Sunday newspaper round-up: China, Facebook, Petropavlovsk

22nd Nov 2020 18:13

(Sharecast News) - Britain will lose billions of pounds of investment and thousands of jobs unless it reverses its hostility to China, an influential lobby group for Chinese businesses has warned. In the most stark public intervention yet, the China Chamber of Commerce in the UK - which represents companies including Huawei, ZTE and Air China - said there could also be a consumer backlash against British companies such as Jaguar Land Rover and Burberry, which are heavily reliant on China's middle-class customers. Relations between China and the UK are at their lowest ebb in decades, hit by Beijing's power grab in Hong Kong and Donald Trump's trade war with President Xi Jinping. - Sunday Times
Facebook has become embroiled in an explosive row with Britain's markets watchdog that could result in a fine of up to £3billion. The social media giant has lost a legal case to overturn an order by the Competition and Markets Authority in June that demanded Facebook freeze a host of business activities while officials investigated its $400million (£300million) takeover of image firm Giphy. Facebook, founded and run by 36-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, is now under investigation after court documents revealed it could not 'certify compliance' with the edict imposed by the watchdog. - Mail on Sunday

Petropavlovsk, the London-listed Russian miner co-founded by City veteran Peter Hambro, has fired the starting gun on a probe into the company's murky deals by hiring KPMG as forensic investigator. The FTSE 250 gold miner, which has been rocked by a series of boardroom battles and shareholder feuds, is set to appoint the consultancy firm to scrutinise related-party transactions over the past three years, when co-founder Pavel Maslovskiy was chief executive. The investigators will also look into transactions by IRC, the Hong Kong mining business in which Petropavlovsk has a 31% stake, run by Hambro's son, Jay. - Sunday Times

Ministers have asked passport makers to provide Britons with secure certificates to prove they are not carrying coronavirus and help pave the way for a return to normality next year. City sources said companies including De La Rue are discussing certificates guaranteeing travellers have taken tests for the disease and are not infected. - Sunday Telegraph

An entrepreneur who left school at 15 is expected to crystallise a multimillion-pound fortune through a £100m stock market listing of his online fashion empire. Adam Frisby is understood to have hired bankers from Liberum to advise on the float of his business, In the Style. The brand has grown by collaborating with reality TV stars such as Love Island's Dani Dyer, Geordie Shore's Charlotte Crosby and Towie's Billie Faiers, and helping shoppers to emulate celebrity style on a budget. - Sunday Times

The UK and Canada have agreed to continue trading under the same terms as the current EU agreement after the Brexit transition period ends. The Conservative government said the agreement paved the way for negotiations to begin next year on a new comprehensive deal with Canada, which has long been trumpeted as one of the benefits of the UK leaving the EU. Labour urged the government to secure continuity arrangements with other key trading partners before the end of the year. - Guardian

The Prime Minister has launched a lobbying offensive to persuade big business to spend more than £40billion on green projects over the next decade, we can reveal. Johnson and Business Secretary Alok Sharma held a private meeting with more than 20 powerful British and multinational corporations just hours after the Government published its 'green industrial strategy' last Wednesday. - Mail on Sunday