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| Sainsbury’s is right to delay Nisa deal after Tesco-Booker concerns | Sainsbury’s is right to delay Nisa deal after Tesco-Booker concerns |
| (6 months later) | |
| Supermarket’s takeover of wholesaler makes commercial sense – but it should avoid the regulatory tangle its rival is facing | |
| Mon 14 Aug 2017 19.07 BST | |
| Last modified on Sat 2 Dec 2017 17.51 GMT | |
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| Sainsbury’s move on Nisa seemed a good idea, and a neat response to Tesco’s much bigger plan to buy cash-and-carry merchant Booker. | Sainsbury’s move on Nisa seemed a good idea, and a neat response to Tesco’s much bigger plan to buy cash-and-carry merchant Booker. |
| Convenience stores are the industry’s current obsession since they work well in the age of online and top-up shopping. Combining the two groups’ buying power carries a simple logic. Even when McColl’s, the chain that makes up a third of Nisa’s business signed up with Morrisons, the deal didn’t seemed dead. The terms just needed a tweak. | Convenience stores are the industry’s current obsession since they work well in the age of online and top-up shopping. Combining the two groups’ buying power carries a simple logic. Even when McColl’s, the chain that makes up a third of Nisa’s business signed up with Morrisons, the deal didn’t seemed dead. The terms just needed a tweak. |
| Now, though, the talks have been halted – at least for the time being – because Sainsbury’s fears being dragged into the same regulatory tangle as Tesco/Booker. The Competition and Markets Authority, rightly, is taking a long hard look a merger between the two biggest players in their respective corners of the grocery market. Sainsbury’s doesn’t need similar hassle lasting many months. | Now, though, the talks have been halted – at least for the time being – because Sainsbury’s fears being dragged into the same regulatory tangle as Tesco/Booker. The Competition and Markets Authority, rightly, is taking a long hard look a merger between the two biggest players in their respective corners of the grocery market. Sainsbury’s doesn’t need similar hassle lasting many months. |
| If, when the dust settles, the business is still available, fine. If Nisa hops off somewhere else, like the Co-op, that’s not a disaster. Sainsbury’s management has better things to do currently, such as ensuring the promising reboot of Argos continues. | If, when the dust settles, the business is still available, fine. If Nisa hops off somewhere else, like the Co-op, that’s not a disaster. Sainsbury’s management has better things to do currently, such as ensuring the promising reboot of Argos continues. |
| Commonwealth Bank in no hurry after money-laundering claims | Commonwealth Bank in no hurry after money-laundering claims |
| It’s not just UK and US banks, it seems, that preach a gospel of accountability in the boardroom while coming over fuzzy when it’s time to implement it. | It’s not just UK and US banks, it seems, that preach a gospel of accountability in the boardroom while coming over fuzzy when it’s time to implement it. |
| The position of Ian Narev, chief executive of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, has looked impossible since the country’s crimefighting agency alleged a fortnight ago that the bank’s “intelligent” deposit-taking machines were being used by drug dealers and criminals to launder cash on a grand scale. The agency cited 53,700 breaches and called the failings “serious and systemic”. | The position of Ian Narev, chief executive of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, has looked impossible since the country’s crimefighting agency alleged a fortnight ago that the bank’s “intelligent” deposit-taking machines were being used by drug dealers and criminals to launder cash on a grand scale. The agency cited 53,700 breaches and called the failings “serious and systemic”. |
| The board of CBA initially reacted by blaming a software glitch. It docked a few executive bonuses but, even as the deputy governor of the central bank was making pointed criticisms, backed its man. It is only now that reality has dawned – sort of. | The board of CBA initially reacted by blaming a software glitch. It docked a few executive bonuses but, even as the deputy governor of the central bank was making pointed criticisms, backed its man. It is only now that reality has dawned – sort of. |
| Narev will depart by the end of June next year but chair Catherine Livingstone declined to make a link to the money-laundering affair; presumably she would then have to explain why he could yet serve another 10 months. Instead, there was some standard guff about succession planning. | Narev will depart by the end of June next year but chair Catherine Livingstone declined to make a link to the money-laundering affair; presumably she would then have to explain why he could yet serve another 10 months. Instead, there was some standard guff about succession planning. |
| Would a big UK or US bank have handled things more decisively? One likes to think so but remember that no senior heads rolled at HSBC after its own money-laundering episode in 2012. At Wells Fargo in the US, chief executive John Stumpf only departed after a scandal involving bogus accounts when he was humbled by a senate committee. Meanwhile, Jes Staley stays at Barclays, but more in office than in authority until the regulator completes its investigation of his attempt to identify a whistleblower. | Would a big UK or US bank have handled things more decisively? One likes to think so but remember that no senior heads rolled at HSBC after its own money-laundering episode in 2012. At Wells Fargo in the US, chief executive John Stumpf only departed after a scandal involving bogus accounts when he was humbled by a senate committee. Meanwhile, Jes Staley stays at Barclays, but more in office than in authority until the regulator completes its investigation of his attempt to identify a whistleblower. |
| Since the crisis, banks’ capital position has been transformed and the system is undoubtedly safer. The other half of the deal was meant to be an improvement in top-level accountability. It’s hard to say that has been embraced wholeheartedly. Even when they happen, changes tend to arrive slowly and grudgingly. | Since the crisis, banks’ capital position has been transformed and the system is undoubtedly safer. The other half of the deal was meant to be an improvement in top-level accountability. It’s hard to say that has been embraced wholeheartedly. Even when they happen, changes tend to arrive slowly and grudgingly. |
| It’s all in the name for Telit | It’s all in the name for Telit |
| The Telit Communications tale is simply bizarre. The chief executive, one Oozi Cats, has resigned after the board cited evidence allegedly showing him to be the Uzi Katz indicted in a US wire fraud case dating from 1992. The board is moved to express its “considerable anger” that this fact was “knowingly withheld”. | The Telit Communications tale is simply bizarre. The chief executive, one Oozi Cats, has resigned after the board cited evidence allegedly showing him to be the Uzi Katz indicted in a US wire fraud case dating from 1992. The board is moved to express its “considerable anger” that this fact was “knowingly withheld”. |
| Somebody cheer ’em up by dispatching a copy of TS Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, with its (almost) perfect lines for the occasion: “The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter/It isn’t just one of your holiday games/You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter/When I tell you, a cat must have three different names.” | Somebody cheer ’em up by dispatching a copy of TS Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, with its (almost) perfect lines for the occasion: “The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter/It isn’t just one of your holiday games/You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter/When I tell you, a cat must have three different names.” |
| J Sainsbury | |
| Nils Pratley on finance | |
| Tesco | |
| Retail industry | |
| Supermarkets | |
| Banking | |
| Technology sector | |
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