Below are the key morning and weekend press headlines, featuring the The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) has overhauled the management of its banking arm as it seeks to offload its mortgage business and improve returns. Jim Brown, appointed chief executive of Sainsbury’s Bank in June, has reshuffled senior staff and bid farewell to a string of executives. David Jones, chief customer officer, is leaving the business, as is Mark Hunter, chief transformation officer. Marcia Campbell, a non-executive director, left in September, according to Companies House filings. Graeme Forrester, chief risk officer, will no longer sit on the bank’s board, but is still with the business. Sainsbury’s Bank has been weighing on the supermarket chain’s profits and consuming cash for years. - The Telegraph
Lenders to Premier Oil (PMO) are demanding a break-up of the FTSE 250 explorer as it hurtles towards a deadline to pay back more than £2bn of loans. A group of hedge funds has bought into its debt, appointing investment bank Lazard and lawyer Akin Gump to press it to hasten the sale of oil assets. Premier Oil, understood to be supported by law firm Slaughter & May and accountants EY, has $2.6bn (£1.9bn) of loans due for repayment in May 2021. Sources said the company hopes to refinance the debt before May 2020 to avoid causing complications in having its accounts signed off by auditors. The hedge funds own around 40pc of Premier Oil’s loans, giving them the power to block any debt restructuring. - The Telegraph
The housing market is expected to be boosted by Boris Johnson’s decisive election victory, but property experts fear that it will not fully recover until Brexit is “well in the past”. House prices will rise by an average of 2% in 2020, more than double the 0.8% growth rate this year, after the Conservative majority gave homeowners a “window of certainty” that will release pent-up demand for the spring selling season, according to Rightmove (RMV) . The property website, which measures the prices of 95% of property coming to market, said prices have been supported by demand outstripping supply. The number of properties put up for sale is down 8% on the previous year. Demand from buyers has remained almost level, with the number of sales agreed so far this year down 3% on 2018 despite the increased level of political uncertainty. - The Times
Capita (CPI) is launching an IT consultancy in an attempt to put itself in the same league as large, high-margin professional services firms such as Accenture and Cap Gemini. The company has started Capita Consulting, with plans to have 450 consultants next year. It wants to advise large organisations on their needs in the digital economy rather than, as hitherto, acting as a much lower-margin contractor. The plan has been unveiled by Jon Lewis, a turnaround specialist who has been Capita’s chief executive for the past two years. He pulled the firm back from the brink via a £700 million rescue rights issue to prevent its borrowings from spiralling out of control. The plan to get Capita consultants into client’s executive suites rather than its contractors taking orders from a client’s IT team is part of Mr Lewis’s aim to rebuild earnings and the share price. - The Times
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) has raided rival Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) to fill a key role at its food division as it prepares to further ramp up its ambitions. M&S grocery boss Stuart Machin has poached Sainsbury’s logistics director Chris Marrow, who has worked at the supermarket chain for almost 14 years. Machin has galvanised plans to reduce prices and develop new ranges in recent months ahead of its home delivery partnership with Ocado Group (OCDO) . He wants to target more family shoppers and offer a full range in more stores. But he told suppliers he wants to ‘protect the magic’ of M&S too, which means ‘looking after the things our customers love most about M&S food’. M&S is braced for its busiest period, when it typically sees its UK food market share double in the week before Christmas. - The Mail
The hedge fund tycoon building a stake in Ted Baker (TED) has said the struggling fashion retailer reminds him of Redrow, the housebuilder he shook up by reinstating its founder as boss in 2009. Toscafund, run by Martin Hughes, increased its holding in Ted Baker to 12% on Friday, making it the second-biggest investor after Ray Kelvin, the disgraced founder, who owns 35%. Shares in the retailer have crumbled by three-quarters to 372.8p this year due to four profit warnings and an accounting error, valuing it at £166m. Chairman David Bernstein and chief executive Lindsay Page resigned on Tuesday. - The Times
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) has launched an internal investigation into a leak that reveals a mountain of compensation claims at the bank. Documents seen by The Mail on Sunday show Lloyds owed about £770million to an astonishing 4.37million people at the end of August – equal to around one in seven of its 30 million customers. This was on top of payouts earmarked for mis-sold payment protection insurance. The figures dwarf official complaints data, which show Lloyds received one million new gripes in the first six months of the year. The bank said it had since paid compensation to the ‘vast majority’ of those affected. However, a spokesman refused to reveal how many new redress cases have been added to the pile over the past three and a half months. - The Mail
Water giants are set to launch a wave of appeals against the industry watchdog after it imposes one of the toughest financial settlements in years. New rules on spending and efficiency are expected when Ofwat publishes its long-awaited “final determination” on suppliers’ latest five-year business plans tomorrow. Industry insiders expect those demands to trigger a surge of appeals to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). Yorkshire, Anglian, Northumbrian, Thames and Southern are expected to be among the hardest-hit companies. The water industry in England and Wales, which operates under regional monopolies, has faced a sharp reversal after paying huge dividends and piling on debt since the privatisation boom of the 1980s and 1990s. - The Times
One of Britain’s biggest pub operators is considering plans to open dozens of “dark kitchens” to meet the growing demand from the likes of Deliveroo and McDonald’s. NewRiver REIT (NRR) runs more than 700 inns and hopes to invite fast-food companies and tech-savvy delivery firms to rent unwanted kitchen space. The FTSE 250 property company has been on an acquisition spree in recent years, snapping up pubs from more traditional operators Greene King and Marston’s as they offload hundreds to pay down debts. Many of the pubs NewRiver buys rely largely on drink sales, with little or no demand for food, leaving kitchen space unusused. - The Telegraph
Britvic (BVIC) has slashed retirement benefits for its new finance chief as investors challenge listed companies over lavish pension rewards. The owner of brands including Robinsons, J2O, Purdeys and Fruit Shoot, has radically reduced pension contributions for chief financial officer Joanne Wilson, who joined from Tesco in September. Ms Wilson will receive contributions equivalent to 7.5% of her £395,000 salary, compared with 23% for her predecessor Matthew Dunn, in an effort to bring executive retirement benefits in line with the rest of the workforce. - The Telegraph
Mike Ashley’s discount sportswear empire is expected to reassure the City over a shock €674m (£562m) Belgian tax bill tomorrow. Sports Direct International (SPD) — due to be renamed Frasers, after the House of Fraser department store chain it acquired for £90m last year — upset the market and its own auditors at Grant Thornton when it disclosed the surprise possible charge at the end of a heavily delayed results statement in July. It said the notice, which included 200% penalties and interest, was not a formal demand but a “proces verbal” that would lead to a mediation process. The claim is understood to relate to goods transported through Belgium. - The Times
Tony Pidgley has swooped on a central London development site amid speculation that the capital’s housing market could recover, despite Brexit and higher stamp duty. Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) has bought a store in Camden, north London, owned by Morrisons. Berkeley will pay the supermarket chain about £120m, comprising £85m for the land plus the £35m cost of building a replacement for the 40,000 sq ft supermarket. The site comes with planning permission for about 450 homes and 100,000 sq ft of offices. Pidgley has said he thinks the London market is set to recover after three years of depressed trading since stamp duty was raised and Britain voted to leave the EU, creating uncertainty for foreign buyers. His view is likely to have been reinforced by Boris Johnson’s thumping election victory. - The Times