Morrisons rejects ‘significantly undervalued’ £5.5bn takeover proposal from Clayton Dubilier & Rice – Sky News

Morrisons has rejected a takeover bid from a private equity firm, saying the £5.5bn value “significantly undervalued” the supermarket chain. It came after Sky News earlier reported the approach from one of the world’s biggest buyout firms, Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R). In a statement, the supermarket chain said: “The board of Morrisons evaluated the…

Slice of Southend Airport to be sold in lifeline £120m deal for owners – Echo

A SLICE of Southend Airport could be sold to raise £120million for the struggling company in charge of the runways. Esken, known as Stobart Group until February, said that it was “in the final stages of agreeing the documentation” with US private equity firm Carlyle Group. The deal would give Esken a loan that Carlyle could…

Richard Branson and Rolls-Royce back £3bn plan for electric air taxis – Telegraph.co.uk

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic and Rolls-Royce are among a clutch of firms backing a £2.8bn British project to build up to 1,000 electric vertical takeoff planes. Vertical Aerospace, the brainchild of Ovo energy founder Stephen Fitzpatrick, is to float in the US by merging with a blank-cheque company, it was announced overnight.  American Airlines and…

Bid race starts for HS2 Interchange station – Construction Enquirer

Contractors now face the challenge of pricing the job amid rampant materials price inflation. Initially, the cost of the station project was expected to be around £270m. With a more advanced design this has jumped by around £100m but still remains the cheapest of the quartet of phase 1 HS2 station builds. HS2’s design consultant…

Pfizer vaccine ‘probably’ linked to swelling of heart in tiny number of cases – Wales Online

The Pfizer coronavirus vaccine has been linked to swelling of the heart in a very small number of cases in Israel. It has been named by Israel’s Health Ministry as the ‘probable’ cause of a condition called myocarditis, the medical name for swelling in the heart. Israel has one of the world’s most successful vaccine…

Banks block payments to crypto exchanges – Telegraph.co.uk

Banks are cracking down on transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges by suspending payments to the sector amid rising fears that it has become a hotbed for financial crime. Customers of banks including Barclays, Monzo and Starling are among those to have been blocked from transferring money to cryptocurrency platforms such as Binance and SwissBorg in recent…

Bill Shakespeare: First man in world to get approved Covid vaccine dies aged 81 – ITV News

The first man in the world to get the approved Pfizer coronavirus jab has died of an unrelated illness. William ‘Bill’ Shakespeare, 81, was given the Pfizer jab shortly after 91-year-old Margaret Keenan who was the first person in the world to be given a government approved vaccine on 9 December last year. Since then…

Supermarket and shop rules: The new rule changing at every shop in England from today – Essex Live

As of today, the rules around single-use carrier bags are changing for shops across the country. From May 21, the single-use carrier bag charge is increasing to 10 pence for all retailers in England. It includes small, medium and even micro-retailers, including shops like airport retailers. Biodegradable bags are also not exempt from the charge…

Ryanair reports £700million loss after losing 80% of passengers during pandemic – Mirror Online

Ryanair has reported a full year loss of £702million as traffic fell 81% during the Coronavirus pandemic. The Irish carrier said passenger numbers collapsed from 149million the year before to just 27.5million during the outbreak, which resulted in almost a year of travel bans for UK passengers. Ryanair said its fortunes were hit by the…