Nike Ends Manchester United Sponsorship Deal

Sportswear giant Nike has decided not to renew the kit deal for Manchester United after next season.

The American company has supplied the Old Trafford club since 2002 when it replaced Umbro in a lucrative deal which has cost Nike around £24m a season.

Although some reports at the weekend suggested a new record-breaking deal was set to be concluded, Nike revealed on Tuesday that it had opted to walk away from negotiations, claiming United were demanding too much money.

A Nike statement read: "Manchester United is a great club with passionate fans. We are proud to have partnered with them for the last 12 years and will continue to sponsor the club until the end of the 2014/15 season.

"Any partnership with a club or federation has to be mutually beneficial, and the terms that were on offer for a renewed contract did not represent good value for Nike's shareholders.

"We look forward to a successful final season with the club."

Some reports have suggested Adidas is now in pole position to step in and clinch a deal which could see the club earn £60m a year from 2015.

Nike's original deal was worth £303m, with extra income from a profit share agreement from merchandise sold worldwide.

On Monday, United unveiled their new home kit for the 2014-15 season - which will be the last designed by Nike and the first to bear the logo of new sponsor Chevrolet.

United announced they would be entering a seven-year agreement - worth a reported £53m per season - with the US car giant from this summer back in 2012.

Incoming manager Louis van Gaal will head to the United States after the World Cup to pick up the reins for the first time as United begin their overseas tour on July 18.

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Celebrities Among Hundreds Who 'Avoided Tax'

Several names from the world of showbiz have been accused of hiding their money in an aggressive tax avoidance scheme.

George Michael, Sir Michael Caine and Katie Melua all invested in the Liberty tax strategy, according to a report in The Times newspaper.

Some 1,600 people, including QCs, doctors, top businessmen, celebrities, criminals and a judge, are said to have invested in the scheme.

Sir Michael Caine has made 'no comment'

They are accused of trying to shelter a total of £1.2bn in Liberty, which ran between 2005 and 2009.

The scheme worked by making huge artificial "losses" offshore, which members could then use to avoid paying tax on other income.

It meant that for every £1 earned, investors could reduce the amount they paid to 7p in tax instead of 40p, while higher rate taxpayers could earn £1m each year tax free.

To do the latter, they had to pay £70,000 in fees to Mercury Tax Group, the company which ran the scheme.

Katie Melua says she has paid the tax to HMRC she would have owed

According to a document leaked to The Times, Michael is said to have paid £443,000 seeking to shelter £6.2m he earned from record and tour sales.

The newspaper said the singer told the Big Issue in 1996 he would be happy paying 50% to 60% tax under a Labour government.

The singer's spokesman told the paper his "busy schedule" meant he could not answer questions at present.

Singer Melua tried to shelter £850,000. Her lawyers said it was her accountants who did so and that when she found out, she paid the money back.

All four members of the Arctic Monkeys declined to comment

Sir Michael, who is accused of sheltering £600,000, made "no comment", while four members of the Arctic Monkeys, who are each said to have sheltered between £557,000 and £1.1m, also declined to speak.

Sky's political correspondent Anushka Asthana said: "All of these celebrities are going to be targeted by a change of rule.

"HMRC is going to take this tax scheme to court next March but in the meantime the new rules mean they have to pay the money back.

"If they don't, the Government can go directly into their bank accounts and take it."

David Cameron has called tax avoidance schemes "morally wrong"

A number of other celebrities have been identified as having used tax avoidance schemes in the past including Take That star Gary Barlow, who used another scheme set up by Icebreaker Management, and Jimmy Carr, who was said to have channelled cash through Jersey-based K2.

Tax avoidance is legal although David Cameron has described it as "morally wrong".

Asthana added: "The Prime Minister stuck the boot in when The Times first outed comedian Jimmy Carr as a tax avoider.

"He was a little less willing to do so when it was Conservative-supporting Gary Barlow, who had also invested in the scheme we are talking about today."

A HMRC spokesman said it did not comment on individual cases but added: "We are always happy to help the increasing numbers who want to disentangle themselves from the increasingly fruitless practice of tax avoidance."

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Moulton In Talks Over Unipart Rescue Deal

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The City financier Jon Moulton is in talks to rescue Unipart Automotive, Britain's biggest independent car parts supplier, in a deal that could save more than 1,500 jobs.

Sky News can reveal Better Capital, the investment firm headed by Mr Moulton, is competing against Euro Car Parts, another major company in the sector, about a transaction which could take place this week.

A third bidder is also understood to be in talks about a deal, without which Unipart Automotive faces the prospect of administration.

Sky News disclosed earlier on Tuesday that Unipart Automotive's owners had lined up KPMG by filing a notice of intention to appoint the professional services firm as administrator after a period of poor trading.

Unipart Automotive employs roughly 1,600 people, the vast majority of whose jobs would be saved if, as expected, KPMG reaches a deal to sell the company to one of the three interested parties.

KPMG has been tipped as administators if necessary

Mr Moulton's interest follows his attempt to take control of MG Rover when the British car maker was put up for sale by BMW nearly 15 years ago.

Unipart Automotive, which is part-owned by Unipart Group and controlled by H2 Equity Partners, a Dutch private equity firm, has a network of 200 branches across the UK. Unipart Group sold a majority stake in 2011.

Mark Dixon, Unipart Automotive chief executive, said in response to Sky News' earlier report: "In response to current press speculation I can confirm that Unipart Automotive Limited are currently in detailed discussions with three parties in respect of the sale of the business.

"We are very hopeful of concluding this transaction in the next 36 hours.

"A notice of intention to appoint administrators has been filed, but merely with the intention of protecting Unipart Automotive while we complete this sale process."

According to the company's website, it is the largest independent supplier of car parts, workshop consumables and garage equipment to the after-market.

Unipart Automotive completed a refinancing in May which included new injections of capital from its shareholders in an attempt to buy the company breathing space.

KPMG declined to comment.

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House Price Growth 'Begins To Stabilise'

Further evidence has emerged that the housing market is beginning to stabilise amid tougher mortgage affordability rules and warnings of looming rate rises.

The latest house price study, conducted by Halifax, reported a 0.6% fall in average costs month-on-month in June though. However, in the three months to June, price growth accelerated to 8.8% on an annual basis.

The Halifax said this marked the strongest year-on-year uplift since October 2007 and took the average cost of a property to £183,462.

Stephen Noakes, mortgages director at Halifax, said: "Housing demand continues to be supported by an economic recovery that is gathering pace, with employment levels growing and rising consumer confidence, although real earnings growth remains sluggish."

The findings on annual price growth largely mirrored those of rival Nationwide, which last week reported average year-on-year growth of 11.8%, taking values past their 2007 peak to stand at a new all-time average high of £188,903.

But in a paper on the state of the UK housing market, the chief UK economist at Berenberg Rob Wood, wrote that while the latest Halifax figures showed the pace of price increases was not slowing, the calculations showed housing costs had stabilised.

He pointed to quarterly figures reported by Halifax as being more reliable, measuring growth of around 2% consistently since June 2013.

"Tighter regulations and the real chance of an interest rate hike this year have stabilised leading indicators and actual price inflation at current strong rates.

"We look for house prices to gain 10% in 2014 and 10% in 2015", he said.

A key factor supporting price growth has been a shortage of new homes as builders struggle to return to pre-financial crisis levels of construction while costs in London have soared well above national averages.

But there have been signs that the worst of the heat is easing.

The introduction of toughened lending rules at the end of April, which force lenders to conduct financial stress tests on buyers and those looking to remortgage, have been reported as putting many people off potential purchases though the impact may be temporary.

The Bank of England also recently announced new curbs on riskier lending, with loans of 4.5 times a borrower's income or higher accounting for no more than 15% of new mortgages issued by lenders.

The Bank also said that lenders should ensure that borrowers can keep up their mortgage repayments in the event of a rise of up to 3% in interest rates over the first five years of the loan.

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RAC Owner Carlyle Holds Talks About £2bn Sale

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The owners of the RAC roadside recovery service have been holding secret talks about a £2bn sale in the wake of a modest stock market debut by the AA, its main rival.

Sky News has learnt that Carlyle, the private equity firm which has owned the RAC since 2011, is in preliminary discussions with competitors including Apax Partners and BC Partners about an outright takeover of the business.

Blackstone has also been sounded out about its appetite for a deal but is not thought to be interested.

It was unclear on Wednesday whether any of the talks with other buyout firms would lead to a deal, with several sources close to the RAC saying that they still expected it to become a publicly-listed company.

A flotation could take place as soon as this year, although some people close to the business are said to have become more serious about exploring a sale following last month's listing by the AA, Britain's biggest motoring organisation.

The AA struck a so-called management buy-in deal which involved selling hundreds of millions of pounds of shares to City investors and installing a new management team.

The shares had slipped from their original listing price of 250p but have since recovered and on Wednesday were trading at 252p.

People close to the RAC said it had substantially lower debt than the AA and argued that it had stronger growth prospects.

Sky News revealed in May that Carlyle had appointed Lazard, the investment bank, to advise it on options to exit its investment, on which it hopes to have doubled the value of the RAC.

Since then, banks including Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have been hired to act as bookrunners for an initial public offering (IPO).

The RAC, founded by the Royal Automobile Club in 1897, has more than seven million members, and has about 2,000 patrols which attend 2.5 million breakdowns every year.

The RAC, which is owned by the same private equity group as Addison Lee, the London-based taxi company, is chaired by Rob Templeman, who is expected to step down ahead of a flotation.

Its chief executive is Chris Woodhouse, with whom Mr Templeman worked at Debenhams, the department store chain.

Aviva sold the RAC in 2011 to focus on its core insurance operations but was widely regarded to have undervalued the RAC by offloading it for £1bn.

Last November, the RAC paid its owners a £163m dividend as it emerged that the company was on track to make £145m in pre-tax profit last year, almost double its 2010 earnings.

It recently announced the launch of its first mobile electric vehicle charging unit and has begun selling telematic tracking devices, a growing trend among motor insurers.

The RAC and the private equity firms declined to comment.

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Shop Prices Fall At Steepest Rate Since 2006

The prices of goods in UK stores fell for a 14th consecutive month in June and at their steepest level since December 2006.

The calculation - in the latest British Retail Consortium/Nielsen shop price index - showed deflation hit 1.8% in the month from a year ago, accelerating from a figure of 1.4% in May.

The report stated that the tumbling cost of clothing and electrical goods - attributed mainly to discounting - led the charge and while food prices rose, the pace of price growth was also at an eight-year low at 0.6%.

Clothing deflation soared to 13.7% from 11.4% while electrical goods fell 4% in June compared to 3.1% in May.

The report said a price war among supermarkets - as major chains battle the challenge from hard discounters - was a major factor in keeping food cost increases in check.

But it also highlighted the effect of a strong pound on import costs and cheaper commodity costs.

British Retail Consortium director general Helen Dickinson said: "This is the deepest level of deflation in non-food and the lowest rate of inflation for food since 2006 when our records began.

"The backdrop was equally promising with stable commodity markets and the continued strength of sterling suggesting inflation is set to remain low in the medium term."

Nielsen's head of retail and business insight Mike Watkins said: "Food inflation is still low, many supermarkets are price cutting and non-food prices remain deflationary, so the high street continues to generate little inflationary pressure."

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BlackBerry Unveils Bizarre Square Smartphone

Muscled out of the smartphone market by iPhone, Android and Samsung, BlackBerry has rolled the dice on its latest product and come up with a square phone.

The Canadian firm has unveiled more details about the unusual device called the Passport, which it first previewed in June, including a 4.5-inch square HD screen.

A post on the official BlackBerry blog said: "Many have thought that creativity around the design of smartphones was dead.

"Device companies have been emulating the same, entertainment-driven look for so long that there's been a homogenisation of the visual cues in smartphone design."

BlackBerry was once the phone model of choice for businesspeople

The screen width fits 60 characters rather than the 40 seen on a rectangular five-inch device.

Under the heading "it's hip to be square", the post said the width is ideal for reading ebooks, viewing documents and browsing the web.

Comparing it to a giant cinema screen, the post added: "The Passport is like the IMAX of productivity and you don't have to sacrifice screen real estate, vertically or horizontally."

The post said the device was aimed at professionals such as architects, writers and medical staff.

The BlackBerry Passport fits more characters across the screen

Earlier this year, BlackBerry announced a quarterly loss of $423m (£254m) after suffering a revenue drop of more than 60%.

The company said its revenue for the last quarter of 2013 was $976m (£587m), down from $2.7bn (£1.6bn) in the previous year.

It was the first time the Canadian company had reported quarterly revenue of below $1bn (£600m).

The figure was more than a tenth lower than what analysts had forecast.

Early last year, the company released BlackBerry 10, which failed to spark a turnaround in its fortunes.

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