Business Extra

Sun spots UNIVERSITIES and tech companies will receive £4.3 million (€5 million) in funding from the government to develop space-based solar power, which collects energy from the sun using satellite-mounted panels and beams it to Earth.  The scheme has huge potential, Energy Security Secretary, Grant Shapps, said.

Shanghai deal GRIFOLS, Cataluña-based multinational pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturer, is taking steps to reduce its debt with a corporate manoeuvre within the Chinese company, Shanghai RAAS.  If the transaction goes ahead, Grifols will receive $1.5 billion (€1.4 billion) while remaining “a significant” Shanghai RAAS shareholder.

Shell payout SHELL intends to boost its dividends by 15 per cent as part of the company’s plans to hand back more cash to its shareholders under its new chief executive Wael Sawan. Shell has told investors that the dividend increase would become effective from the second quarter of its financial year.  

No vote PORTUGUESE company Western Gate, with a 2.18 per cent stake in the Dia supermarket chain, will vote against Benjamin Babcock as a major shareholder-director representing LetterOne, which owns 77 per cent of the company.  Minority shareholders should have more weight on Dia’s board, Western Gate said.

Not the same FREETRADE, the investment app, has slashed its pre-money valuation by 65 per cent while blaming current conditions and a “different market environment.” Freetrade’s valuation rose to £650 million (€760 million) during the pandemic, but the company announced that it has since fallen to £225 million (€263 million).

Stoked up  NATIONAL GRID is in talks with power generation group Drax over bringing two coal-fired units at its Selby (North Yorkshire) plant out of retirement.  ESO, the grid’s system operator, has discussed restarting the units, shut down this year after 50 years of coal-fired power generation, to prevent power cuts next winter. 

Prove it SPAIN’S Supreme Court ruled that temporary public-sector employees who are not covered by the 2021 Employment Stability Act and are sacked after working for several years, are not automatically entitled to compensation. Instead they must demonstrate that dismissal has caused them significant “moral or financial” damage.

Pigging out SWIZZELS, which also makes Refreshers and Parma Violets, will redesign the Pig Mugs that it has sold since 1996, after M &S argued that these were too similar to their own product.  M & S sells 271 bags a minute of Percy Pig fruit gums since their 1993 launch, generating a £131.7 million (€153.9) turnover since then. 

Des res ANA GAMAZO HOHENLOHE, who is the wife of Juan Abello, one of Spain’s richest businessmen, intends to sell one of her properties in Calle Padilla in Madrid’s Salamanca district, equivalent to London’s Mayfair.  The sale of the 8,500 five-storey building is expected to raise around €80 million.  

Ashes to ashes ALASDAIR WARREN, WE Soda’s chief executive, said that New York could eventually be a “credible alternative” for a stock market flotation.  The world’s principal natural soda ash producer abandoned plans to list in London two weeks after announcing its plans, claiming that valuations were “unrealistically low.”

Top changes SANTANDER, which is currently renewing its top executives in Europe, announced the appointment of Pedro Castro e Almeida, until now chief executive of Santander Portugal, as its new Regional Head of Europe. He takes over on September 1 from Antonio Simões, who is leaving the bank to join the British insurer Legal & General.

Rider law THE majority of Labour Ministers from the EU’s 27 member states voted in favour of a directive setting out the working conditions for the food delivery and other riders employed by digital platforms.  Spain abstained, as Yolanda Diaz, who is also second vice-president, considered that the new measures were insufficient and were “difficult to understand in democratic terms.”

Football fund TWENTY top-flight UK football clubs were consulted over making permanent a funding package that was set up during the pandemic.  Sources revealed the government proposed to increase the existing £100 million (€116.7 million) allocation for grassroots, community and other football projects to £133 million (€155.2 million), subject to future increases in Premier League revenue.

Export fiasco FIGURES from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) revealed that the UK’s goods and services exports had a value of $813 billion (€756 billion) in 2012 but rose only 6 per cent by 2021. Overall, the EU’s 27 member enjoyed a 29.1 per cent increase in the value of their exports during the same period.