Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Altrad acquisition of Stork UK now complete
Altrad has completed the acquisition of Stork UK from Fluor after securing all regulatory approvals.
The deal was announced in April last year, but was subject to regulator approvals and other customary closing conditions.
Those conditions have now been satisfied and the deal completed in February 1st. The business will continue to trade as Stork UK for now, but will be renamed in due course.
Barclays working to update account balances after tech outage
Barclays has said the "technical issue" impacting payments and transactions for customers has been resolved, but is still working on updating bank balances for some customers.
The bank said delayed payments had been processed but that it was still "addressing any outstanding issues", following days of disruption.
On Friday when the outage began, customers told the BBC they were having trouble with mobile and online banking, and also making essential payments.
Passengers face paying £15 a flight for Heathrow third runway
Passengers face a levy of up to £15 per flight to fund a third runway at Heathrow, amid a brewing row over who should pay for Rachel Reeves’s flagship economic project.
The new runway is expected to cost an estimated £20billion, which Heathrow bosses want to recoup through 15 years of upfront charges on travellers. Based on the airport’s maximum capacity of 100m people a year, this would equate to a levy of about £15 per trip. A £25 cut of every ticket cost already goes to Heathrow.
However, the funding proposal is being resisted by British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic, which are reluctant to bankroll a runway that would mainly benefit rival airlines seeking to increase their operations at Heathrow.
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Channel 4 demands tech giants be forced to promote mainstream news
Channel 4 has demanded that tech giants be forced to promote mainstream news to fight the spread of misinformation on social media.
Alex Mahon, the chief executive of Channel 4, called for “algorithmic prominence” in which posts from trusted media outlets would be pushed to the top of news feeds.
Ms Mahon said the measures, which would mirror similar rules placing public service broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 at the top of TV programme guides, would ensure that quality news was “boosted, not throttled or shadow-banned”.
Blow for Reeves as AstraZeneca ditches £450m investment
AstraZeneca has scrapped plans to invest £450million in expanding a vaccine manufacturing plant in Merseyside, blaming a reduction in government support.
The pharmaceutical giant announced its decision just two days after Chancellor Rachel Reeves set out Labour's plan to go "further and faster" to boost economic growth.
AstraZeneca said that after "protracted" talks, a number of factors influenced the move, including "the timing and reduction of the final offer compared to the previous government's proposal".
Asos gets a vote of confidence as credit insurers reinstate cover
Two leading credit insurers have reinstated cover for Asos clothing suppliers, signalling renewed confidence in the online fashion retailer’s financial stability.
Atradius and Coface restored cover last month having withdrawn it in 2023 amid concerns over the fashion retailer’s tumbling profits, The Times understands.
Cartan Trade, another major credit insurer, has also just opened up cover for the first time, which could further improve Asos’s cashflow.
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