US takeover bid hangs in balance
1 The fate of a takeover bid for a major North East employer hangs in the balance after the American bidder was refused extra time to make an offer for the firm.
US paint giant PPG Industries wants to buy Dutch firm AkzoNobel, which employs more than 1,000 people in the North East.
Having had three offers for AkzoNobel refused, the last of which was €24.6bn, PPG has until June 1 to decide if it wants to table a formal bid without the support of Akzo’s board, effectively turning the takeover attempt hostile.
But PPG has suffered a double blow in its approach and has hinted it may now walk away from the deal. 2 Hundreds of businesses and homes in Newcastle are being promised some of the UK’s fastest broadband speeds after BT’s Openreach began a trial for its new ultrafast broadband network.
Around 5,800 households and businesses in places like Fawdon, Gosforth and Kenton will be able to access BT’s new G.fast.
The new technology provides download speeds of up to 330Mbps – more than 10 times the UK average. 3 A property entrepreneur has plans to transform an empty 18th Century hall in Northumberland into a wedding venue with views of the coast.
Richard Shell has snapped up Charlton Hall, in Chathill, for an undisclosed sum, with grand plans to create a stunning setting for couples looking to marry in a magical, private setting.
Set within a 150-acre estate, the manor house looks out toward Beadnell Bay and Mr Shell’s development plans include retaining original features and many historic artefacts in the grand rooms that were included in the sale.
The Grade II property project marks the second development that Mr Shell has taken on, coming two years after he converted rustic barns which had been a farm shop north of Alnwick, into Doxford Barns, a countryside base offers couples three-day barn weddings with accommodation onsite. 4 Discounters Aldi and Lidl have grown at their fastest rate since 2015 as inflation helped the market to its best performance in more than three years.
The two grocers reached a joint record market share of 12% as inflation cost families an extra £27 on groceries over the past 12 weeks, Kantar Worldpanel figures show.
Aldi and Lidl saw sales grow 19.2% year on year as 62% of the UK population shopped in either of them over the past three months, up from 58% this time last year and an additional 1.1m households.
Iceland also grew well ahead of the market, increasing sales by 8.6% and attracting 380,000 more shoppers to boost its share to to 2.2%. 5 Sir Richard Branson has called for start-up businesses to “change the face of rail travel” after launching a new accelerator programme to support them.
Virgin Trains East Coast and Virgin StartUp have teamed up to create Platform-X, an accelerator programme specifically designed to find businesses that can improve rail travel.
Successful companies will gain access to funding for in-market trials through the £25m Virgin Trains East Coast Innovation Fund and mentoring from Virgin Trains’ senior management team.