Rules and regulations dominated much of the day’s ‘most followed’ business news stories.
Tesco (LON:TSCO) investors have reportedly recruited top City legal eagle Philip Marshall in a following the supermarket’s the much publicised accounting scandal.
Marshall’s past adversaries include Bernie Ecclestone, the Barclay brothers and Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank, and he is now advising a number of City institutions that form part of the Tesco Shareholder Claims (TSC) group.
Reports suggest a formal claim could be filed against Tesco this year.
North Sea oil firm Ithaca Energy (LON:IAE) was also in the legal crosshairs, and its shares plummeted in early deals before recovering, as it revealed it had received a Statement of Claim from a law firm that advertises itself as undertaking investor lawsuits.
Ithaca, in a statement, said it “vigorously refutes” the allegations that it had misrepresented information regarding past schedules for work on a floating production facility.
Furthermore, the company “strongly denies” any wrongdoing and said it will be taking all necessary legal measures to defend itself.
Elsewhere, the biggest threat to the proposed £55bn merger of Shell and BG could be China’s Ministry of Commerce, according to the Financial Times.
The Chinese authority, which has the joyful acronym Mofcom, is described as an ‘opaque antitrust regulator and it is among several bodies that will be able to scrutinise the proposed transaction.
The FT highlights that the Chinese demanded concessions as it approved the Glencore-Xstrata merger due to its concerns over competition in copper markets, and it points out that by itself BG was by itself already going to be China’s largest LNG supplier by 2017.
In London, meanwhile, Mike Ashley, who is no stranger to competition rules, had reason to be cheerful has his majority owed retailer Sports Direct International (LON:SPD) said its results will beat expectations.
B&Q owner Kingfisher (LON:KGF) also got a boost from its financials which showed some signs of encouragement, mainly thanks to a rise in ‘do it for me’ rather than DIY activity; sales through the handyman and trade brand Screwfix improved by 26%.