Game on, Brussels says

countable” regulator, maintaining the English Channel had never seemed wider for attracting businesses.

“There’s a clear message here, the EU is a more attractive place to start a business than the UK,” Smith declared.

HUW PILL, the Bank of England’s top economist, apologised for suggesting that people should accept they were poorer.

create a hostile environment for businesses in the UK, Cardell told MPs a day after the European Commission approved the merger.

The CMA wanted to “create and support” the best conditions for competition, enabling companies big and small to thrive, she insisted.

REPSOL and Italian energy company Eni could begin importing Venezuelan gas and gas condensates by June.

The news was announced by Pedro Tellechea, president of state­run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), who confirmed that both companies wanted to increase the volume of their operations inside the Latin American country.

The agreement increases Europe’s supply options in the context of the energy crisis created by the Ukraine war, while bringing investment and royalties to Venezuela’s beleaguered economy.

The deal will allow Repsol and Eni to concentrate on their Perla gas field, a joint project located in the Cardon IV block in the Gulf of Venezuela. Regarded as having ‘enormous potential’, the offshore operation has increased activities reccently, up 30 per cent on 2019.

Apollo backs off

PRIVATE equity firm Apollo abandoned its £1.66 billion (€1.91 billion) takeover of the oil and gas services company, Wood Group.

The Aberdeen­based company said earlier that it would “engage” with Apollo’s final offer of 240p (€2.76) per share, after rejecting four earlier proposals which it said were too low.

Instead the New York firm announced on Monday May 15 that it would not make another offer for the business, two days before the deadline for making a firm bid or turning its back on the deal.

The European regulators said the commitments offered by Microsoft and Activision to maintain competition provided significant benefits for competition and consumers.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s vice­chairman Brad Smith referred to the UK’s “unac­

“Global innovators will take note that, despite all its rhetoric, the UK is clearly closed for business,” Smith had said following the CMA’s decision to block in April.

Microsoft and Activision are currently setting up legal team to challenge the UK ruling.