London’s biggest stock market listing in three years has moved closer after The Hut Group set the value of its shares at £5.4bn, making the online retailer worth more than Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asos (The Times £). The Hut Group has set the price of its initial public offering at 500p a share, valuing it at more than £5bn and triggering big windfalls for more than 140 shareholders (The Financial Times £)

Sir Terry Leahy has emerged as one of the major winners from the £5.4billion float of The Hut Group. According to documents filed to the stock market last night, the former Tesco boss owns 17m shares in the online retailer. (The Daily Mail)

Alex Brummer in The Daily Mail cautions: “It is a pity then that the 264-page prospectus, posted on the company’s website last evening, poses as many questions as it answers. Founder chairman and chief executive Matt Moulding has unsheathed a governance nightmare - not only will he have autocratic powers, he has also leveraged himself and his family up to the hilt.” (The Daily Mail)

Supermarket prices will go up unless the UK government negotiates a tariff-free Brexit deal with Europe, the boss of Morrisons, Britain’s fourth-largest grocery chain, has warned (The Guardian). The boss of Morrisons, the country’s fourth largest supermarket chain, has warned prices will go up unless there is a tariff-free deal to leave the European Union (The Telegraph). Supermarket Morrisons has taken a £155m hit to its profits as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, fresh figures show (The Daily Mail, Sky News)

Morrisons hailed the ‘renaissance of British supermarkets’ as it posted its best sales figures for 16 years. (The Daily Mail)

The costs of keeping a supermarket group running during the pandemic have knocked Wm Morrison’s profits by more than a quarter, despite a surge in food sales (The Times £). Morrisons said the direct costs to the supermarket chain of responding to the pandemic were £155m in the six months to August, resulting in a 25% fall in underlying pre-tax profit to £148m (The Financial Times £)

Nils Pratley in The Guardian cautions that the coronavirus sales uplift is unlikely to lead to a revival of the industry’s good old days of easy growth and fat profit margins. “If shareholders are dreaming of excitement, they may have to hope there’s something in the idea that Amazon will one day want to own Morrisons, as opposed to merely distributing its groceries.” (The Guardian)

The FT’s Lombard column writes: “Morrisons has proved itself a good egg through the crisis, doing its bit for NHS workers, food banks and its own staff. Investors, who had knocked the share price down more than 4% in early-afternoon trade, clearly need a bit more convincing.” (The Financial Times £)

Caffe Nero has become the latest high street coffee chain to seek rent cuts from landlords amid tough new restrictions that could hamper the hospitality sector’s recovery from COVID-19. (Sky News)

Britain’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic continued in July as shops reopened and manufacturing activity resumed but the economy has recovered little more than half the ground lost since the onset of the crisis (The Guardian). The economy remained 11.7% below its coronavirus pandemic peak in July as the UK emerges from its sharpest recession on record, official figures show (Sky News). The UK economy grew by 6.6% in July, according to official figures, but output remains far below pre-pandemic levels (The BBC).

The UK government’s latest restrictions on social gatherings risk reversing this summer’s effort to protect jobs in the hospitality sector with the chancellor’s £500m eat-out scheme, say industry bosses. (The Financial Times £)

British farmers will be trampled in the rush for free trade deals, warns Polly Toynbee in The Guardian. “The government says it will cut all import tariffs on 88% of products. That would wipe out hill farms in Cumbria, Scotland and Wales, and much other farming too. Add in free trade agreements not just with the US but Australia and elsewhere, and farming and the food industry will be massively undercut.” (The Guardian)

Tesco is to trial home deliveries by drone in a move that could allow small items to be despatched to customers within 30 minutes to an hour of ordering. (The Guardian)

Retail’s ‘golden quarter’ faces wipeout if Christmas is cancelled. Retailers are lining up for a difficult winter as families keep a tight rein on their budgets. (The Telegraph)

Chris Grigg is to step down as the chief executive of British Land after more than a decade in charge and will be replaced by the chief financial officer of the property company (The Times £).

Chris Grigg’s exit from British Land is a sign of the cycle change, writes The FT’s Lombard column. “He steered British Land comfortably clear of the fates of Hammerson and Intu, both undone by debt. He navigated Brexit turmoil commendably. And the Broadgate disposal notwithstanding, his commitment to the capital’s workplaces served the group well — until the current crisis hit.” (The Financial Times £)

The FT looks at the ‘lone wolf’ billionaire at the top of China’s bottled water market. Zhong Shanshan was thrust into the spotlight after Nongfu Spring’s initial public offering – as Nongfu begins life on the public markets, its founder will face pressure from investors, which include US asset manager Fidelity and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, to not only sustain the growth that has turned its distinctive red-topped bottles into China’s best-selling water brand, but ensure its push into other markets, such as juices, reaps similar rewards. (The Financial Times £)

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