Author: SKYNEWS

The roll-call of UK-listed companies to have attracted foreign takeover approaches this year is a long and distinguished one.It includes Anglo American, the mining giant; International Distribution Services, the parent of Royal Mail; Darktrace, one of the world’s most exciting cyber security specialists and DS Smith, the FTSE-100 packaging company which is Europe’s largest cardboard and paper recycler. To that list was this morning added Britvic, the soft drinks company behind much-loved brands such as Robinsons, J2O, Fruit Shoot, Tango, Aqua Libra, Ballygowan mineral water and R White’s lemonade, and which is also the bottler for PepsiCo in Great Britain.It…

Sabrina Carpenter has set a new UK chart record by becoming the youngest female artist to take the top two singles spots in the same week.The US singer reached number one on the Official Charts Company rundown with Please Please Please, pushing Espresso, which had been at the top for five weeks, down to number two. Please Please Please totalled 9.8 million combined streams, while Espresso came in second with 8.1 million streams. Image: Sabrina Carpenter during the BBC Radio1 Big Weekend in May. Pic: PA At the age of 25 years, one month and 10 days, Carpenter overtakes Ariana…

The parcel delivery group once owned by the proprietors of The Daily Telegraph is in talks to seek extra funding just months after it was rescued from the brink of collapse.Sky News has learnt that Yodel Shift Group is in talks with a number of prospective financial backers, including London-listed Paypoint, about an injection of capital into the business. The discussions with Paypoint, which has a partnership with Yodel through its Collect Plus division, are understood to form part of a broader effort to recapitalise the company.Paypoint is understood to be discussing an injection of about £10m, with other investors…

A convicted film set armourer has been denied immunity to testify at actor Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial over the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of Rust, a judge has ruled.Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March for her role in the shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who died during a rehearsal on the New Mexico set of the western in 2021. Baldwin pointed a prop gun at Hutchins, 42, when the revolver went off, killing her and injuring director Joel Souza.The actor has maintained he pulled back the gun’s hammer, but not the…

Four members of Britain’s richest family have received jail sentences after being found guilty of exploiting their workers and providing unauthorised employment.Prakash Hinduja and his wife Kamal, along with their son Ajay and his wife Namrata, were, however, cleared by a Swiss court of more serious charges of human trafficking linked to their servants. The court ruled the servants, who were mostly illiterate Indians and worked at their lakeside villa in Geneva, knew what they were getting into.The four family members were sentenced to between four and four-and-a-half years in prison.The lawyers representing the defendants said they would appeal. They…

Two men have been charged over the robbery of celebrity antiques expert Ian Towning’s west London jewellers. Thomas Loring, 40, and James Dixon, 41, were on Wednesday arrested by detectives from the Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad, who were investigating a series of raids. They include a robbery at Mr Towning’s Bourbon Hanby Antiques Arcade on Sydney Street, which is just off the King’s Road in Chelsea, on 26 March.Mr Towning, 76, who has appeared as an antiques expert on ITV’s Dickinson’s Real Deal and Posh Pawn on Channel 4, first opened his antiques store at the Chelsea Antiques Market in…

The former head of a union for sub-postmasters has denied it became “too close” to the Post Office and was “flush with money”.George Thomson, formerly of the National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP), also denied lacking sympathy for those who were wrongfully convicted during the Post Office scandal, which occurred following faults in the organisation’s Horizon IT system. It comes after the TUC claimed earlier this year that the Communication Workers Union (CWU) had been blocked from effectively organising at the Post Office, and alleged the NFSP was given funds by the Post Office.Mr Thomson, who served as its general secretary…

London’s iconic Tube map has been redrawn to celebrate the arrival of Taylor Swift’s tour in the capital.As the US megastar’s Eras Tour descends on the city, fans, or Swifties, will be able to navigate their way around using a redesigned London Underground layout, with each line named after a different album and drawn in sequin colours to match – with stations denoted by her songs. Under the changes, the Central Line has been renamed Red after the singer’s fourth album while the Victoria Line becomes 1989, the Bakerloo Line Evermore and the Northern Line her latest release, The Tortured…

Around 1,500 workers at Tata Steel are to hold an “all-out indefinite strike”, a union has announced.The industrial action at Port Talbot and Llanwern, Newport, will begin on 8 July and is expected to “severely impact” the company’s UK operations, Unite said. It comes in response to plans to close Tata Steel’s blast furnaces in South Wales, putting 2,800 jobs at risk, according to the union.Unite said it would be the first time in more than 40 years that steel workers in the UK have gone on strike.Industrial action short of a walkout, including staff working to rule and a…

CVC Capital Partners, the newly listed private equity giant, is in advanced talks to buy one of Britain’s biggest infrastructure services providers.Sky News understands that CVC, which floated in Amsterdam last month, is the final remaining bidder for M Group. CVC is said to have seen off competition from rival bidders including Apollo Global Management, with a deal expected to be signed in the coming weeks.The price that CVC, which owns assets including a stake in rugby union’s Six Nations Championship, is paying for M Group was unclear on Friday, although previous reports about the auction pegged its value at…