Unilever has named long-serving insider Srinivas Phatak as its new finance chief.
The maker of Dove soaps and Hellmann’s mayonnaise said it had conducted a thorough search process and the board was united in its decision after Phatak “performed strongly” as interim chief financial officer earlier this year.
Phatak, 53, took on the acting role in February, after Unilever unexpectedly ousted its chief executive, Hein Schumacher, and promoted finance chief, Fernando Fernandez, to the chief executive post.
Phatak has been at Unilever for more than 25 years.
JLR to restart UK plants next week
The JLR factory in Solihull is one of three UK plants closed by the cyberattack
CHRIS RATCLIFFE/ BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES
The luxury carmaker, Jaguar Land Rover, has extended the pause in production at it UK plants due to a cyberattack to at least September 24.
JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors, shut down production earlier in the month following the hack that that severely disrupted its retail and manufacturing operations. It has told many of its 33,000 staff to stay at home.
The company said: “We have taken this decision as our forensic investigation of the cyber incident continues, and as we consider the different stages of the controlled restart of our global operations, which will take time.”
The three UK factories usually produce about 1,000 cars a day.
FTSE 100 falls as rate decisions loom
London’s leading share index has retreated further this morning after struggling for direction yesterday as investors braced for interest rate decisions in the US, Britain, Canada and Japan.
The FTSE 100 slide 20 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 9,255.60.
Gold miners Fresnillio and Endeavour were among the risers after the gold price hit high in early trading. Miners stocks were also higher.
EasyJet was one of the biggest fallers after a downgrade from overweight to neutral from JP Morgan. Haleaon, the consumer healthcare company, was also down.
The pound was up against the dollar at $1.3624.
State pension set for 4.7% rise in 2026
The state pension looks set to rise 4.7 per cent in April under the triple lock system after the latest wage growth data.
Under the system the state pension increases by whichever of three measures is the highest: CPI inflation in the September before the rise; average wage growth including — calculated from May to July of the previous year — or a minimum of 2.5 per cent.
Official figures today showed average weekly earnings, including bonuses, was 4.7 per cent in the three months to July. Official inflation figures released tomorrow are likely to show price growth of 3.8 per cent to 3.9 per cent in August.
Kier Group first half profits rise 15% 
The FTSE 250 construction company, Kier Group, has reported a 15 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £78.1 million in the year to the end of June. Revenue over the period rose 3 per cent to over £4.1 billion.
Andrew Davies, the firm’s chief executive, said: “In the first year of our long-term sustainable growth plan, the group delivered strongly, with profit performance, in particular, ahead of our initial expectations.”
Kier said the current financial year had “started well” with the group “trading slightly ahead of the board’s expectations”.
CMA looking into Unite’s takeover of Empiric
Unite is a major developer of student accommodation
ALAMY
The competition regulator is looking into Unite Group’s £634 million takeover of rival student landlord Empiric Student Property.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was gathering information on the acquisition and inviting interested parties to share their views on the impact it could have on lettings competition in the UK. It has not yet launched its formal investigation into the proposed takeover.
The deal will cement Unite’s position as Britain’s biggest student landlord. Unite’s 68,000 beds are typically filled by first-year students whereas Empiric, through its Hello Student brand, markets its buildings more to second and third-year students as well as postgraduates.
Staff share awards hit JTC profits
First half profits at JTC, the London-listed provider of fund administration services, fell sharply as the company was hit by a substantial £11.8 million charge for employee incentive plan share awards.
Pre-tax profits dropped to £10.2 million in the six months to the end of June, down from £19.9 million in the same half last year. Underlying profit rose ten per cent to £35.4 million.
The company granted around £50 million of share awards to staff and the second tranche of this award vested in July.
JTC is at the centre of a frenzied private equity bidding war. Permira has tabled a series of bids for the group. Last week it was revealed that New York-based Warburg Pincus was in early-stage discussions over a “preliminary and conditional” bid.
Labour market cools as jobs and pay growth slow
A key measure of jobs growth shrank in August, and the pace of wage growth slowed, according to official figures showing more evidence of a gradually cooling labour market.
The Office for National Statistics said monthly payrolls across the economy fell by 8,000 in August to 30.3 million, and figures for July were revised lower from a fall of 6,000 after an initial estimate of 8,000. Over the year, payrolls have contracted by 127,000.
Growth in workers’ pay, excluding bonuses, slowed to 4.8 per cent in the three months to July compared with a year earlier. The figure was in line with economists forecasts and was down from 5 per cent in the three months to June.
The ONS said the unemployment rate held steady at 4.7 per cent.
Liz McKeown, the ONS’s director of economic statistics, said: “The labour market continues to cool, with the number of people on payroll failing again, while firms also told us that there were fewer jobs in the latest period.”
Court ruling keeps Cook at the Fed
A US appeals court has declined to allow President Trump to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook in the latest step in a legal battle that threatens the central bank’s longstanding independence.
The decision by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit means that the Trump administration only has hours to appeal to the US Supreme Court if it hopes to block Cook from attending the Fed’s latest interest rate meeting that starts today.
The court denied the US Justice Department’s request to put on hold a judge’s order temporarily blocking the Republican president from removing Cook, an appointee of President Biden, a Democrat.
It is the the first time a president has pursued such action since the central bank’s founding in 1913.
Gold hits high on US rate cut expectations
The gold price rose to a new high as investor moved into the safe-haven asset ahead of an expected US rate cut this week.
Spot gold was up 0.1 per cent to $3,683.80 an ounce this morning, after hitting a high of $3,689.27 earlier in the session.
President Trump, in a social media post yesterday, kept up his pressure on the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, calling for him to enact a “bigger” cut.
Traders are pricing in a near-certain quarter-point cut at the end of the two-day meeting on September 17, with a small chance of a half-point reduction, according to the CME FedWatch tool.