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- Daily business and finance update 8th June 2023
Daily business and finance update 8th June 2023
Newspapers for sale
Good morning. Today we're talking about the media group up for sale, the tough graduate job market and improving UK forecasts.
Big Stories
Newspapers for sale
The Telegraph Media Group has been put up for sale after its lender Lloyds bank seized control of it over unpaid debts. The billionaire Barclay brothers have owned TMG, which includes the Daily and Sunday Telegraph newspaper titles and Spectator magazine, since 2004. Lloyds has lent the group almost £1bn since 2008 but says it has become frustrated at the lack of repayments, according to reports TMG could fetch as much as £600m. With an election expected next year and given its political affiliations, TMG could attract interest from Conservative party donors.
Tough grad market
The market for British graduates stands at its worst for five years, according to data from Reed Recruitment, one of the country’s largest employment platforms. Graduate jobs are down 40% compared to 2018, the data shows. The demand for workers remains high, with overall vacancies still above 1m — about 25% higher than the pre-pandemic average. But as the UK faces the prospect of prolonged low-growth and business costs creep upwards, Reed’s data suggests that employers are shunning the newest entrants into the labour market who may require more training and support.
Another UK upgrade
The OECD became the latest economic body to predict that the UK will no longer fall into a recession this year. It came as the international organisation released its latest global economic outlook where it forecast that the UK will grow by 0.3% in 2023 instead of the 0.2% downturn it had forecast in March. It follows similar upgrades by the Bank of England and the IMF last month. Falling energy costs, resilient consumer demand and government support have been cited by economists for the more optimistic outlook. However the UK’s inflation remains stubbornly high compared to peers which the OECD says will weigh on household spending and mean interest rates remain higher for longer.
Elsewhere...
Back on strike: Security staff at Heathrow will walkout nearly every weekend from mid-June to the end of August.
Early exit: The chief executive of CNN has stepped down after just 13 months in the job.
RIP: The long-serving boss of the world’s biggest spirits maker Diageo, has died at the age of 63 after a short illness.
Out of business: Woking Borough Council has gone bust under the weight of its £2bn debt.
Deal or no deal: Qatari Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani has tabled an improved fifth bid for Manchester United but has made it clear it must be accepted by Friday - or he is out.
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