GSK, take two: the bullish tone at the top is finally more convincing | Nils Pratley

It’s a miracle. A mere 25 years after Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham merged to form GSK, the share price on Wednesday got back to where the combo started life – a shade over £20. It has been a very long wait.A quarter of a century ago, the bosses of the day spoke about creating a “Microsoft of the pharmaceutical world” that would develop new medicines in never-seen-before quantities at faster speeds. A vast new head office in west London was opened by Tony Blair in 2002 to mirror the ambition

Software sell-off over AI fears hits global stock markets, but FTSE 100 finishes at closing high on £8bn insurance takeover – as it happened

And finally, the UK’s blue-chip share index has ended the day at a new closing high.The FTSE 100 has closed 87.75 points higher at 10,402 points, as investors continue to move into old-economy stocks as AI fears hit the software sector.Gambling firm Entain (+10.4%) was the top riser, followed by services firm DSS (+7

Chinese carmaker Chery to launch fourth brand in UK

The Chinese carmaker Chery is launching a fourth brand in the UK, continuing a push into the British market where it has rapidly become a major player.The state-owned company said on Wednesday it would sell cars under the Lepas brand, which is developing battery and hybrid SUVs aimed at younger families, mainly in the European market.The decision to add a fourth brand in the UK underlines Chery’s efforts to win market share. The Lepas cars will be built initially in China and imported to the UK, which does not have the tariffs imposed by the US and EU, but the government is hopeful it will eventually decide to manufacture cars in Britain.Jaguar Land Rover, Britain’s largest automotive employer, is in early-stage discussions over a potential deal to use its factories to make Chery cars but no agreement has been announced

Cyber-attack and yacht insurer agrees £8bn deal in latest UK stock market exit

A British company specialising in insuring against cyber-attacks that also covers fine art and luxury yachts has agreed to be taken over in an £8bn deal, in what would be the latest loss to the London stock market.Beazley said on Wednesday it had agreed the deal with its larger rival Zurich, after the Switzerland-listed company raised its bid for the Lloyd’s of London insurer.The two companies said in a joint statement that they had reached an “agreement in principle” on the main financial terms, under which Beazley shareholders will get up to £13.35 for every share they hold. This includes an offer price of £13

Drax insiders privately raised concerns over its sustainability claims, court papers show

Senior executives at Drax raised concerns internally about the validity of the energy company’s sustainability claims while it publicly denied allegations that it was cutting down environmentally important forests for fuel, court documents have revealed.Britain’s biggest power plant assured ministers and civil servants of the company’s green credentials as it scrambled to defend itself against claims in a BBC Panorama documentary that it had burned wood sourced from “old-growth” forests in Canada.The company’s senior leaders, including its chief executive, publicly denied the allegations, but other executives at the North Yorkshire plant privately raised concerns that it did not have sufficient evidence to back up the sustainability claims, according to evidence submitted to an employment tribunal involving its former top lobbyist.The owners of Drax have received more than £7bn in subsidies levied on household energy bills on the condition that the biomass pellets are made from waste or low-value wood from sustainable forests.However, the company has faced repeated scepticism over the sustainability of its business model, which involves importing millions of tonnes of wood pellets across the Atlantic every year

UK services sector job cuts continue as companies automate, PMI survey shows

Companies in the UK’s services sector cut jobs last month, as they turned to “automation” rather than hiring new staff, a closely watched survey showed.The monthly purchasing managers’ index showed employment numbers fell more sharply in January compared with December, continuing a trend that started in October 2024.The PMI survey, which is considered to be one of the most reliable indicators of how a sector is performing, said this was the “longest period of job shedding” in the UK services sector in 16 years, with firms also choosing not to replace voluntary leavers.The survey compiled by S&P Global said anecdotal evidence suggested some companies were turning to automation to make up for the staffing shortfall and increase productivity, alongside squeezed margins and fragile market conditions also affecting hiring decisions.Tim Moore, the economics indices director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said: “There were again gloomy signals for the UK labour market outlook as staff hiring decreased at a steeper pace in January as firms looked to offset rising payroll costs