Wednesday newspaper round-up: British Steel, HS2, Boeing, Goldman Sachs
The government is holding talks with the Turkish conglomerate Cengiz Holdings about stepping in to buy British Steel in the event that a planned sale to the Chinese industrial firm Jingye falls through. Officials remain confident that Jingye’s £50m purchase of British Steel, including the Scunthorpe steelworks, will go ahead in the next few weeks, saving about 4,000 jobs in the ailing industry. – Guardian
More than 40 Conservative MPs have written to the prime minister to urge him not to cancel HS2, exposing deep divisions within the party over the future of the new railway line from London to the north of England. At least 30 MPs, including former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell, signed a joint letter on Tuesday night that calls on Boris Johnson to deliver the “long overdue” rail line in full, despite costs apparently spiralling to £106bn, arguing it will be a “key engine for growth that we must not waver from”.- Guardian
Boeing has been forced to halt trading in its shares as the commercial aerospace titan warned of yet another delay to its grounded 737 Max fleet. The world’s largest planemaker admitted that the Max will not be certified to fly until at least mid-2020, months later than previously expected, as it awaits the green light from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other global regulators. – Telegraph
Mark Barnett faces growing pressure after it emerged that investors pulled more than £1 billion from the Invesco stockpicker’s funds during the final quarter of last year amid mounting unease about his strategy. The withdrawals mean that the former protégé of Neil Woodford, the fallen fund manager, suffered his worst quarter for redemptions since the three months that ended in September 2014, according to data from Morningstar. – The Times
Boris Johnson’s “levelling up” agenda has received a boost from Goldman Sachs, which is looking for a new office outside London to create a technology hub. The American investment bank has appointed the property agency JLL to find about 60,000sq ft of space to accommodate the new department in a regional city. The search was first reported by React News, a property website. – The Times