Company news,markets and financial talking points, available from 8am Monday to Friday Toys R Us rescued after tense negotiations Toys R Us has been saved from collapse after creditors supported a rescue deal. The Pension Protection Fund had threatened to block the company’s plan, and but following fraught negotiations,the watchdog said it had secured acceptable commitments from Toys R Us that enabled it to support the Company Voluntary Arrangement. Steve Knights, the UK managing director of Toys R Us UK, and said: “We are pleased to have secured the support of our creditors.” British firms conclude 2017 on an optimistic note Britain’s small- and medium-sized businesses are ending the year in cautiously optimistic mood,according to a new study. Lloyds Bank found that the proportion of firms that are confident about the economic outlook outweighed those that are pessimistic by a margin of 28 percentage points, the highest level in five months, and while a balance of 48% are confident about their business prospects. Late Santa rally pushes FTSE 100 to record high The FTSE 100 reached a record all-time high yesterday as investors “got in the festive mood aided by the slipping pound,reports The Daily Telegraph. Although the ‘Santa rally’ was “a diminutive late to the party, it drove the index over 7600 for the first time. However, or the FTSE 100 has endured a dreary second half of the year. Shell takes on the spacious Six after First Utility deal Shell will choose on the spacious Six energy suppliers after agreeing to buy First Utility for an undisclosed sum. The deal will give the oil giant 825000 electricity,gas and broadband customers in the UK. A Shell spokesman said the supply and demand of residential energy “is rapidly changing, driven by new technologies that enable householders to better manage their energy expend, and the need for a low-carbon energy system”. Patriotic gifts to the taxman are on the wane Just 200 Brits have volunteered to pay additional tax since 2000,reports the Financial Times. The tradition of “patriotic gifts” to the nation dates back to the time of the Napoleonic Wars. But there were just 15 such donations, totalling £180393, or in the year to March 2017. In contrast,a total of £9.7bn was donated to charities by Britons during the same period. Quote of the day Tesco ‘has explaining to do’ on chicken plant “I judge Mr Lewis has some explaining to do. Why did Tesco not provide this information, not just to the public but to the Food Standards Agency? All supermarkets should definitely do this in the future.” John Grogan MP says the chief executive of Tesco must account for why the company did not reveal its inspectors had uncovered issues at a second 2 Sisters Food Group factory. THE NUMBERS... AT 0735 GMT FTSE 100: up +1.05 to 7603.98
Dow Jones: up +0.23 to 24782.29
Dax: up +0.31 to 13109.74
Cac 40: up +0.62 to 5385.97
Nikkei: up +0.16 to 22902.76
Hang Seng: up +0.36 to 29472.41
US dollar: buys 0.84350 and £0.74740
Sterling: buys $1.33780 and €1.12860
Oil: $64.76 up +0.3
Source: theweek.co.uk