BUSINESS EXTRA Safe landing

THOUSANDS of jobs in the City are at risk following the emergency merger between the Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse. UBS has 6,000 London employees and Credit Suisse approximately 5,000, but neither bank has yet revealed how the rushed ‘shotgun marriage’ will affect them.

Not so sweet

SUGAR has been more affected by inflation than any other product in Spain, with a 52 per cent price rise. As the country does not produce enough sugar to cover its needs, it has been exposed to international events in general and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in particular.

Outward bound

SUPERDRY, whose shares fell sharply in January, sold its intellectual property assets in much of the Asia ­ Pacific region to South Korea’s Cowell Fashion Company for approximately £40 million (€45.2m). Cowell will own and use the brand in its home market before extending to other countries, including China.

Big money

ACCORDING to Bank of Spain figures, deposits in the country’s savings accounts amounted to €1,612 billion at the end of 2022. Santander, BBVA and Caixabank between them accounted for €935 billion ­ 57.5 per cent of the total ­ compared with 53.8 per cent at the end of 2021.

Booked up

JULIA QUINN, the American author of the bestselling Bridgerton series who has sold 20 million books in the US alone, said she was optimistic that human creativity would survive, despite bookwriting chatbots. Meanwhile romantic fiction sales in the UK have doubled over the past three years.