Business

As many as eight bids could be made for Manchester United before Wednesday’s deadline for second offers, it is understood. The Glazer family will definitely sell the club, but only for the right price – with £6bn believed to be their valuation. If their asking price is not met, the owners will raise capital to

The problems of the financial system today are perhaps best summarised by the title of the Oscar-winning film “Everything Everywhere All at Once”. Lots of noise, lots of small explosions, lots of confusion and idiosyncratic episodes happening throughout the developed world, which seem to amount to a chaotic mess. To top it off, some of

Virgin Orbit has begun drawing up detailed contingency plans for its insolvency days after halting its operations and furloughing its workforce. Sky News has learnt that the commercial space satellite venture founded by Sir Richard Branson‘s Virgin Group is working with Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) and Ducera, two restructuring firms, on fallback plans in the

UBS will take over Credit Suisse in a deal aimed at stemming what was fast becoming a global crisis of confidence. Credit Suisse, the 167-year-old embattled lender had been brought to the brink of financial calamity last week, despite securing a $54bn (£44bn) credit line from Switzerland’s central bank. The credit line was agreed in

The British arm of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB UK) has handed out millions of pounds in employee bonuses just days after its insolvency was averted through a Bank of England-orchestrated rescue deal. Sky News has learnt that the payouts to staff including its senior executives were signed off by HSBC, SVB UK’s new owner, earlier

Ann Summers boss Jacqueline Gold has died at the age of 62, her family has said. The multi-millionaire businesswoman, who passed away with her family at her side on Thursday evening after seven years of treatment for breast cancer, was hailed an “absolute warrior” by her sister. It comes just two months after the death

A tumultuous week in the markets ended on an uncertain note – suggesting fears remain after large losses from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The FTSE 100 (Financial Times Stock Exchange) index of the most valued companies on the London Stock Exchange started the day at around the 7,500 mark – better than all

More than 1,000 Passport Office staff across the UK will strike for five weeks in an escalation of a dispute over pay, jobs and conditions. Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union working at passport offices in Durham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Newport, Peterborough and Southport will walk out from 3 April to 5 May.

Security guards at Heathrow Airport are to strike over Easter in a dispute over pay, with passengers warned they face “severe delays”. The Unite union said flights using Heathrow Airport will “experience severe delays and disruption this Easter” as the workers stage a 10-day walkout. More than 1,400 security guards employed by Heathrow Airports Ltd

The European Central Bank (ECB) has maintained its fight against inflation and imposed a large set of interest rate hikes despite financial market turmoil. Bank balance sheets have suffered because of the effect of interest rate increases, which have contributed to recent crises at Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse. But the central bank –

Jeremy Hunt’s budget leaves household incomes stagnant and people paying higher taxes despite cuts to public services, the Resolution Foundation has said. The thinktank, which aims to improve the standard of living for low and middle-income families, said the chancellor had announced an “impressively broad suite of policies” to encourage more people into work. However,

The FTSE 100 and other major European stock markets have taken a beating as concern over the health of US banks crosses the Atlantic. London’s blue chip index lost £75bn in combined market value by the close after suffering its deepest fall, on a points basis, since the early days of the COVID crisis. Sentiment

The chancellor will promise to provide 30 hours of childcare a week to parents of one and two-year-olds, Sky News has learned. The multi-billion pound announcement is set to be made in today’s “back to work” budget. Families with children aged one and two do not currently receive support after parental leave ends and before

Tempting as it is to believe that the chaos with Silicon Valley Bank and its British arm are of interest only to members of the tech community and financial nerds, it has already had a very real bearing on all our lives. For evidence, look no further than the money markets, where investors bet on

The low point came on Sunday evening. For two days and two nights the Bank of England had, alongside the Treasury and its fellow financial regulators, been locked in talks with a stream of potential buyers for the UK branch of Silicon Valley Bank. With the clock ticking down to the opening of financial markets

HSBC has bought the embattled UK arm of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB UK), securing the deposits of more than 3,000 customers worth £6.7bn. Confirming a story broken on Monday by Sky’s City editor Mark Kleinman, the Bank of England, which had been preparing to bring the bank into an insolvency process, said all depositors’ money