Afternoon summary
Time to wrap up…
Upmarket chocolates maker Hotel Chocolat has agreed to a £534m takeover by the US food company Mars at a near 170% premium to the UK firm’s market value.
Hotel Chocolat’s founders will share a £280m payday once the deal is completed.
Bank of England policymaker Megan Greene has insisted it is too early to think about cutting interest rates, despite UK inflation falling to 4.6% yesterday.
But the City is now expecting rate cuts by next May, with Goldman Sachs suggesting the first cut could come as soon as February 2024.
The pound hit a six-month low against the euro today, as traders calculated that UK interest rates have probably peaked.
The maker of Mr Kipling cakes, Angel Delight and Bisto gravy granules has announced price cuts on some of its ranges on the back of a fall in the rate of inflation on associated production costs.
The train drivers’ union, Aslef, will stage a series of one-day strikes and call an overtime ban across England’s operating companies at the start of December, causing more disruption,
One in three people in the UK had problems with the most recent delivery of a parcel to them, Citizens Advice research has shown, with Evri and Yodel named as the worst courier companies.
Large parts of the Port Talbot steelworks will be closed or mothballed for years, and would leave the plant and its few remaining workers reliant on imported steel, according to proposals under consideration by the owner, Tata Steel.
Energy bills in Great Britain are expected to rise by 5% from January, with analysts predicting that the government’s price cap could increase to about £1,930 a year for a typical gas and electricity bill.
The government will offer significantly higher subsidies for new offshore windfarms after crisis talks with developers that are battling cost inflation across global energy supply chains.
Royal Mail has launched a bonus scheme worth up to £500 a worker in an attempt to meet delivery targets over Christmas, as its owner’s losses more than doubled in the first half of the financial year.
South East Water is to be investigated by the industry watchdog over possible failures in maintaining the supply to households.
In the US, the number of people filing new jobless claims has risen, while industrial production dropped last month amid strikes at major carmakers.
HMV to reopen Oxford Street store next week
HMV will be returning to its original home on Oxford Street next week.
The retailer originally opened on 363 Oxford Street in 1921 and will be reopening its doors on Friday, November 24, after a four-year absence.
Back in 1921, the Guardian reported on the same HMV store, owned by the Gramophone Company, being officially opened by Edward Elgar.
Our story said:
“He [Elgar] recommended the modern gramophone with its superior technical accomplishment to the “wild and virulent piano playing” so painfully popular in the suburbs.’
Before its closure four years ago, the hmv website says the Oxford Street store was seen as a “community hub for music fans with performances and signings from global artists such as The Weeknd, Kylie Minogue, The Spice Girls, Blur and more, with the latter performing an iconic rooftop gig at the shop in 1995.”
