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5 Things You Need To Know, Today, on Friday 19th November 2021
5. Unilever is to sell its tea business, which includes PG Tips and Brooke Bond, to a European private equity firm for €4.5bn (£3.8bn).
Unilever’s chief executive, Alan Jope, complained that traditional tea drinkers were dying off, while younger consumers preferred coffee and fashionable herbal teas.
4. Alibaba shares have slumped by more than 10% in Hong Kong trade after the Chinese online retail giant warned of a slowdown in consumer spending.
The company forecast that its annual revenue would grow at the slowest pace since its stock market debut in 2014.
3. The venture capital arm of the state-owned British Business Bank has acquired its first direct stakes in a range of UK start-ups, adding to a growing portfolio of investments made by the government to support companies during and after the pandemic.
British Patient Capital, which has a budget of £2.5bn and mainly invests in other venture capital funds, is rolling out a new co-investment strategy in which it will acquire stakes in fast-growth businesses.
2. UK consumer confidence improved in November despite surging inflation, easing some economists’ concerns about the spending recovery in the run-up to Black Friday and Christmas.
The UK consumer confidence index, a closely watched measure of how people view the state of their personal finances and wider economic prospects, rose 3 points to minus 14 in November.
1. The government has scrapped the Leeds leg of the HS2 high-speed rail line as part of a package that ministers promise will transform services.
The prime minister said the overhaul would mean faster travel up to 10 years earlier than planned, and said claims of broken promises are "total rubbish".