Metro Bank Seeks £285m In New Cash Call

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Metro Bank is to tap shareholders for nearly £300m in a larger-than-expected fundraising that will see the high street lender delaying a flotation until 2016.

Sky News has learnt that Metro Bank told its existing investors on Friday that it plans to raise £250m with the option of a top-up offer to increase that sum to £287.5m, more than it has received so far in its brief existence.

The new capital will be used to fuel the further growth of the first new British high street bank in more than a century, as it accelerates the opening of new branches and its expansion into London's broader commuter belt.

According to sources familiar with a prospectus issued as part of the fundraising process, Metro Bank's board wants to grow its branch network from 21 stores today to 150 by 2020, and is targeting 280,000 customers by the end of the year, up from 238,000 on September 30.

The bank has already been a beneficiary of a new seven-day current account-switching regime launched by the Government earlier this autumn as ministers attempt to kickstart a more competitive retail banking market.

Sky News revealed earlier this week that Metro Bank had decided to shun an immediate stock market listing in favour of a private fundraising, with existing shareholders able to subscribe to new stock commensurate with their existing holdings.

The much larger-than-expected scale of the new share offer, which closes on December 6, underlines the pace at which Metro Bank's board wants to grow its balance sheet but may stoke fears about escalating losses at the company.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Royal Bank of Canada have been appointed to identify buyers for any new shares not acquired by current Metro Bank investors.

Among the lender's existing shareholders are the billionaire Reuben brothers and Steven Cohen, the head of the US hedge fund SAC Capital, which was this week the subject of the biggest-ever insider trading settlement in the US.

A recent circular to shareholders outlined the escalating losses at Metro Bank, which lost £14.3m before tax in the three months to September and £38.6m in the year-to-date. That took the lender's total losses since being set up to nearly £140m.

However, Vernon Hill, chairman, and Craig Donaldson, chief executive, told shareholders that the second quarter of 2013 "will therefore have marked the peak quarterly loss and that quarterly losses will now fall until the bank achieves profitability".

The losses underline the costs associated with breaking into the UK's retail banking sector at a time when Government ministers are attempting to foment new competition through a string of new policy measures, including reducing capital and liquidity requirements for new entrants

In the prospectus published on Friday, Metro Bank said that it would have "increasing capital needs" and reminded shareholders that its longer term objective was to "seek an IPO on the main market of the London Stock Exchange as early as possible to enable Metro Bank to seek significant additional capital to support future growth in new stores and balance sheet assets and also provide liquidity to Shareholders".

Metro Bank's first branch opened in Central London in July 2010, and it now has 21 open, with aggressive expansion plans set out over the next five years.

Among the innovations it has introduced to the UK are dog-friendly and drive-through branch facilities, reflecting Mr Hill's determination to revolutionise the British consumer banking experience.

Mr Hill enjoyed huge commercial success with the launch of similar banking ventures in the US before encountering difficulties with regulators.

The fundraising prospectus includes further insight into Metro Bank's structure and operations, including an ownership ceiling of 9.9% contained in its articles of association.

In a lengthy list of risk factors, the company warned of the potential impact of various reforms to banking regulation and said it could be adversely affected by property market volatility.

"Fluctuations in the London residential and commercial property market, in particular, could expose Metro Bank to a heightened level of risk of customer default or depreciation of the value of property securing mortgages," it said.

It also highlighted a hitherto little-known risk relating to the use of its name, according to one insider who had seen the prospectus.

"Although the Company has acquired the trade mark "Metrobank" in the UK... There is a risk that Metro Bank's trade mark registration for the word "Metrobank" and the wider use of the "Metro Bank" name might be challenged by the owner of another similar trade mark. In the event that such a challenge was to be successful it may result in Metro Bank having to re-brand under a new name at considerable cost and disruption to the business."

A Metro Bank spokeswoman was unavailable for comment on Friday.

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Hunt To Get £17m Payout From Hotcourses Sale

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, is in line for a windfall worth more than £15m from a company sale that would propel him to the top of the Cabinet rich list.

Sky News can exclusively reveal that Hotcourses, an education listings service set up by Mr Hunt 17 years ago, is in detailed negotiations about being sold to Inflexion Private Equity, an investment firm, for about £35m.

Mr Hunt is understood to own 49% of Hotcourses, meaning that his shareholding would be worth just over £17m if the takeover is completed.

News of the prospective windfall for Mr Hunt, the MP for South West Surrey, may cause embarrassment for the Government at a time when a debate about the cost of living is dominating Britain's political discourse.

With the NHS expected to face a strain on resources during the winter, Mr Hunt is likely to face a tough few months in Westminster.

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, has frequently sought to portray the Conservative-led coalition as an out-of-touch millionaires' club, and Mr Hunt is far from the only independently wealthy Cabinet minister.

Prime Minister David Cameron, Chancellor George Osborne, Foreign Secretary William Hague and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond are all said to have amassed multimillion pound fortunes.

Jeremy Hunt set up the company after working in Japan

However, a £35m sale of Hotcourses would also cement Mr Hunt's status as one of the most successful entrepreneurs to have forged a parliamentary career in recent times, during a period when politicians are frequently accused of having inadequate experience of the business world.

Private equity insiders said that Inflexion had outbid a number of other buyout firms to win a period of exclusivity in which to finalise an agreement. The roughly £35m price-tag is higher than previous estimates of Hotcourses' value.

It was unclear on Friday when the exclusivity period ends, but a source close to the transaction said it was unlikely to be announced for at least a few weeks.

"It could still fall through. It's not a done deal," they said.

Hotcourses was set up in 1996 by Mr Hunt and his business partner, Mike Elms, and provides listings information about evening, training, university and other courses.

Now employing more than 200 people, Mr Hunt established the business when he returned to the UK after two years in Japan teaching English and learning Japanese.

It now claims to be the world's largest course database, advertising more than 700,000 courses and 33,995 scholarships from more than 27,000 institutions.

According to accounts filed at Companies House for the six months to July 31, 2012, the company had a turnover of £6.5m, generating pre-tax profits during the period of just under £2m.

The Health Secretary, who turned 47 last week, has received several million pounds in dividends since Hotcourses was founded.

An aide to Mr Hunt refused to comment on the deal or on the size of his shareholding, but a person close to him insisted that he was not playing any role in the sale negotiations.

The latest Register of MPs' Interests confirms that the Health Secretary remains an investor in Hotcourses but does not disclose the size of his interest.

The company's website lists Mr Hunt as a member of its management team but states that he "stepped aside from all management responsibilities at Hotcourses Ltd in order to focus on his parliamentary duties, and is no longer involved in the running of the company".

It is unclear when Mr Hunt would receive the money from the sale of the company or whether he would remain as an investor under new owners.

Mr Elms is expected to continue running Hotcourses if Inflexion succeeds in acquiring it.

Inflexion, whose other investments include the retailer Ideal Shopping Direct and On The Beach, an online holiday business, declined to comment on the talks.

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Mobile Spending 'Could Be Worth £23bn' By 2018

By Poppy Trowbridge, Business and Economics Correspondent

This year has been dubbed 'The Mobile Christmas' and with 48% growth in mobile shopping, retailers are increasingly targeting shoppers through digital devices.

British retailers will spend nearly £400m on advertising during the last three months of 2013 and consumer spending via mobiles and tablets is worth about nearly £8bn a year, according to research firm Verdict.

But over the next five years, the spread of smartphones and tablets will see our spending on these devices triple to £23bn.

Spending via mobiles and tablets is expected to triple over five years

Two thirds of that shopping is done at home, as buyers often wait until they are logged in to a secure network before purchasing items.

Matthew Rubin, retail analyst with Verdict Research, said: "While we are expecting growth in successive years, we are expecting this year to be the highest level of growth. Retailers really need to invest in their mobile websites now."

John Lewis announced its £7m Christmas television advertising campaign on Friday. The ad is set to a cover of Keane's 2004 hit Somewhere Only We Know sung by Lily Allen.

Supermarket chain Morrisons launched its Christmas TV advertising campaign during the prime-time slot of ITV's Coronation Street.

Some 20% of home shopping business at Asda is done via mobile or tablet

Asda says 20% of its home shopping business is done via a mobile or tablet, and that figure is growing by 1% each month.

The living room is becoming a key location for retailers to target consumers, as 67.2% of all online shoppers making a purchase from their home do so in their living room.

Wealthy young shoppers currently dominate mobile and tablet expenditure, but with increased access to cheaper, high-specification devices, older shoppers will have a much bigger impact over the next five years, Verdict research shows.

Still, window shopping hasn't entirely given way to digital methods yet.

Around 38% of online shoppers still research goods by viewing them in a store before purchasing them online.

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Twitter's Share Price Soars At NYSE Launch

Smooth Sailing For 'TWTR' Launch

Updated: 11:34pm UK, Thursday 07 November 2013

By Hannah Thomas-Peter, New York Correspondent

The "pop" at the beginning of the day prompted some early investors to sell a portion of their shares.

Meridian Equity Partners trader Jonathan Corpina said: "I have a client right now who bought some of the stock on the IPO and wants to sell some of it out right now.

"They like the pricing and they like the gain that they've seen so far."

Public trading began after a prolonged period known as "price discovery", when experienced traders known as "designated market makers" sift through orders, assess new demands, coordinate between Twitter, its investment banks and other traders to try and decide on a fair opening price.

Anticipation built on the floor of the exchange as a large group of traders converged at the trading post, some shouting orders out to the market makers.

It took well over an hour for the price to be agreed and trading to start.

Sources close to the deal told the Reuters news agency that investors were asking for 30 times the number of shares on offer.

As the market makers shouted "we're getting close" to an agreed price, a cheer went out across the floor.

One trader puffed out his cheeks and said to himself "here we go".

Mr Corpina said: "It's a lot of fun, the energy the excitement in the room, the information flow, the trading, it really gets your heart pounding and this is what we do this for."

In the short term, the NYSE seems to have avoided the technical glitches that plagued rival exchange NASDAQ's ill-fated launch of Facebook last year.

NYSE head of capital markets David Ethridge told Sky News the smooth IPO was in part due to the designated market makers, which are unique to the NYSE and have the power to trade without the computerised system if anything goes wrong, as well as the authority to step in with their own company's money if trading becomes too volatile.

He said: "This is a process that requires judgement and not just a computer algorithm to get it right, because a stock never trades just on valuation when it starts trading.

"It trades on sentiment, and you need a person to figure out what's the sentiment; How do people feel about the stock? How do people feel about the economy? That's all part of the process of getting it right."

Still though, the team of market makers from Barclays Capital looked relieved when it became clear this day at least, had gone without any noticeable hitches.

I asked them if it had been nerve wracking

Team head Patrick Murphy said: "No, it was business as usual. This is what we do. There were a lot of eyes on this and we had to get it right."

But Barclays head of electronic trading William White responded: "Yes. You always have that anxiety about hitting the button. You don't want to be in the position where there are technology glitches, but this one was seamless."

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Alcohol Testing In Workplace Recommended

By James Matthews, Sky News Correspondent

An organisation set up to tackle alcohol misuse has called for workplace testing to seek out problem drinkers.

The Alcohol Health Network wants employees to take a standardised test which identifies whether or not they are misusing alcohol.

The body's director and founder, Don Shenker, wrote in the British Medical Journal that if problems were identified, employers could provide advice to help prevent problem-drinking at an early stage.

He stated that introducing such a measure could "prevent alcohol-related harm and sickness costs".

Mr Shenker wrote: "Offering staff confidential use of the 'alcohol use disorders identification test' and brief advice as a self-awareness initiative at work, whether through face to face interactions or leaflets, may well help prevent problems with alcohol at an earlier stage.

"In this way, staff who may be concerned about their drinking or whose level of drinking is not yet apparent to them, can assess the risks their drinking poses to their health and take appropriate action.

"Reducing hazardous drinking also reduces the risk of dependent drinking occurring."

He added: "Employers need also to be convinced of the business case for prevention rather than cure - that is, that it is ultimately more cost effective to prevent and reduce harmful drinking in the general working population, compared with the costs of managing dependent drinking among a minority of staff."

The NHS estimates that in the UK around 9% of men and 4% of women show signs of alcohol dependence.

In 2011, 167,764 prescriptions for drugs to treat alcohol dependency were prescribed.

In 2010, 6,669 deaths were directly related to alcohol.

The Government advises that people should not regularly drink more than the daily unit guidelines of three to four units of alcohol for men (equivalent to a pint and a half of 4% beer) and two to three units of alcohol for women (equivalent to a 175ml glass of wine).

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BA Owner IAG Profit Soars In Third Quarter

IAG, the owner of BA and Iberia airlines, has seen its profit soar in the third quarter to £575m.

The company saw the Q3 rise from £224m in same period last year.

Iberia, which has been hit by major cuts and strike action, made an operating profit of 74m euro (£61m), up from only 1m euro (£830,000).

Total passenger numbers for the company were up 8.9% for October, compared to the 2012 figure.

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Morrisons Sales Fall 3% In Third Quarter

Morrisons says subdued consumer confidence and its low exposure to online and convenience shopping is to blame for falling sales.

Like for like sales including fuel in the third quarter - a measure charting the performance of continuing operations - plunged 3%.

But Morrisons said its fledgling M local convenience stores had helped total sales grow 0.1% over the period.

The supermarket chain has previously admitted its late entry into the convenience market would hurt sales growth while it is yet to get its online food offering on the road.

It confirmed such deliveries would begin, as planned, in January but cover only Warwickshire initially, then Yorkshire followed by 50% of UK households by the end of 2014, including London.

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Universal Credit Scheme 'Has Lost Over £140m'

Universal Credit has been savaged by MPs for "shocking" failures that have already wasted at least £140m.

The scheme has been blighted by "alarmingly weak" management, with secretaries allowed to authorise purchase orders worth more than £20m.

In some cases it is unclear what suppliers have been paid for.

The cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also voiced doubts about whether the project can still be fully delivered by 2017 - branding a pilot "inadequate" and open to fraud.

Universal Credit is due to replace a bundle of means-tested benefits in four years' time, with Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith insisting it can ensure people are always better off in jobs and save £38bn by 2023.

Iain Duncan Smith says Universal Credit can save £38bn by 2023

However, a former Olympics executive had to be drafted in earlier this year to "reset" the programme amid concerns over delays and IT issues.

The PAC report said the Department for Work and Pensions had "neglected to implement basic procedures for monitoring and authorising expenditure".

The MPs said: "We saw evidence that purchase orders with a total value of £8.7m were approved by a personal assistant to the Programme Director.

"In another case, two purchase orders, one for £22.6m and one for £1.1m, were approved by a personal assistant to the Programme Director whose delegated financial authority at the time of approvals was only £10m.

"When the Department made individual payments to suppliers these could not be linked to particular pieces of work that had been delivered."

PAC chair Margaret Hodge said the implementation of Universal Credit so far had been "extraordinarily poor".

She said: "The failure to develop a comprehensive plan has led to extensive delay and the waste of a yet to be determined amount of public money.

"£425m has been spent so far on the programme. It is likely that much of this, including at least £140m worth of IT assets, will now have to be written off.

"The management of the programme has been alarmingly weak. From the outset, the Department has failed to grasp the nature and enormity of the task; failed to monitor and challenge progress regularly; and, when problems arose, failed to intervene promptly."

The MPs said the project would not hit its current target of enrolling 184,000 claimants by April 2014.

As a result the later stages would have to be speeded up to meet the 2017 completion date - but that would "pose new risks".

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Twitter IPO: Shares Hit Stock Exchange At $26

Twitter has set a price of $26 (£16) for its public stock offering and can begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The price values the San Francisco-based micro blogging site at $14.1bn (£8.8bn), based on its outstanding stock and options, Reuters reported.

It is offering 70 million shares in the Initial Public Offering (IPO), with an option to buy another 10.5 million.

Twitter had originally set a price range of $17 (£10.57) to $20 (£12.44), but raised the range on Monday signalling an enthusiastic response from prospective investors.

A statement from the company read: "We've priced our initial public offering of 70,000,000 shares of our common stock at a price to the public of $26 (£16) per share.

"In addition we've guaranteed the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 10,500,000 additional shares of common stock.

"Our shares are expected to begin trading on the NYSE on November 7 under the symbol TWTR."

Analysts said they expected shares in the company to experience a small rise during the first day of trading.

Investor enthusiasm for Twitter, which boasts 230 million users, is strong even though the micro blogging site has never turned a profit.

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Job Losses Feared At BAE Shipyards Amid Review

Defence giant BAE Systems will announce job losses when it releases a report on the future of shipyards on Thursday, Sky sources understand.

It is thought that two facilities in Scotland and one at Portsmouth could be affected.

Unions are to meet company representatives to discuss the future of the three sites amid a review of its business.

The firm has refused to comment on speculation that hundreds of jobs could be axed at Govan, Scotstoun and Portsmouth.

BAE said last year that it was considering closing one of its major shipyards as part of a maritime defence review, which it launched 18 months ago.

Scotland's Finance Secretary John Swinney said: "We have been in dialogue for some time with BAE Systems on the issues surrounding the future of the Clyde shipyards.

"We are awaiting the outcome of BAE's discussions with the Ministry of Defence and are very alert to the situation concerning both yards.

"We are seeking urgent clarity on the future for both Govan and Scotstoun."

A BAE spokeswoman said: "We continue to work closely with the Ministry of Defence to explore all possible options to determine how best to sustain the capability to deliver complex warships in the UK in the future.

"This work is ongoing and we are committed to keeping our employees and trade unions informed as it progresses."

Hugh Scullion, Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions general secretary said: "We have secured talks with senior BAE systems executives early next week to examine the business case of the forthcoming announcement.

"Now is not the time for idle speculation or indeed party political point scoring.

"This is the future of an industry and we need to know from the company and the government directly what their plans for the future of UK shipbuilding are.

"The shipbuilding workforce throughout the UK are working flat out to deliver the aircraft carriers for the defence of the UK and they need to know what lies in store for them, their families and their communities."

A GMB union spokesman added: "Full time union officials and shop stewards will meet BAE next week to go over the detailed business case on how work will be organised once the carrier programme winds down."

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M&S Upbeat Despite Clothing Sales Falling Again

M&S v Primark: The Clothing War It Can't Win

Updated: 2:03pm UK, Tuesday 05 November 2013

By James Sillars, Sky News Business

It's a battle for your business. A war to win your custom. M&S has been losing ground to rivals and its problems still run deep.

Marks & Spencer was once of the darling of the retail sector - with its clothing offering top of the pile - but it failed to move with the times.

Suddenly there were challengers to its 'something for everyone' dominance and crucially they were cheaper, online and more adaptable to changing fashions.

Family budgets have been feeling the pinch since the financial crisis of 2008 as a result of the overall cost of living rising faster than wage growth.

That squeeze has tightened - forcing many retailers, including M&S, to discount, advertise aggressively and therefore damage their bottom lines.

Not so at Primark, with its soaring revenues, profits and store growth.

Primark has made its name offering fashionable clothes at affordable prices. That is its brand. Its timing could not have been better.

It grew total sales by 22% to £4.3bn in the year to September - expanding its selling space across major cities to bring an "exciting, fashionable and fun shopping experience".

M&S total sales rose by 3.1% in the UK over the six months to September 30 - but the growth did not come from clothes.

In contrast to the struggles of M&S as it tries to kickstart its fashion business, Primark's buying teams are celebrating autumn/winter and spring/summer ranges selling out.

M&S tried a counter-attack against the threat from the cheaper brands but admitted in May it would once again focus on style and quality, shifting its focus to recapturing custom in the crucial area of womenswear.

Andrea Felsted, the FT's senior retail correspondent, told Sky News that womenswear remained its main challenge.

"It really is the cornerstone of M&S. The launch in May ... there were some improvements but it really will have to be seen whether that does play out.

"M&S did suffer some stock shortages in September. It said it was a return to quality but the FT reported that they'd even had some quality problems with the iconic piece in the campaign the pink coat ... some of the poppers were not sewn on properly.

"That's not exactly the quality they would have been hoping for," she said.

M&S launched its Leading Ladies advertising campaign, featuring a dozen high-profile women including actress Dame Helen Mirren and Olympic boxer Nicola Adams, on September 12 and its first Christmas advert hits TV screens on Wednesday.

Such campaigns cost millions of pounds - as does a drive for quality.

No wonder then that M&S is on a different playing field to that of Primark. Their clothing business models could not be more different.

Marks and Spencer's opponents lie elsewhere on the high street.

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VIP Visas Aimed At Drawing Executives To UK

By Anuskha Asthana, Political Correspondent

British visas are to be offered under a "same-day service" in China and a number of other countries in a bid to make the UK immigration service more pro-growth.

The move will be announced by Theresa May, the Home Secretary, who will also unveil plans to offer bespoke visa support to around 100 global business leaders.

They will be invited to join the new "Great" club with access to an account manager whose aim is to make their dealings with the visa and immigration system "swift and smooth".

Britain's priority visa service - between three and five days - will be expanded from 67 to over 90 countries by next spring.

And the one-day offering only available in India will be extended to China and a number of other locations.

Theresa May will offer same day visas to China

There will also be a special mobile visa service starting with a pilot in south India.

Mrs May said she wanted "excellent customer service" to help Britain maintain a "world class, competitive visa system".

She admitted that was necessary for the UK to serve the "ever-changing needs" of business and succeed in the global economic race.

She added: "We will continue to listen and respond to the needs of high-value and high-priority businesses so that we can provide them with a service that supports economic growth, while at the same time maintains the security of our borders."

The move is in response to fears within Government and outside it that Britain's crackdown on immigration is deterring highly skilled individuals from visiting the country.

Businesses and the City say they need to be able to bring in the best talent to help boost economic growth.

The new scheme will operate as a 12-month pilot, starting in the new year.

The issue has caused tensions inside the Coalition, with the Lib Dem business minister Vince Cable being particularly vocal.

He has also spoken out about universities.

They fear that the attempt to reduce net immigration to the tens of thousands - and the rhetoric it carries - is weakening their chances of attracting the best students.

That limits their ability to compete with institutions in other countries such as the US, Germany and Australia.

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Water Bills: Minister Urges Firms To Rethink

The Environment Secretary has urged water companies to "look closely" at whether price increases are necessary and urged them to introduce special tariffs for hard-pressed households.

In a letter to suppliers, Owen Paterson MP said they should recognise the financial strain that people were under.

The intervention came with Ofwat expected later this week to reject an application from Thames Water to increase bills by £29 in 2014-2015.

The regulator has questioned the profits being made by firms, and suggested its next Price Review could ease the upward pressure on bills by up to £750m after 2015.

Owen Paterson has urged water companies to reconsider price hikes

Mr Paterson said: "We know that household budgets are under pressure, and keeping water bills affordable is a crucial way we can help hardworking people.

"That is why we are pressing hard to make sure customers get a fair deal, by encouraging water companies to look closely at any price increases, introduce social tariffs for vulnerable customers and crack down on bad debt."

Water bills have risen by more than 60% in the last decade and the average household bill is now £388.

Since 2009, average increases in water and sewerage bills have been in line with inflation, but this has still outstripped increases in household income.

Water companies have blamed the price increases on the costs of environmental improvements including replacing ageing Victoria water pipes.

It comes after the cost of living has become increasingly important on the political agenda after Labour leader Ed Miliband pledged to freeze energy prices if his party wins the 2015 General Election.

Mr Miliband will accuse the coalition Government of "shrugging their shoulders" about low wages and rising prices this week and will challenge Conservative and Lib Dem MPs to back his policy of freezing energy bills in a Commons vote on Wednesday.

During a speech at Battersea Power Station, he will say: "The cost of living crisis isn't just an issue for the lowest paid, it affects the squeezed middle just as much.

"This is not just an issue facing Britain. It is the issue facing Britain. It is about who our country is run for."

Prime Minister David Cameron last week said he wanted to "roll back" environmental taxes that bump up energy bills, and promised more details in Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement on December 4.

:: Read the full letter here

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Wonga Chief Defends Company Practices

The chief operating officer of payday loan company Wonga has defended its practices as it released a film telling the stories of 12 of its customers.

Niall Wass told Sky News that Wonga decided to make 12 Portraits to dispel the "negative" image of the company, as MPs prepare to grill three payday loan companies as part of a crackdown on the short-term lending sector.

The film was made by an independent director who picked 12 customers from the company database and followed their decision to take a loan from Wonga.

He said: "We felt the need to release it because we felt that the voice of the customer, really the silent majority of people using our service, was not being heard.

Wonga will appear with two other lenders in front of MPs later on Tuesday

"Generally you hear a lot of criticism about our service out in the media and actually the super positive stories that we see every day from our customer feedback are not being heard, so we wanted to redress that balance and allow their voice to come out.

"We didn't think it was fair the characterisation of some of our customers, so we want people to reconsider, judge for themselves have a look at our site have a look at those videos and see what you think."

Representatives from Wonga, QuickQuid and Mr Lender - three of the largest payday lending firms - will appear before the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee on Tuesday.

MPs are expected to follow up on a damning report by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that found "deep-rooted" problems in the way payday loans attract and treat customers.

Lenders have come under intense scrutiny from the Competition Commission and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) since the report was published in September.

New curbs proposed by the FCA in October will force lenders to place "risk warnings" on promotions and advertising, urging customers to "think" before taking out a payday loan.

Representatives from Which? and the Citizens Advice Bureau will also address the committee.

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M&S: Ninth Quarterly Clothing Sales Decline

Marks & Spencer insists it is seeing early signs of improvement in its crucial Womenswear collection after lower first half sales of general merchandise.

Like-for-like clothing and homeware sales fell 1.5% during the first six months of its financial year, 1.3% during its latest July to September quarter.

Profits were 8.9% lower at £261.1m during the six months to the end of September.

Chief executive Marc Bolland has brought in fresh blood to boost womenswear and while the new Autumn/Winter collection won critical acclaim, its popularity among shoppers was a major test of Mr Bolland's turnaround plan.

Mr Bolland said: "In September we launched our first new collection with new advertising and improved store formats.

"Although only in store for three weeks of the half year, our Autumn/Winter collection has been well received by customers, and we have seen some early signs of improvement."

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Twitter Could Float On Stock Market This Week

Microblogging site Twitter could launch its flotation on the New York Stock Exchange as early as this week with analysts expecting high demand for shares.

In the most anticipated stock market debut since Facebook, the firm may announce its initial public offering (IPO) price on Wednesday with trading the following day.

No official date has been set but Twitter appears to be on a fast track for its flotation, according to reports.

The company will trade under the "TWTR" symbol and will not follow the path of a large number of  technology companies by trading on the Nasdaq.

Twitter will seek to raise up to $1.6bn - one tenth the value of the Facebook IPO - by offering 70 million shares in a price range of $17 to $20 each.

That is a relatively small chunk of Twitter's capital, and implies a market value between $9.3bn and $11.1bn - a conservative figure compared with some of the private market trades in Twitter so far.

The firm appears to have learned a lesson from Facebook's problematic IPO in May 2012, that was marked by trading glitches, accusations about secret information and a plunge in the share value for months afterwards.

Last month, Twitter had "test run" of its flotation to try to avoid a similar flop.

Lou Kerner, founder of the Social Internet Fund, said: "The Facebook situation last year was a perfect storm of an overheated private market, a fully priced offering, a massive amount of shares brought to market, all compounded by an historical technical glitch.

"That confluence of events is not likely to occur again."

The firm's co-founder Jack Dorsey

Analysts say Twitter, unlike Facebook, will not flood the market, and that with demand exceeding supply the price will rise.

The early Twitter investors may not get maximum value right away, but could benefit over time from a rise in the share price.

There is considerable excitement about the IPO because Twitter is "a unique product that no one can replicate," said Michael Pachter, head of equity research at Wedbush Securities.

Mr Pachter and his colleagues said: "We believe that the market is likely to generate appetite for more than $1bn in stock.

"The simple rules of supply and demand suggest that by limiting the supply of shares offered to the public in its IPO, Twitter will be unable to satisfy demand."

Twitter has some 232 million active users around the world, but has lost money steadily since 2010, according to IPO documents. The losses amounted to $133m on $422m in revenues in the first nine months of the year.

Twitter makes most of its money from advertising, chiefly in the form of "promoted tweets".

Meanwhile, the story goes that Jack Dorsey proposed the idea of Twitter to fellow co-founders at a playground in San Francisco.

But journalist Nick Bilton, author of "Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal," said the history was not quite that simple.

Dorsey was a key member of Twitter's founders, but it was a collective effort, the New York Times journalist has argued.

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Founders Eye £250m Jackpot From Tilda Sale

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

A family which fled Uganda after being expelled by the dictator Idi Amin is eyeing a £250m jackpot from the potential sale of Tilda Rice, one of the UK's most prominent food brands.

Sky News understands that members of the Thakrar family which controls Tilda are considering a sale of part of all of the company more than four decades after they arrived in Britain.

Tilda, which is stocked by all of the major supermarket chains and has a huge share of the retail trade in packaged rice, has appointed investment bankers at Rothschild to oversee a review of options for the family's shareholding, sources close to the situation said.

An outright sale is thought to be on the agenda, with analysts estimating that the company could be worth in the region of £250m.

A sale at that price would cap a remarkable success story for the Thakrars, who arrived in north London in the early 1970s cleaning and packing rice and pulses after their expulsion from Uganda by Idi Amin's regime.

They focused the company initially on targeting sales within the UK's fast-growing community of immigrants from India and Bangladesh but quickly realised the much broader potential demand.

Now employing 200 people in the UK, Tilda has grown so ambitiously that six years ago it began exporting its rice products to India, one of the world's most voracious consumers of the food.

The Thakrars identified an opportunity to build their business in India amid changing consumption and buying habits in the world's second most populous nation.

Tilda is expected to make earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of roughly £25m this year, with food companies often trading at multiples of about ten times their annual profits.

"The group's main objective is for growth in sales and profitability," the company's parent, Braunstone Properties, said in its most recent accounts filed at Companies House.

It added: "This will be achieved by building on the success of the existing brands in the EU and overseas markets, and by continuous improvements in operational efficiency."

A Tilda spokesman declined to comment on the appointment of Rothschild or on the shareholders' plans.

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Co-op Bank Set For Stock Market Flotation

The Co-op Group has announced a plan to float its struggling banking arm on the stock market next year.

The decision comes amid a restructure of the Co-op Bank, which will see the mutual inject £462m into the lender.

The parent group will keep 30% of the bank ahead of the planned flotation.

City Editor Mark Kleinman, who revealed on Saturday that the bank would slash more than 1,000 jobs, said the flotation plan still requires approval.

The Co-op Bank, which was founded in 1872, made a £782m loss in the first half of 2013, and has 4.7 million customers.

More follows...

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Co-Op: US Hedge Funds Reassure Watchdog

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

A group of American hedge funds is trying to reassure the Bank of England about their role in the restructuring of the Co-operative's troubled banking arm ahead of a formal deal to be announced on Monday.

Sky News has learnt that the LT2 Group, a coalition of funds which has forced Britain's most important mutual to cede majority ownership of its troubled lender, has held talks with regulators to reassure them that they do not intend to cross a crucial bank ownership threshold.

Under Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) rules, any party owning more than 10% of the shares in a regulated bank must receive approval from the banking watchdog.

The stipulation is designed to prevent undue influence being exercised over important financial institutions by unregulated entities.

The rule also applies to a group of investors acting in concert, which hedge funds including Aurelius and Silver Point have been doing as they sought to win a better restructuring deal for bondholders from the Co-op Group.

Last week, it emerged that the bondholders would gain control of 70% of the Co-op Bank's shares as part of a debt-for-equity swap, leaving the Co-op Group still as the largest individual shareholder, although holding just a 30% stake.

Advisers to Aurelius, Silver Point and other bondholders have informed the PRA that none of them plans to individually hold a stake of 10% in the Co-op Bank, and that they should not be deemed to be acting collectively despite their months-long campaign to restructure the bank.

People close to the situation said on Friday the PRA was expected to be sympathetic to the hedge funds' argument, but that the issue was the subject of strict legal tests and would be closely monitored.

The funds are anxious to avoid having to be approved by the PRA because of the length of time the process can take.

The restructuring of the Co-op Bank will involve listing its shares on the London Stock Exchange next year, as it seeks to raise £1.5bn to fill a capital hole in its balance sheet.

Next Monday's financial restructuring is expected to be accompanied by the publication of a revised business plan for the Co-op Bank, which will entail significant cost cuts and job losses.

The news that the Co-op Bank would no longer be majority-owned by a mutual has sparked fury among many customers, prompting the bondholder group to acknowledge the lender's ethos.

"The Co-Operative Bank is unique for its ethics, mission and heritage which are an essential component of the Bank's differentiated approach," LT2 said in a statement last week.

"It is important to us that the Bank will maintain its unique characteristics and ethos.

"The Co-operative Group Ltd. will remain the Bank's largest shareholder by far and the Bank will benefit by this connection to the Co-operative movement."

Spokesmen for LT2 and the Co-op declined to comment.

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Water Bills: Crackdown On Costs Expected

Water bills may be "rolled back" after the Government vowed to get tough on the rising cost of living.

David Cameron's spokesman indicated that an announcement on water bills would be made next week.

The spokesman said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) would be making the announcement.

He said: "There will be some action next week from Defra with the intention of looking at water bills.

David Cameron says he wants to see household costs cut

"The Prime Minister takes household bills across the piece seriously and wants energy prices to be rolled back and wants various things done, whether it's council tax being frozen, the flex on rail fares being brought down, MoT costs being frozen, these sorts of measures to protect household bills."

He added: "The Prime Minister wants to see household costs across the piece being reduced as low as possible. The intention is to try to reduce the burdens on hard-pressed families."

Mr Cameron "wants regulators to look at the industry they regulate and make sure that they are robust and delivering what they need to deliver for consumers", the spokesman added.

Concerns have been raised that consumers are being ripped off

The move comes after Labour leader Ed Miliband said the market needed to be scrutinised to ensure it was working for consumers.

The soaring cost of living has rocketed up the political agenda since Mr Miliband's pledge to freeze energy prices if his party wins the 2015 General Election.

Mr Cameron, seeking to win back the political initiative on energy policy from Labour, said last week he wanted to "roll back" environmental taxes that bump up energy bills, promising more details in Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement on December 4.

Speaking on Friday at an event for regional newspaper journalists, Mr Miliband said: "I think we should be looking at all markets to make sure they are working properly - and that includes the water industry."

The Western Morning News quoted the Labour leader as saying: "Some people will say this is an anti-business agenda. I think it is a pro-business agenda that you have got to reform markets that are not working properly.

"I think the water industry is something that should be scrutinised to make sure it is working properly, and make sure it is working properly for the benefit of consumers, because I know concerns have been raised.

"I'm proud Labour is championing this agenda and I think it is consistent with believing what a market economy can do, and water is part of that."

Labour's environment secretary Maria Eagle said the party would look to amend existing draft legislation, review the need for tougher regulation, and push for new ways to help reduce bills for low-income households.

MPs are set to consider the reform and infrastructure of the water industry on Tuesday next week after Tory Robert Buckland secured a backbench debate.

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Co-op To Axe More Than 1,000 Banking Jobs

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The Co-operative Group is to axe more than 1,000 jobs at its troubled banking arm as part of a complete overhaul of its business and finances.

Sky News understands that the job cuts, which could be detailed as soon as Monday, will account for well over 10% of the Co-operative Bank's workforce.

The redundancies will underline the human toll of the lender's mismanagement in recent years as it finalises a plan to fill a £1.5bn hole in its balance sheet.

As expected, the deal, which will have the approval of the Bank of England, will involve Britain's biggest mutually-owned organisation relinquishing ownership of the Co-op Bank.

Insiders said a decision had yet to be taken about whether the scale of the jobs cull would be made public on Monday by Euan Sutherland, the Co-op Group chief executive.

"It's unlikely he'll want to go public with it at this stage," said one.

The final number was still being decided this weekend but sources said that well over 1,000 of the roughly 9,000 people who work for the mutual's banking arm were expected to lose their jobs.

The axe will fall principally on those working in the Co-op Bank's corporate lending business, with a revised strategy focused on retail and small business customers.

Senior managers, led by Niall Booker, the Bank's chief executive, had also been examining a relaunch of Smile, its internet brand, one insider said.

Retail bondholders are likely to receive a better deal than one presented as a fait accompli by Mr Sutherland until last week.

People close to the deal said that ordinary investors would probably be handed a combination of bonds and a new instrument guaranteeing income.

The biggest institutional bondholders - two US hedge funds - fought to overturn the original deal and will emerge as big shareholders when the bank's shares are listed on the stock exchange next year.

The news that the Co-op Bank will no longer be majority-owned by the mutual has sparked fury among many customers, prompting the bondholder group to praise the lender's ethos.

"The Co-Operative Bank is unique for its ethics, mission and heritage which are an essential component of the Bank's differentiated approach," LT2 said in a statement last week.

"It is important to us that the Bank will maintain its unique characteristics and ethos.

"The Co-operative Group Ltd. will remain the Bank's largest shareholder by far and the Bank will benefit by this connection to the Co-operative movement."

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