For European leaders struggling to contain hostility to globalisation, few things can be as unwelcome as a cross-border takeover threatening mass lay-offs in a treasured industry, the Financial Times reported. When the industry in question is car making — so often a symbol of national pride or decline — the stakes are even higher. Yet despite the disquiet felt in Germany and the UK at PSA’s purchase of Opel, both countries need to accept the logic of consolidation in a sector where politicians have too often intervened to protect jobs at the expense of long-term competitiveness.

Tata Steel Ltd is still in talks with Germany's ThyssenKrupp AG about a potential merger of their European steel assets, the Indian company said on Monday. The statement was in response to reports in the British media on Sunday that India's largest steel company might be in the process of calling off a potential deal with the Germans, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. The company is in "constructive discussions" with ThyssenKrupp, said Tata Steel.

Sir Philip Green has agreed a deal to pump as much as £50m a year into the pension fund behind his fashion business, Arcadia, to plug a growing deficit, just days after reaching a settlement over the BHS pension scandal, The Guardian reported. Arcadia, which controls Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge, will double payments into its pension scheme from £25m a year to £50m this year, potentially heading off another pensions controversy.

A round of job cuts has been made at O2 to strengthen the British mobile network’s performance, as parent company Telefónica continues to weigh options for the business. About 5 per cent of the UK network’s 6,500 workforce left the company in the fourth quarter, triggering a restructuring charge of €38m, the Financial Times reported. O2’s operating income for the quarter rose 4 per cent to £324m, excluding the charge. The full-year figure was 1.7 per cent higher at £1.4bn.

At first glance, it is not obvious watching the cargo moving on and off the Leverkusen Express at the Port of Southampton that the container shipping industry has been contending with the biggest financial crunch in its 60-year history. Cranes lift boxes over the towering sides of the 367m long vessel, just as they did before a glut of ships and a slowdown in global trade sent freight rates tumbling. But on a closer look, there are signs of financial stress on the Southampton quayside, the Financial Times reported.

Tata steelworkers in the UK have voted to accept the closure of their £15bn pension fund, a historic sacrifice that brings the industry closer to resolving the crisis in British steel, the Financial Times reported. Thousands of trade union members backed a rescue package that Tata Steel offered its British operation, whose future came under threat after the Indian group threatened to quit the country last March. A key condition of the plan — aimed at saving thousands of jobs and maintaining production — was shutting the British Steel Pension Scheme to further contributions.

An investigation into the collapse of BHS could take as long as two years to determine whether any of the department-store chain’s former directors should be disqualified, the head of the Insolvency Service has said, while expressing “confidence” that the inquiry could be concluded “significantly” earlier, the Financial Times reported. The probe into BHS is consuming as much as one-tenth of the regulator’s resources, officials have previously disclosed.

Britain's energy market regulator Ofgem will review the way it awards supply licences and financial requirements on energy suppliers later this year, it said, following calls for firms to undergo stricter financial stress tests, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. In a speech on Thursday, Ofgem Chief Executive Dermot Nolan said there had been a lot of interest in the energy sector's financial stability due to the increasing number of suppliers, many of which are very small.

British insurer RSA has strengthened its capital base above its target range with a deal to dispose of a book of mainly asbestos-related insurance policies, the firm's chief financial officer said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. RSA, best known in Britain for its More Than insurance brand, signed a deal to dispose of 834 million pounds ($1.04 billion) of legacy insurance liabilities - policies that are closed to new customers - through a reinsurance deal with Enstar Group, the firms said late on Tuesday.

Europe’s leading central bankers are at loggerheads over one of the biggest economic judgments facing the continent: does a disorderly Brexit pose a financial stability risk? Mark Carney, Bank of England governor, fears a messy and severe Brexit could be a “Jenga” moment that leads to the collapse of the legal architecture the underpins financial flows, hurting the City of London’s European customers even more than the UK itself, the Financial Times reported. Mario Draghi, meanwhile, is largely unfazed.