Latest Sectors News

Last week, three British companies accepted takeover bids on the same day. It's a growing trend, but can the U.K. really afford to let such companies go? View More

In this article.FTSEWSECRHWSEARMFollow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT This report is from this week's CNBC's UK Exchange newsletter. Like what you see? You can subscribe here. The dispatch Jeremy Fry was typical of the characters one would encounter in British business 30-40 years ago.A scion of the Frys, the Bristol Quaker family that in 1761 founded the company behind the world's first mass-produced chocolate bar, he was educated at Gordonstoun — the tough Scottish boarding school King Charles attended — before joining the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.After the war, he sought a career in motorsport, joining his brother's business with the aim of designing, building and racing a 500cc hill-climbing car.A close friend was Alec Issigonis, the design and engineering genius behind the Mini, one of the 20th Century's most iconic vehicles.Fry himself proved no mean inventor, creating a four-wheel-drive wheelchair with power steering called the Squirrel and a high-speed marine landing craft, christened the Sea Truck.A collaborator on the latter was James Dyson, now Britain's most celebrated inventor, who began his career with Fry.Fry's most important work, though, was reinventing the valve actuator, a device that opens and closes valves.In 1955, nearly all pipeline valves were manually run, often requiring vast numbers of workers to operate them. Fry devised electrically controlled, mechanically powered actuators that could be operated remotely.These were explosion-proof and waterproof, making them suitable for hazardous environments like chemical and oil refineries, sewage works and loading jetties. He probably saved countless lives.But last Thursday, Rotork, which began making Fry's actuators in 1957 and became a global leader in its field, agreed to a £4.1 billion ($5.5 billion) takeover by the Swiss-Swedish engineering group ABB.The same day, two more U.K. listed companies succumbed to takeovers, with Gooch & Housego, a global leader in photonics (light technology), accepting a £346 million offer from the U.S. private equity firm Arlington Capital. And Ramsdens, a pawnbroker, agreed a £200 million takeover by Nasdaq-listed FirstCash. Shoppers browse items for sale in the window of a Ramsdens store in Glasgow, U.K., on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Yesterday, another domino fell, with the outsourced services group Mitie agreeing a £3.1 billion takeover by private equity-owned rival OCS Group.The offers are part of a trend that has accelerated this year.Before the latest takeovers, Charles Hall, head of research at the investment bank Peel Hunt, pointed out in a note that, since the beginning of 2023, there have been 154 bids — either completed or running — for U.K. companies with a market capitalisation of more than £100 million, and with a total value of £165 billion.This year alone has seen three FTSE 100 companies — the Lloyd's of London insurer Beazley, the asset manager Schroders and the quality assurance specialist Intertek — agree takeovers, while two more — the energy services combine DCC and the industrial warehouse operator Segro — are currently the subject of takeover bids. Former Footsie constituents Tate & Lyle and easyJet have also agreed to or received takeover approaches. 'Selling the family silver' It is no exaggeration to call this a crisis.In his note, entitled "Selling the family silver," Hall noted that, since the start of 2023, seven large U.K. companies — including the building materials giant CRH and the fintech Wise — had moved their listing, "taking around £120 billion of market cap with them," while eight U.K.-based companies, most notably the chip designer Arm Holdings, had chosen to list overseas, depriving the U.K. of a further £330 billion of market value.He offers a number of explanations, including internationalization (executives, boards and shareholders are increasingly international and so less concerned about the domicile of the listing); the U.K.'s open markets; confidence (greater probability of deal completion encourages bid interest); flows of domestic capital from U.K. funds and the readiness of portfolio managers to accept offers, either to improve their performance or to meet redemptions.Possibly the biggest driver is depressed valuations.Steven Fine, Peel Hunt's chief executive, noted last Thursday that Rotork, Gooch & Housego, and Ramsdens had accepted offers respectively pitched at premiums of 73%, 41% and 49% to their prevailing share prices."That tells you just how undervalued many U.K. companies have become," he added.One wonders when asset managers in the U.K. — who have less of a domestic bias than peers in similar economies — will wake up to that.— Ian King Need to know All eyes are on John Healey, the UK’s new finance minister. Here’s what’s at stakeBritain's new finance minister faces a delicate balancing act between delivering Burnham's potentially more left-leaning agenda and calming financial markets.Opinion: Burnham is Britain’s new prime minister. Now what?CNBC's Steve Sedgwick: Dare I offer a word to the wise and point out that economic and fiscal stability is way more important to British households than an eye-catching VAT cut. UK's Andy Burnham becomes PM as Trump slams Britain as 'Poverty Stricken Disaster'"We will make this moment a circuit breaker for Britain, bringing forward a new political model and a new economic model," Andy Burnham said in his first speech as premier on Monday.Wall Street's profit boom has Europe ripping up its banking rulebookU.S. investment banks have toasted a record quarter, as their European rivals continue to lag — but now a major pivot towards deregulation across the Atlantic could provide a much-needed shot in the arm for the continent's beleaguered banks.— Katrina Bishop Coming Up JULY 22: UK inflation data (June)JULY 24: Retail sales (June); S&P Global PMIs Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer telegraphed that the Trump administration could impose new tariffs just as other duties are set to expire. View More

watch nowVIDEO14:3314:33U.S. Trade Rep. Jamieson Greer: 'Expect action soon' on sweeping new tariffsSquawk Box U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday signaled another round of President Donald Trump's tariffs is on the way, the latest sign that the White House is working to re-create the protectionist trade agenda that suffered a major blow earlier this year."We expect to see some action soon," Greer told CNBC's "Squawk Box" when asked if new tariffs are forthcoming, in light of a Financial Times report Tuesday that more duties could be announced as soon as this week. "I can't really specify a timeline right now. I have responsibility to brief Congress and other stakeholders before I really reveal that kind of thing," Greer noted, the day after the administration slapped tariffs on Canada. "But we do expect action soon."The comments bolster trade experts' views that the Trump administration, after failing to keep its global "reciprocal" tariff regime intact, is poised to try to re-create its aggressive trade policy using the remaining tools at its disposal and pivoting to legal justifications for new duties that it expects to hold up to court challenges.The apparently forthcoming duties, brought under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, have emerged as a key tool for that project — and they may prove more resilient than the 2025 tariffs that didn't withstand the U.S. legal system."The expectation is continuity," Blake Harden, a trade policy expert and managing director of Washington Council Ernst & Young, told CNBC. "We're really seeing a re-creation of that global tariff, and 301 being used as a way to lock that in."Trump's temporary import levies that he imposed hours after the Supreme Court struck down his sweeping reciprocal tariff regime in February are set to lapse Friday.Trump in February imposed a blanket 10% tariff under Section 122 of the 1974 trade law. The Section 122 tariffs will expire at 12:01 a.m. ET on Friday unless Congress intervenes, which it appears unlikely to do.But the Trump administration has already taken steps to shore up its tariff regime once the 122 duties end.In early June, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, or USTR, proposed more tariffs of up to 12.5% on imports from 60 economies. The new 301 duties would be imposed in response to alleged forced labor issues. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer speaking on CNBC's Squawk Box on July 21st, 2026.CNBC "The U.S. has laws to prohibit trading goods with forced labor," Greer said in Tuesday's interview. "Other countries, most don't have a law. Those that do don't really enforce it."Greer said those proposed 301 tariffs would cover "about 99% of our trade."The USTR telegraphed its new approach when it announced its investigation into the 60 economies in mid-March, one day after unveiling a spate of separate 301 probes centered on possible excess manufacturing capacity concerns.The economies involved in those trade investigations are: China, the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan and India.Any additional tariffs would come on top of other recent trade actions, including slapping 25% tariffs on most imports from Brazil, which were also brought under Section 301 and are set to take effect Wednesday.On Monday, Trump signed proclamations to impose staggering new 50% tariffs in 30 days on a range of goods from Canada, citing alleged trade discrimination against multiple U.S. industries.Those tariffs — on Canadian wine and beer, hockey sticks, cement, dog leashes and many other products — fall under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, a near-century-old authority that has rarely been invoked.Canada, the U.S.' second-largest trading partner after Mexico, did not take the news well.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement Monday that Trump's 50% tariffs directly violate the North American trade pact known as the USMCA.Carney said Tuesday that he and Trump spoke and agreed to intensify trade negotiations, while adding that all options are on the table if the U.S. follows through on the latest tariffs threat, Reuters reported. A slow-motion trade 'liberation day'? Trump, a longtime advocate for using tariffs to bring in revenue and protect U.S. economic interests, last year implemented an array of import duties that drove U.S. tariff rates to new modern highs and stoked tit-for-tat trade disputes with other countries, including Canada and China.The crown jewel of his protectionist agenda was "liberation day," a plan to unilaterally impose individualized tariff rates on nearly every other country all at once. Trump did just that in early April 2025 — and triggered a sudden market panic, forcing him to put the tariffs on pause days later.Over the following months, the administration repeatedly tweaked, reimposed and re-delayed those tariffs. Then, on Feb. 20, the Supreme Court struck them down entirely, ruling that the law Trump invoked to implement the duties — the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA — did not actually authorize them.The ruling was a colossal blow to Trump's trade agenda: IEEPA-related duties accounted for the majority of U.S. tariff revenue collected last year.But while the president raged against the ruling, he also suggested that it left the door open for him to impose more durable tariffs using established authorities. Read more CNBC politics coverageTrump imposing 50% tariffs on certain Canadian goods over alleged trade discriminationTrump says Netanyahu won't be arrested in New York, pushing back on MamdaniSen. Darline Graham running for full term to replace late brother Lindsey Graham "Our Supreme Court has made these Countries very happy but, as the Court pointed out, I have the absolute right to charge TARIFFS in another form, and have already started to do so," he wrote in a Truth Social post on March 15, days after his administration launched the Section 301 probes.Peter Harrell, visiting scholar at Georgetown Law School's Institute of International Economic Law, said on LinkedIn that he expects the Trump administration will use its trade powers "to eventually restore most of the IEEPA tariff rates." Trade experts told CNBC that tariffs imposed following a forced labor probe are likely to last a long time due to their stronger legal footing and the political risk that would come with eliminating them."It's much harder" for a future presidential administration "to roll back tariffs that are intended to help combat forced labor," Tiffany Smith, vice president of global trade policy at the National Foreign Trade Council, said. "I think you have to expect that the 301 tariffs are going to be much more durable."Harden, of Washington Council Ernst & Young, said, "Politically, it's very hard to walk these things back once they're in place." Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Canada's relationship with the U.S. has frayed amid Trump's tariff-heavy agenda and vocal displeasure with the nations' trilateral trade pact with Mexico. View More

US President Donald Trump speaks after signing an executive order to drastically shrink two national monuments in Utah, paving the way for fossil fuel extraction and mining. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images The U.S. is imposing additional 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian goods in response to alleged trade discrimination against multiple U.S. products and industries, senior Trump administration officials said Monday.President Donald Trump signed three proclamations Monday targeting different sets of Canadian imports with the steep tariffs in response to separate areas — motor vehicles, alcohol and dairy — where the U.S. says it has been treated unfairly, the officials said in a call with reporters.The tariffs, which fall under the rarely used Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, are set to take effect 30 days after the signings, according to the officials.Each proclamation slaps tariffs on different Canadian products, "ranging from wine to hockey sticks to cement," an official on the call said.The new tariffs "apply to all covered goods," regardless of whether they are otherwise covered under the existing free trade agreement between the U.S. and Canada, the official said."Canada has to be held accountable for this continued discrimination," the official said.Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on X later Monday afternoon that Canada "should respond tariff for tariff, dollar for dollar" if the new U.S. import duties proceed.The Canadian Embassy in Washington, did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on the new U.S. trade actions. Read more CNBC politics coverageTrump imposing 50% tariffs on certain Canadian goods over alleged trade discriminationTrump says Netanyahu won't be arrested in New York, pushing back on MamdaniSen. Darline Graham running for full term to replace late brother Lindsey Graham Canada's status as the U.S.'s long-time close ally and trade partner has eroded amid Trump's tariff-heavy agenda and vocal displeasure with the nations' trilateral trade pact including Mexico, among other sources of tension.The U.S. and Canada engaged in escalating trade fight last year, as Trump slapped heavy tariffs on Canadian goods and Ottawa retaliated.Earlier this month, the Trump administration said it would not renew that trade agreement, known as USMCA, opting instead to cast a shadow over the treaty's future by triggering a series of annual reviews. Last week, Trump tore into Canada over the wildfires blazing through northwestern Ontario, which led to major air pollution issues across large areas of the U.S. mainland.Claiming the issue has harmed the U.S. to the tune of billions of dollars, Trump wrote on Truth Social that those costs "must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying."One of the senior officials on Monday specified that the newly announced 50% tariffs on Canadian goods are not related to the wildfires — but added that Trump "has asked for options on that."Section 338 gives the president the power to impose tariffs of up to 50% on the goods of countries found to be discriminating against the U.S.The obscure tariff-setting authority has "gone unused for decades," John Veroneau and Catherine Gibson of law firm Covington and Burling LLP wrote in a 2016 article. They found no public record relating to Section 338 since 1949. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Revenue grows 16% to ?24,648 crore; India Cements swings to profit, while UltraTech crosses 200 MTPA domestic capacity milestone View More

UltraTech Cement to increase capacity addition in fiscal 2028 View More

 In Q1FY27, UltraTech Cement's net profit surged 16.77% year-on-year to ?2,599.28 crore, driven by operational efficiencies and market execution. Revenue grew 15.8% to ?24,648 crore, while capacity utilisation stood at 81%, indicating strong demand in the construction sector. View More

The report said the capex trajectory, which remained subdued during FY25 and FY26, has shown improvement in the first two months of FY27, supported by higher public spending across different levels of government View More

Revenue from operations down over 20% y-o-y View More

Q1 Results Today, 18th July 2026 Live Updates: Catch all the live updates here View More

Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh laid the foundation for Dalmia Bharat's new cement unit. This Rs 3,100-crore facility will be the company's largest in South India. The green cement unit is expected to be commissioned by the third quarter of 2027-28. It will operate on over eighty percent renewable power and recycle all its water. This significant project will also create one thousand new employment opportunities. View More

Kadapa: Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh on Wednesday laid the foundation for Dalmia Bharat 's Rs 3,100-crore second cement manufacturing unit here. Designed to produce green cement, the new unit, expected to be commissioned by the third quarter in 2027-28, will become the company's largest integrated manufacturing facility in South India with a clinker capacity of 6.1 MTPA and cement manufacturing capacity of 9.6 MTPA. Also Read: Nuvoco Vistas starts Limla Cement Plant, strengthens footprint in Western India "We see in Dalmia Bharat a strong partner that wholeheartedly shares our vision of building a globally competitive, future-ready economy through sustainable industrialisation ," Lokesh said in a release. Welcoming the new unit, he said the southern state will be positioned as a global benchmark for green technology-led growth. Live Events Also Read: JSW Cement eyes 60 MTPA capacity as it targets top-five position in India The new cement unit will be run on over 80 per cent renewable power, recycle all its water and create 1,000 jobs, the release added. .Pbanner{display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;background-color:#ec1c40;margin-top:20px;padding:5px 10px;border-radius:4px;color:#fff;line-height:10px;width: 100%;box-sizing: border-box} .Pbannertext{display:flex;align-items:center;font-size:16px;font-weight:600;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannertext img{height:20px;margin:0 6px} .Pbannerbutton a{display:flex;align-items:center;background-color:#fff;color:#ec1c40;text-decoration:none;font-weight:600;padding:4px 8px;border-radius:6px;font-size:15px;font-family:'Montserrat';} .Pbannerbutton img{height:20px;margin-right:6px} .Pbannerbutton a:hover{background-color:#f7f7f7} Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel) (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)