Tuesday 19 June 2018

Donald Trump has threatened tariffs on an
additional $200bn (£151bn) of Chinese goods. As trade tensions
between the two nations continue to escalate, the US President said
the 10% tariffs would be imposed if Beijing “refuses to change its
practices”. In response, China accused the US of “blackmail” and
vowed to match any further tariffs.

The Times says there is concern over Sir
Richard Branson’s fee in the £1.7bn takeover for Virgin Money. The
combined bank will have to pay a licensing fee to Sir Richard
Branson’s Virgin group. The fee starts at £12m annually, increasing
to £15m in year four as well as an annual royalty based on
turnover. Industry figures said the unusual licensing agreement
created risk for the bank.

Supermarkets and suppliers have teamed up to
warn the Competition and Markets Authority that Sainsbury’s £15bn
deal with Asda could reduce choice and raise prices for consumers.
The two chains have promised to slash prices by 10% by creating a
supermarket giant with a bigger market share than current market
leaders Tesco, but the watchdog was told this could cause suppliers
to be squeezed or “exit the market completely”.

The regulator has attacked water companies
over their handling of supply disruptions during the ‘Beast from
the East’ cold snaps in February and March. Ofwat said more than
260,000 households and businesses were badly let down. Few of the
17 firms across England and Wales were praised for their response.
“Our report shows there is no excuse for this level of failure,”
said a spokeswoman.

The accountancy watchdog has attacked the
“unacceptable deterioration” in the quality of KPMG audits. In a
brutal report into Britain’s big four accountancy firms, the
Financial Reporting Council said 50% of KPMG’s audits of FTSE
350-listed companies required significant improvements, up from 35%
a year earlier. The FRC said KPMG and the other accountancy
companies “must act swiftly” to address the problems.

“I am astonished about the way we are portrayed in Trouw. This
is tendentious. The fact that our headquarters is in the
Netherlands … has been very good for the Dutch
treasury.” Marjan van Loon, the president director of Shell
Nederland, hits back at criticism of the tax structure the firm set
up as part of a relocation from London to The Hague.

FTSE 100: down -0.30 to 7,631.33
Dow Jones: down -0.41 to 24,987.47
Dax: down -1.36 to 12,834.11
Cac 40: down -0.93 to 5,450.48
Nikkei: down -1.56 to 22,327.07
Hang Seng: down -2.45 to 29,566.15
US dollar: buys €0.8603 and £0.7541
Sterling: buys $1.3256 and €1.1405
Oil: $74.68 down -0.66