Thursday newspaper round-up: Nestle, Halifax, Glencore

14th Mar 2024 07:27

(Sharecast News) - Direct trains could next year connect Wrexham to London, with a new service capitalising on the town's Hollywood-meets-football mini-boom. The train manufacturer Alstom is bidding to set up the Wrexham, Shropshire and Midlands Railway with a promise of cheaper, more comfortable trains straight to London. - Guardian

Green MP Caroline Lucas has accused the government of stoking a culture war on climate issues by calling for more investment in new gas-fired power plants before a general election. Lucas used an urgent question in the House of Commons to challenge the energy minister, Graham Stuart, on the plans set out on Wednesday, which could see a string of new plants built in the coming years despite the government's commitment to phase out fossil fuels. - Guardian

Britain's biggest investor is demanding that Nestlé sells fewer chocolate bars amid worries over the public health impact of the Swiss food giant's products. Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), which looks after around £1.2 trillion of saver's money, is seeking to toughen up health targets set by the Swiss food giant as part of an ethical compliance drive. - Telegraph

Halifax is imposing a new 70-year age limit on thousands of homebuyers as banks seek to rein in risky mortgage lending. The lender is reducing the maximum age at which it will allow many borrowers to say they intend to retire from 75 to 70 - meaning that in many cases it will not lend to someone older than this limit. - Telegraph

An activist investor has called on Glencore to abandon the demerger of its coal business and to switch its primary listing to Sydney from London, which it said was "no longer the home of mining". Tribeca Investment Partners, an Australian hedge fund, wrote to the board of the Swiss commodities powerhouse this week putting forward a list of proposals designed to help to revive the share price, which it said had trailed behind rivals since Glencore's stock market flotation in 2011. - The Times

A key architect of EY's failed plan to split itself in two has been moved from his executive role as the Big Four firm's incoming boss rejigs the senior leadership team before she starts in the summer. Janet Truncale, who was voted in as EY's new global chief executive and chairwoman in November, sent an email to partners this week naming the four senior partners who would help her to run the accounting and consulting group. - The Times