Dec 6 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
The Times
- British online bank Zopa has secured backing from the owners of Maersk MAERSKb.CO, the shipping and logistics giant, as the lender prepares to launch a new current account and invest in artificial intelligence.
- FirstGroup FGP.L, the last of the great listed privatised train companies in the UK, is stacking up a portfolio of independent services to be run outside of the government's renationalised Great British Railways concern.
The Guardian
- Shell SHEL.L and Equinor EQNR.OL will combine their UK North Sea offshore oil and gas assets to create a new company with 1,300 employees.
- Vodafone VOD.L and Hutchison's 0001.HK Three have been given the green light to create the UK's largest mobile phone operator after agreeing to invest heavily in upgrading the merged group's network across the country.
The Telegraph
- A consortium represented by London law firm GSC has said it would create an investment fund of up to 50 million pounds ($63.7 million) to transform The Observer, twice the 25 million pounds Tortoise Media has promised to spend on the title over the next five years.
- British retailer Marks & Spencer MKS.L has won a years-long battle to bulldoze and rebuild its Oxford Street department store after UK's Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner approved the scheme on appeal.
Sky News
- Britain's tax authority HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is said to be in talks with Sanjeev Gupta's Liberty Steel about proposals that would see it forfeit the majority of the tax it is owned by the tycoon.
- Thames Water's largest creditor group has failed to secure a veto over whether a £3 billion emergency funding injection is used to settle regulatory fines imposed for a string of environmental and performance failings.
($1 = 0.7850 pounds)
(Reporting by Angela Christy in Bengaluru)
((AngelaChristy.M@thomsonreuters.com;))
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