Tuesday newspaper round-up: Tesco, Barclays, Phones 4u, China
Tesco’s crisis shows no sign of stopping, after the retail giant was forced to call in investigators and suspend four senior executives as it discovered its profits had been inflated by £250m, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.
Over £2bn was wiped off the group’s value on during Monday trading after chief executive Dave Lewis admitted accountants and lawyers had been summoned to scrutinise the company’s books following revelations that payments from suppliers were being mis-booked.
Having secured £1.6bn profit in the first half of 2013, Tesco could end up making even less the amount in the corresponding period this year.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the City regulator, is set to impose another huge fine on Barclays, the Independent reported.
The fine, thought to be in the region of £38m, relates to the bank’s failure to ensure adequate protection for clients’ funds and to keep correctly segregated clients’ assets.
It is not the first time Barclays faces a fine for such an offence, though when it was first fined for failing to protect its customers’ funds, the banking giant received a sanction of just £1.1m.
More than 2,400 Phones 4u staff face losing their job, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Administrator PWC said that 362 of the retailer’s outlets are set to close, causing a 1,697 staff to lose their jobs, while an additional 720 people have kept their job in the short term, but only to assist with the closure programme before being made redundant.
On Tuesday, Labour leader Ed Miliband is expected to announce plans to use a “mansion tax” to increase the budget of NHS spending, The Financial Times reported.
Miliband is determined to attract voters ahead of the May’s general election by promising that houses worth more than £2m will have to pay a tax, which will be used to finance an improved health and social care service.
Labour officials said the tax would raise up to £1.2bn.
London-listed miners were hit by fears of a slowdown in the Chinese economy, The Times reported, after £9bn were wiped off the value of London’s largest miners on Monday.
Despite the lowering of forecasts, the Chinese finance minister dampened the prospect of economic stimulus, prompting investors to ditch mining stocks in response.
According to the report, the Communist party is targeting 7.5% growth in 2014 and analysts fear that were the forecast to be lowered again, the price of iron ore and copper could be severely affected.