Media Bites 2 July: TSB sale, M&S recovery, trade deals

The main business news of the day is that Spanish bank Santander has announced plans to buy the British high street lender TSB for £2.65bn, raising fears of job cuts and branch closures across the combined group. Santander UK said the TSB deal would make it the third largest UK bank in terms of personal current account deposits, behind Lloyds and Natwest. The deal will still have to be approved by shareholders but could result in the bank changing hands in early 2026 (The Guardian).

The story was also reported on the BBC who said the TSB name could disappear from UK high streets should the bank be sold. TSB has 175 branches in the UK and 5,000 employees while Santander has around 349 banks, but it has been shutting branches, saying more customers want to do their banking digitally.

M&S should be “fully on” within four weeks as it recovers from cyber attack, boss Stuart Machin said in the retailer’s annual AGM. M&S will then focus on getting its Castle Donington distribution centre “back and running”, Machin said. The retailer hopes that by August “we will have the vast majority of this behind us”. (BBC News)

Elsewhere, Australian airline Qantas has exposed six million customer profiles in a data breach. The company said the hackers targeted one of its call centres on Monday and gained access to a third-party customer service platform. (Financial Times).

The Times has reported that the tally of growth businesses selling up nears 8,000 in 10 years according to analysis by Charles Stnaley, the investment management firm. The analysis said acquisitions accounted for majority of business exits with many also floated on the public markets.

The EU may as well “apply to be a province of China” such is its inability to wean itself off that country’s supply of critical raw materials used in everything from electric vehicles to smartphones and wind turbines, a leading German industrialist, Stefan Scherer. has said. The battery manufacturer said China will continue to dominate technology and undercut rivals unless temporary protections on components are put in place. (The Guardian)

US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a “30% or 35%” tariff on Japan if a deal between the two countries is not reached before a deadline next week, the BBC has reported. On so-called Liberation Day, the country was hit with a 24% tariff which was lowered to 10% for 90 days to allow for negotiations. That pause is due to expire on 9 July and Trump has said he is not thinking of extending the deadline.