Wednesday newspaper round-up: Tesco, Morrisons, Ebola

7th Oct 2014 19:49

Several large investors have signaled to Tesco that they would be willing to support a rights issue, of between £1-2bn, to strengthen the retailer's hand. Nevertheless, that does not mean that they are pleased by the company's performance, one of them told The Times, but there is a general acceptance of the need for one. The sooner the better, he added. The rise in high-end homes in London could trigger a construction crunch, the Guardian reported on Wednesday.A record number of luxury homes worth in the region of £60bn are being built in the British capital but analysts have warned this could create a crunch in the construction sector, which could potentially lead to many properties being delayed or even scraped altogether.The number of high-end properties built or planned over the next 10 years has climbed to 25,000 units, a 25% increase compared to 12 months ago, a report from EC Harris, a built asset consultancy, showed.The Daily Telegraph reported that, according to new Morrisons chairman, Andy Higginson, shoppers have "lost trust" in supermarket pricing.Higginson, who joined the board of the supermarket chain earlier in October, said Britain's four main supermarkets chains had strengthened the position of Lidl and Aldi by "talking to each other, not their customers" in their marketing strategy."The dialogue with customers has not been honest. Customers have lost trust in supermarket pricing," said Higginson."Supermarkets have been very focused on each other. The marketing dialogue has astonished me. It is the big four talking to each other, not their customers."The spread of Ebola through Europe is "quite unavoidable" according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), The Independent reported.WHO European director Zsuzsanna Jakab has warned that more cases will spread in Europe, following the news that four people have been hospitalised in Spain after a nurse became the first person known to have contracted the virus outside Africa."Such imported cases and similar events as have happened in Spain will happen also in the future, most likely," Jakab was quoted as saying to Reuters.Britain is at the head of the pack when it comes to economic growth among the leading economies of the world, by a mile, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. The UK is now expected to grow by 3.2% this year and 2.7% next."Among advanced countries, the United States and the United Kingdom in particular are leaving the financial crisis behind and achieving decent growth," Olivier Blanchard, the IMF chief economist, said, according to The Times.