UK Business News

Johnston turn to Malaysian billionaire

Johnston Press has turned to Ananda Krishnan to help raise £212 million and ease its woes

• Low-key mogul who built high-profile towers

Land Securities writes down assets by £1.28bn

Britain's largest commercial property company reports the biggest ever decline in its asset values over a one year period

• Land Securities hires team of City veterans

• Property has peaked, LandSecs chief says

Tax-wary Compass may go abroad

Compass said it is considering moving its headquarters, days after the Treasury admitted drawing up a new set of tax proposals

• Government backs down on corporate tax

• Another tax break, Darling, or we're off

Postcomm raises new mail privatisation fears

The postal regulator will reignite fears over a privatisation of Royal Mail by calling for banks to take a stake in the ailing group

• Businesses find Royal Mail fails to deliver

• Royal Mail losses climb sevenfold to £200m

World Business News

Tesco pays £958m for Korean stores

Britain's biggest retailer will triple its presence in Seoul as analysts say that the group's UK growth could be curbed

Merrill Lynch goes in search of weakest runners

Wall Street investment bank demands its army of equity analysts identify far more companies whose shares they believe will fall

• Merrill Lynch raises extra $7.3bn to boost funds

• Merrill Lynch to cut jobs after $6.5bn write-off

Foreclosures soar as US property slump deepens

More than 8,000 American households are entering foreclosure every day, with more than one million forecast for 2008

• US housing market faces record defaults

• US housing market given $200bn lift

Virgin Mobile USA in merger talks with rival

Troubled telecoms company in talks with South Korean's largest operator, SK Telecom, about a 'strategic partnership'

• Virgin Mobile USA boss dials up $11.7m pay day

• Branson takes $250m hit on Virgin Mobile USA

Analysis

Demutualisations lose their shine

B&B appears to have been caught out by a report a month ago that it planned to launch a rights issue

• Get your taps fixed while you can

• Malaysian Might

Why no phone-ins investigation?

The recent scandals amount to nothing less than fraud and there is public amazement that the SFO appears so uninterested

The party comes to an end for UK plc

The good times are over for the chief accountant and the real question for those in charge is who, if anyone, will pick up the bill

Money 

Exclusive: City watchdog condemns pension funds

In a damning report seen by Times Online, the Financial Services Authority accuses the insurance industry of offering misleading advice to retirees

• Women losing out on state pensions

• Pension boost for stay-at-home mums

Buy the kids a house

The benefits of helping your children on to the property ladder - and how to do it

• How to help the boomerang kids

• Lenders call time on parental help

Do not follow the investment fads

How chasing short-term returns can prove a costly mistake for fund investors

Law 

Jobs for junior lawyers dry up as boom ends

Prospects diminish as UK's biggest law practices cut back amid fear that demand for their services is dropping off

• City firms hold nerve in the face of crisis

• City job fears grow after banks cut back

Disabled woman wins post office legal case

A severely disabled woman, Judy Brown, of Hastings, has won a judge's permission to challenge post office closures

Beazer Homes restates nine years of accounts

Homebuilder was forced to file new accounts for the years 1998 to 2006 after discovering irregularities in its mortgage unit