Payday bonanza

year and earned £4.9 million (€5.7m), overtaking his rival at Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, after reaching profit, cashflow and personal targets.

The increase was partly due to a £2.3 million (€2.7m) long­term bonus, although Roberts also received a £1.7 million (€1.9m) annual bonus together with a 3.5 per cent rise that brought a £905,625 (€1.05m) salary.

Sales were boosted by higher consumption of beer and water, the company said, although net profits fell by 0.8 per cent to €102.1 million, affected by lower margins owing to higher costs.

These were not entirely passed on to consumers, while the company explained that it spent €499.2 million31 per cent more ­ on modernising factories, as well as a 6 per cent rise to reduce the impact of inflation on Mahou San Miguel’s 4,068 employees.

Good news

THE Organisation for Economic Co­operation and Development (OECD) increased Spain’s 2023 growth forecast from 1.7 to 2.1 per cent.

The OECD also increased its 2024 forecast from 1.7 to 1.9 per cent.

from £5.2 million (€6m) to nearly £6 million (approximately €7m).

Simon Roberts, Sainsbury’s chief executive received a 3.5 per cent rise last

Bank takes action

THE Daily and Sunday Telegraph will be auctioned off after their owners, the Barclay family, lost control of their two principal media assets.

Earlier, Lloyds Banking Group had threatened to put Press Acquisitions, which owns the newspapers’ parent company Telegraph Media Group (TMG), into administration after the breakdown of talks regarding loans that had accumulated over time.

On June 7, the UK media reported that Lloyds had appointed consultants AlixPartners as the official receiver for the Barclay family’s shares in the holding company which controls both newspapers and the Spectator magazine.

‘Multiple’ sources revealed that the bank, finally frustrated over repayment of a loan of ‘hundreds of millions’ of pounds, had decided to take action by removing Barclay family­appointed board members before auctioning the Telegraph titles and the Spectator magazine.

As sales and profits jumped, Stuart Machin, Marks & Spencer’s co­chief executive, received £2 million (€2.9m) last year, which included a £1 million (€1.16m) bonus.

Push off

UK banks will eventually have to refund all victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud within a week.

These scams occur when criminals trick victims into handing over a security code sent by their bank, allowing them to ransack their accounts.

Last year victims lost £485.2 million (€564.4 million) to this type of fraud, but banks are currently not obliged to refund them, although many have signed a voluntary agreement requiring them at least to consider cases.

In practice, however, banks refuse to pay around half of APP fraud refunds but Britain’s Payment Systems Regulator plans to introduce stringent rules for refunding customers in 2024.

The organisation placed Spain’s economic progress at the head of the eurozone, expecting growth of approximately 0.9 per cent this year and 1.5 per cent in 2024.

In the “challenging environment” caused the Ukraine war, the OECD predicted that inflation in Spain would fall more rapidly than anticipated, averaging 3.9 per cent both this year and in 2024.

CBI wins vote

THE Confederation of British Industry emerged unscathed from a confidence vote in London on Tuesday June 6.

Ninety­three per cent of the 371 members of Britain’s foremost business lobby group backed proposals to overhaul its ‘governance, culture, and purpose’ in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations. The result was “a really strong mandate from our members,” the CBI’s director general, Rain Newton ­ Smith said although leading companies including Aviva, BMW, BT, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer and Rolls Royce, have either left or suspended their membership.

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Dow Jones

Turkish delight

STRUGGLING Asos shares rose by 7 per cent following reports in the Sunday Times that it had received a £1 billion (€1.16 billion) takeover bid from the Turkish online retailer Trendyol last December.

Asos, which owns Topshop and Miss Selfridge, was valued at between £10 and £12 (€11.64 and €13.96) a share by Trendyol.

Old favourite

LINGERIE and stockings company Marie Claire, founded in 1907, is in talks with the unions, employees and clients that include El Corte Ingles to find a solution that will allow it to survive. If an answer cannot be found, the firm will be obliged to start insolvency proceedings involving the loss of 280 jobs.