Sainsbury's Asda Mega Merger

Sainsbury's has agreed to merge with supermarket rival Asda, and plans to maintain both brands. Hence it will not be renamed Sasda.

The merged company (subject to regulatory approval) will be larger than  Tesco, with combined revenues of £51bn.

There are no plans to close Sainsbury's or Asda stores. However, there are "Rudd type targets" of £500m "operational efficiencies".

Sainsbury's claim that customers would see benefits including price cuts of 10% on many of the products that customers buy regularly.

We shall see, the proof of the pudding is in the eating!

TSB Fixed? Maybe Not Quite Yet!

Tweets about tsb

UK Economy Reaches Turning Point...Allegedly

Today’s @ons deficit stats show

the lowest March borrowing since 2004 👍🏿
the lowest full-year borrowing for over 10 years 📉

We’ve reached a turning point in our economy, with debt forecast to start falling – reducing the burden on future generations. pic.twitter.com/H52FgN8Htp

— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) April 24, 2018

Capita In The Shit

The FT reports that Capita has launched a £701m fundraising after announcing a £513m loss for last year, as its tries to recover from a series of reputation-damaging contract bungles and repair its balance sheet.

Capita, which provides a range of public services from collecting the BBC licence fee to recruiting for the British army, is issuing 1m new shares at 70p each — a 34 per cent discount to the theoretical price that the shares should trade at after the rights issue.

The three-for-two rights issue, which will raise £662m after fees to advisers, will be used to reduce Capita’s £1.2bn net debt, fund the company’s restructuring and invest in new technology.

The Economy is Strong

Companies House Has Lost Its Mind Thread

This story is absolutely insane. At first glance, you think "well done, Companies House, at last they're getting serious about the epidemic of fraud enabled by the misuse of British corporations". https://t.co/HSjMDawuyl pic.twitter.com/FiQ1VMkKbv

— Oliver Bullough (@OliverBullough) April 15, 2018

Trade War Latest - We Are At The It Will All Be Over By Christmas Phase

Reuters: BEIJING-Dallas Fed's Kaplan says quite hopeful that despite trade skirmish, rhetoric will get de-escalated #US #China

— Vincent Lee (@Rover829) April 10, 2018

British Gas To Raise Prices

British Gas has announced that it will increase energy bills for dual fuel customers by an average of 5.5% - or £60 a year.

Now is not a time to fuck with Putin and his gas supply!

Sanctions Nobble Russian Stock Market

Russian Stock Market -11.53%
Sistema -15.8%
VTB -12%
Gazprom -10%
Rosneft -14.2%
Sberbank -17.84%!!!!!
Surgut -8.66%
EURRUB +2.44% 73.12
USDRUB +2.46% 59.61

Will it stop? pic.twitter.com/Di08vDaRUY

— Russian Market (@russian_market) April 9, 2018

Trade War Latest - We Are In The Doubling Down Phase

China vows to fight US 'at any cost' after Pres. Trump proposed additional $100 billion tariffs on Chinese goods. https://t.co/UcgQFAHGEw pic.twitter.com/zz1XeRqnlR

— ABC News (@ABC) April 6, 2018

Trade War Latest - There Is No Trade War, Apparently!

We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 4, 2018

Trade War Latest - China Goes For Trump's Base

#China giving as good as it gets in trade war with US by hitting #Trump’s base; agricultural states are major supporting regions for Trump pic.twitter.com/MihYhike6x

— Jeremy Koh (@JeremyKohCNA) April 4, 2018