bill was published after the government admitted yesterday it wanted to potentially “break international law”. It is intended to distribute powers being brought back from Brussels to Westminster and the devolved administrations

Wall Street’s “FAATMAN” group of leading tech stocks have suffered a renewed sell-off leaving $1trn wiped off their value in less than a week. The group – comprising Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Alphabet and Netflix – took another tumble as US markets reopened on Tuesday after the Labour Day holiday. Tech stocks have led

EasyJet has warned it expects to operate a weaker flight programme than hoped for in the coming months because of a series of coronavirus pressures. The no-frills airline said it had to focus on “profitable flying” as the wider industry bids to recover from the COVID-19 lockdown that has resulted in thousands of job losses