THE Chancellor, George Osborne, is set to cut the levy on banks to reduce the risk that giants such as HSBC and Standard Chartered will leave the UK, the Sunday Times reports.
After recently raising the prospect the bank could move its headquarters overseas on cost grounds, HSBC will update investors tomorrow. Chief executive Stuart Gulliver is expected to give more details about what factors will influence the bank's decision about whether to move its HQ from London without saying what it has decided to do.
The paper also reports that Edinburgh-based pensions giant Standard Life will lead opposition to the £43 million pay package of WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell at the advertising group's general meeting tomorrow. Last year around 30 per cent of shareholders in WPP failed to back a £30m payout for 2013 to Sir Martin, who has grown the business into the world's biggest advertising group.
The Pension Corporation is eyeing a £2 billion stock market flotation of the business, which insures the pension liabilities of some large companies, says The Sunday Telegraph. A flotation of the firm could trigger windfalls for Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Scotland owner Lloyds Banking Group, which have stakes in the business.
The Pension Corporation may hope to capitalise on the enthusiasm for flotations shown by sock exchange investors in recent months.
The Mail on Sunday reports that Aldi, the German discount retailer, has doubled its share of the UK grocery market over the last three years.
Information supplied by the Kantar research business showed Aldi attracted 5.4 per cent of UK grocery spending in the three months to April, compared with 2.7 per cent in the same period of 2012.
Aldi has beaten Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and German rival Lidl over that period by market share.
Scottish Enterprise will invest £75m in high growth firms in the next three years through a simplified funding programme, reckons The Sunday Herald.
It said the Scottish Seed Fund targeted at recent start-ups will be combined with the Scottish Venture Fund and the Scottish Co-Investment Fund, which work with firms at later stages in their development. The funds will be relaunched next month.
The Scottish Loan Fund and Scottish Renewable Energy Investment Fund will not be affected.
The five funds have invested £180m in total in 340 companies since 2003.
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