Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Commuters warned of disruption as snow falls in UK
Motorists and commuters are being warned of possible disruption as Met Office weather warnings for snow and ice take effect in a number of areas across the UK.
Snow started falling across parts of the country on Monday in what the Met Office is describing as the country’s “first taste of winter”.
In Northern Scotland, 2 to 5 cm of snow is likely to accumulate quite widely, with up to 10 cm in some places by the end of Tuesday.
Starling Bank staff resign after new chief executive calls for more time in-office
Staff have resigned at Starling Bank after its new chief executive demanded thousands of workers attend its offices more regularly, despite lacking enough space to host them.
In his first major policy change since taking over from the UK digital bank’s founder, Anne Boden, in March, Raman Bhatia has ordered all hybrid staff – many of whom were in the office only one or two days a week, or on an ad-hoc basis – to travel to work for a minimum of 10 days each month.
But the bank, which operates online only, admitted that some of its offices would not be equipped to handle the influx.
Morrisons unloads another £200m from its debt trolley
The private equity-owned supermarket chain Wm Morrison has almost halved its hefty debt burden as part of a turnaround effort under its new boss.
Britain’s fifth-largest grocer, which was saddled with debt after its takeover by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) in 2021, said it had paid down a further £200million of borrowings and extended the maturity of its revolving credit facility to 2030, reducing its overall leverage levels.
Morrisons has repaid a total of £2.4billion of debt since it was bought by CD&R, bringing borrowings down by about 40% from £6.2billion to £3.8billion.
Tesla shares rise sharply as Trump team discusses easing regulations
Tesla shares rose more than 7% in morning trading on Wall Street following reports that Donald Trump’s transition team is discussing easing regulations for self-driving vehicles.
Advisers to the president-elect are planning to make a federal framework to regulate self-driving vehicles a top priority for the US Department of Transportation, Bloomberg reported.
The framework could accelerate the commercialisation of self-driving vehicles and benefit Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and one of Trump’s biggest campaign backers, who has said that in the future all Tesla cars will be fully autonomous.