Daily Mail’s parent company on ‘credit watch’ over Telegraph takeover

The Daily Mail’s parent company has been warned it could face a credit downgrade if it loads up with debt to fund its £500m takeover of the Telegraph titles.The US credit ratings agency S&P Global Ratings said Rothermere Continuation Holdings Ltd (RCHL) – the Jersey-based parent company of Lord Rothermere’s assets including the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Metro and the i Paper – had been put on “credit watch” as it seeks to put a funding package in place to table a formal deal in the coming weeks.“The detail and funding of the transaction remain unclear but, in our view RCHL has limited headroom under our BB- long-term issuer credit rating to accommodate any additional financial debt, considering its limited size and the fact that Telegraph Media Group (TMG) operates in structurally challenged newsprint and advertising markets,” S&P analysts said in the note.The note said that given the significant valuation of TMG at £500m, compared with RCHL’s “modest size and scale”, S&P believed the transaction might “materially increase its adjusted leverage beyond our threshold”.On Saturday, Rothermere’s Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) announced a £500m deal with RedBird IMI to buy the Telegraph titles

Debenhams boss could receive almost £150m if he turns around struggling retailer

The boss of Boohoo and Debenhams could collect almost £150m in shares if he significantly boosts the value of the struggling fashion group, which is battling to turnaround sliding sales.Debenhams Group said on Thursday that Dan Finley, the chief executive, is in line to receive £148.1m in stock in five years’ time, as part of an incentive scheme for top bosses worth more than £200m.The scheme emerged as Debenhams Group said sales slumped 23% to £297m in the six months to 31 August, dragged down by a 41% dive in sales at its “youth brands”, which include Boohoo and Pretty Little Thing. Sales at its Karen Millen brand fell by 31%

Soup firm Campbell’s dismisses executive over alleged ‘poor people’ comments

Campbell’s has dismissed an executive who allegedly referred to the soup company’s products as being made for “poor people” and denigrated its Indian employees.Martin Bally, who was the vice-president of Campbell’s information technology department, was recorded making the alleged comments by another employee.Campbell’s – which started producing canned condensed soup in 1897, and whose cans feature in some of Andy Warhol’s best-known 1960s pop artworks – said it had reviewed the recording and believed the voice to belong to Bally.Campbell’s made “highly processed food” and “shit for fucking poor people”, Bally reportedly told a former employee, Robert Garza, according to a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Garza.In an hour-long rant, broadcast by a Michigan TV station, Bally goes on to say: “Who buys our shit? I don’t buy Campbell’s products barely any more

‘The customers are still there’: Welsh mussel farmers hope post-Brexit reset can revive business

Rising out of the water, nets bulge with thousands of blue mussels. Pulled back to the dredging boat, they are emptied into a hopper and rinsed with water.They have just been harvested fresh from the bottom of the Menai Strait, the channel that separates the north Wales mainland from the island of Anglesey.On a blustery, damp morning, skipper Alan Owen guides the 43-metre Valente out of Port Penrhyn, close to the city of Bangor, towards the mussel grounds around the pier.“It’s windy today but we’re not jumping up and down as there aren’t big waves

US banks announce UK expansion projects hours after budget

Two of Wall Street’s biggest banks have announced substantial expansion plans in the UK, hours after they were spared increased taxes in Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget.JP Morgan on Thursday revealed plans to build a 3m sq ft tower in Canary Wharf, which will serve as its new UK headquarters and house more than half of its 23,000 UK staff. It is understood the London project will cost £3bn.The US rival Goldman Sachs said it would expand its Birmingham office and hire 500 staff, in a move that would more than double its workforce in the city.Banks dodged a tax raid in the chancellor’s budget, having lobbied hard against a higher levy that lenders argued could force them to curb lending and cancel out the benefits of regulatory reforms meant to spur growth

New rules crack down on high risk loans as Australian property market heats up

A crackdown on risky lending will limit banks’ capacity to extend highly geared mortgages, as the financial regulator launches a pre-emptive strike against the growing excesses of an overheated property market.The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority announced a 20% cap on the share of new lending that banks can do at a debt-to-income ratio above six – a mortgage worth more than six times the borrower’s income.While Jim Chalmers said the move would “help with financial resilience and housing affordability”, the Greens immediately criticised it as insufficient and experts said it would not curb the current rapid rise in lending growth and property prices.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailThe newly announced restriction lands amid a worsening housing crisis, with a recent report highlighting affordability is now at its worst on record and that a typical household needs to dedicate nearly half of its pre-tax pay to service the average new mortgage.An explosion in lending to landlords has been of particular concern to regulators