The insurer LV= will be taken over by a company based offshore in Jersey if members agree to deal orchestrated by US private equity firm Bain Capital that would see it lose its historic mutual status. Bain has established a Jersey-based company called BCC Blake Bidco Ltd to carry out the takeover, according to correspondence between an independent expert and Gareth Thomas, a Labour MP and shadow minister of international trade. – Guardian
French fishers are set to take action within days, including blocking road and sea freight bound for the UK through Calais and other Channel ports, as a months-long dispute over licences to operate in British waters intensifies. French media reported on Tuesday that with talks between the two governments and the European Commission over post-Brexit fishing rights seemingly deadlocked, angry fishers in northern France would decide on Thursday what steps to take. – Guardian
Companies are ordering food from special city centre kitchens in a bid to attract workers back to the office without having to run canteens. Catering giant Compass has set up 12 remote kitchens in the UK and Ireland, mostly in London and Dublin, to cook meals and deliver them to its corporate clients. It is a similar format to so-called “dark kitchens” used by some restaurants to sell food via apps such as Deliveroo, except in this case the food needs to be pre-ordered in bulk. – Telegraph
Google and Facebook must not be regulated “only by outrage”, the chief executive of Ofcom has said, in comments that will be received as a retort to criticisms from the former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre. Dame Melanie Dawes said the “time has come for strong, external oversight” of web search and social media as she underscored her commitment to tackling harmful online content, days after Mr Dacre questioned if she had the “wherewithal” to do the job. – Telegraph
Only four months ago, the government regarded Bulb as such a totem of British enterprise that it granted the energy supplier a prime ministerial visit. “I’m here at a wonderful company called Bulb in their Bishopsgate headquarters,” Boris Johnson said as he met apprentices in a glowing Downing Street video. Now the jobs of those apprentices and 1,000 other Bulb staff are at risk after the supplier said on Monday that it had failed to secure the investment it needed to survive and was entering the government-backed special administration regime. – The Times
The former boss of Marks & Spencer has been appointed chairman of Asda as the supermarket chain searches for a replacement chief executive. Lord Rose of Monewden, 72, was hired by Mohsin and Zuber Issa, who own Asda, after the abrupt departure in August of Roger Burnley as the chain’s chief executive. Rose is already chairman of EG Group, the Issa brothers’ petrol station and store business, after it moved to allay concerns about its corporate governance earlier in the year. – The Times
