Boeing will halt commercial production of its 737 Max aircraft in January following two fatal crashes in five months, it was announced on Monday. The jet was still in production, despite it having been grounded since March after two crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people. Boeing’s board decided at a two-day meeting in Chicago to stop making the plane after the costs of grounding the aircraft had already run to more than $9 billion (about £6.75 billion). Last week the Federal Aviation Administration said it would not approve the plane’s return to service before next year.
Cineworld Group (CINE) has doubled down on an expansion across the Atlantic, splashing out £1.6bn on Canada’s biggest cinema chain – and raising fresh fears over its sky-high debts. The British movie theatre chain is seeking to buy Cineplex, which runs three quarters of the Canadian market, for C$34 a share in cash. It follows the 2017 acquisition of US cinema operator Regal. The Cineplex deal – which must be backed by a majority of Cineworld investors – raised eyebrows over concerns it will add to the company’s already heavy debts, which stood at $3.3bn (£2.5bn) at the end of June.
Boris Johnson’s new government must reform business rates immediately to save the country’s ailing high streets, the boss of pizza chain Franco Manca has said. Ministers must make the rates system clearer and sort out a backlog of complaints over firms’ often sky-high bills according to David Page, who made his name running Pizza Express and is now executive chairman of Franco Manca owner The Fulham Shore (FUL). The company has challenged the calculation of some of its business rates bills. He said: “We’ve got rate appeals going on all over the place. “It can take years. It can’t be right. I am not sure that smaller businesses can wait that long.”
Footfall at British retailers has failed to kick on after Black Friday sales fuelled a surge in shoppers taking to the high street at the end of last month. The number of shoppers taking to the high street slipped 0.9% in the second week of December according to data from Springboard, which tracks shopper numbers at bricks and mortar retailers across the UK. The figures reveal a heavy 5pc drop in the number of shoppers compared to the same period last year as the trend towards online shopping continues to gather pace, buffeting traditional retailers in towns and shopping centres.
tycoon Mike Ashley is planning a £100m share giveaway to staff after renaming his firm and unveiling a jump in profits that sent shares rocketing by almost a third. His proposal will be introduced by September 2020 if it wins shareholder support, and is likely to be seen as part of a charm offensive after the 55-year-old was heavily criticised over how Sports Direct treats its staff. It came as the firm rebranded itself as Frasers and vowed to focus more on luxury products following a rescue of the House of Fraser department store in July. Sports Direct reported a 14% rise in revenues to £2bn for the six months to October after a string of takeovers of struggling rivals.
FirstGroup (FGP) has hired investment bank Rothschild to spearhead the potential sale of its remaining North American businesses after months of mounting pressure from investors. The FTSE 250 company said it will explore all options for its school and city bus operations across the Atlantic. FirstGroup is close to selling troubled long-distance US coach arm Greyhound and is mulling options for its UK bus operations. Activist investors have been pressuring the firm to break up its business for more than a year. Chief executive Matthew Gregory said the potential sale of First Student – the biggest operator of school buses in the US – and city service First Transit is the next logical step.
