Here are the top business stories making the headlines in the morning newspapers.


Profits surge at Premier Inn owner

The group which owns Premier Inn, the UK's biggest hotel brand, revealed this morning that profits for the first half of the current financial year had exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

Whitbread announced that adjusted profits before tax surged to £271.9million in the six months to September 1.

This compared to losses of £56.6million for the same period a year ago and profits of £235.6million for the first half of the previous financial year in 2020.

Alison Brittain, chief executive of Whitbread, said: "We remain focused on maintaining our position as the UK's number one hotel chain and are well on the way to replicating that success in the German market.

"We delivered an outstanding trading performance in the first half of the year, with revenues and profits before tax above pre-pandemic levels. Our UK hotels traded well-ahead of the market, benefiting from our 'investing to win' commercial and operational initiatives that are continuing to drive growth.

"Despite macroeconomic uncertainties, our current trading performance is strong and our business has proven its resilience in previous downturns. With a robust balance sheet and significant growth potential in both the UK and Germany, we remain confident in the full-year outlook and our ability to deliver long-term value for all our stakeholders."

Premier Inn is well represented in the Aberdeen area, with six hotels.

Interest rates worry for Scots council

A Scottish council has warned of the pressures it could face for the next 60 years due to volatile interest rates.

Highland said that, of Scotland's 32 councils, it had already spent the largest portion of its annual revenue budget to fund the repayment of loans charges.

The BBC says the local authority set its 15-year capital programme last December when rates were historically low.

But it said unforeseen rates rises since had significantly impacted on the affordability of its plans.

Long-term borrowing over 60 years is needed to fund major projects, such as building schools.

The council said that last year, with borrowing at 2%, the total loan charges involved in the construction of a new primary school would have been £22.9million, but those costs were now at about £38million due to interest rate rises.

It added that, if inflation costs were also factored in, it would now cost 121% more to build a new primary school than it did 12 months ago.

Rebrand for Schlumberger

Schlumberger, the world's largest oilfield services provider, is rebranding itself with a new name, colour scheme and logo that underscores its ambitions for a lower-carbon future.

The nearly 100-year-old firm is now known as SLB.

The company, originally named after its founding family, has become a giant in oilfield services and equipment such as drilling and subsurface analysis.

But it has shed old line products and recast itself as a digital services provider and supporter of cleaner energies.

The rebranding is not a shift away from fossil fuels, chief executive Olivier Le Peuch said in an interview.

But Reuters says it is a nod to how the renamed SLB can apply its skills to develop lower-carbon businesses.

Prepayment meters in demand

The energy crisis is pushing more households onto prepayment gas and electricity meters.

Comparison website Uswitch said 60,000 new meters were installed in Britain in the six months to March, reversing a long-term trend of the number falling.

It says prepayment customers are more likely to be vulnerable and at risk of being, in effect, disconnected when they cannot afford to top up.

The BBC says ministers promised to focus energy support on the most vulnerable in 2023.

Most UK households pay their gas and electricity bills by direct debit, typically receiving quarterly bills.

But, using data from energy regulator Ofgem, Uswitch found that almost 7.4million people in Britain were using prepayment meters in March - up from over 7.3million in October last year.

Uswitch said suppliers may put customers on prepayment meters if they struggle to keep up with bills, because it helps them control how much and how often they pay for energy.

Tesla in price war in China

Electric-vehicle company Tesla is cutting the price of its cars in China as Elon Musk's company faces fierce competition from local rivals in its second-biggest market.

The US manufacturer has reduced its prices by as much as 9%, kicking off a price war with cheaper Chinese manufacturers such as BYD and Great Wall.

China is an increasingly-important market for Tesla as demand flags elsewhere, but analysts say the business faces growing competition from local rivals.

The Telegraph says Shenzhen-based BYD overtook Tesla as the world's biggest electric car company by sales in the first half of this year.

Strikes at UK universities

University lecturers, librarians and admin staff across the UK will strike over pay and pensions, the University and College Union (UCU) has announced.

A total of 70,000 UCU members at 150 universities were asked to vote in two separate ballots - one on pay and working conditions, and another on pensions.

The BBC says strike dates are yet to be decided.

University employers say a pay rise would put jobs at risk in what they say are "very difficult" financial times.

Hands says the UK is 'doomed'

The UK is "doomed" and on a path to being "the sick man of Europe" because of the way Brexit was negotiated, according to a past Tory supporter.

Guy Hands, who runs private equity firm Terra Firma and has been a Brexit critic, warned that the UK faces higher taxes, lower benefits and a possible International Monetary Fund bailout.

Mr Hands said the Conservative Party needed to admit it has made "mistakes".

A Treasury spokesperson said the UK economic fundamentals were "resilient".

Mr Hands's comments come after a tumultuous period sparked by the mini-budget.

But he suggested the problems facing the UK go back much further.

"The reality is when they did Brexit, they had a dream. And the dream was a low-tax, low-benefit economy," he told the BBC's Today programme.

Outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss had tried to push through those policies, he said, but it had not worked.

"Once you accept that you can't actually do that, then the Brexit that was done is completely hopeless, and will only drive Britain into a disastrous economic state," Mr Hands said.

Slump in Chinese shares listed in America

Shares of Chinese firms listed in the US have slumped on concerns that President Xi Jinping will continue with his ideology-driven approach at the cost of economic growth.

The BBC says investors fear the world's second-largest economy will be held back by its tough coronavirus restrictions.

One analyst said Beijing was in a "tug-of-war" between measures to boost growth and its zero-Covid policies.

On Monday, shares in technology giant Alibaba closed 12.5% lower on the New York Stock Exchange, after hitting a 52-week low earlier in the day.

Internet company Baidu lost 12.6%, while e-commerce platform Pinduoduo plunged by almost 25%.

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