BT has been fined more than £17m for missing 14,000 emergency calls after technical faults caused the emergency call handling service to be disrupted for nearly 11 hours last summer.

The telecoms regulator launched an investigation shortly after the incident on 25 June 2023. Publishing its findings on Monday, Ofcom said the handling of the network fault was a “catastrophic failure”.

The watchdog’s director of enforcement, Suzanne Cater, said:

Being able to contact the emergency services can mean the difference between life and death, so in the event of any disruption to their networks, providers must be ready to respond quickly and effectively.

In this case, BT fell woefully short of its responsibilities and was ill-prepared to deal with such a large scale outage, putting its customers at unacceptable risk.

Today’s fine sends a broader warning to all firms: if you’re not properly prepared to deal with disruptions to your networks, we’ll hold you to strict account on behalf of consumers.

BT, which manages the emergency services calls system, said it had taken three days to contact each of the callers who had not been connected after what it described as a complex software problem that affected nearly 14,000 call attempts from 12,392 people.

Ofcom said its decision to fine BT £17.5m was based on a number of factors including the seriousness, duration and degree of harm.

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US stocks are opening for trading, and major indexes are on the rise as investors digest news of Biden’s decision to pull out of the presidential race and make way for a new Democratic candidate:

• S&P 500 is up 0.68%

• Nasdaq is up 1.1%

• The Dow is up 0.3%

European indexes are solidly in positive territory, having made further gains throughout the session.

We’re likely seeing a bit of relief as (a) the IT chaos starts to wind down, and (b) higher prospects of a potential Democratic win raise hopes that the US won’t hike trade tariffs and enter into a new era of Trump protectionism.

Here’s how we’re looking across Europe:

• FTSE 100 is up 0.9%

• FTSE 250 is u 0.75%

• Germany’s DAX is up 1.5%

• France’s CAC 40 is up 1.37%

• Italy’s FTSE MIB is up 1.07%

Vivendi plans to float its French TV business Canal+ in London, providing a shot in the arm for the capital’s stock exchange after a number of high-profile companies opted for rival international financial centres such as New York.

The move is part of a drive to break up the media conglomerate controlled by the billionaire Vincent Bolloré to realise value from its different operations.

Vivendi said the decision to list in London reflected the increasingly international operation of Canal+, which is in the process of a $2.9bn (£2.2bn) takeover of Africa’s largest pay-TV operator, Multichoice.

Vivendi said:

With close to two-thirds of its subscribers outside of France, a film and TV series distribution network present on all continents, and growth drivers resulting from its recent developments on the African, European and Asia-Pacific markets, a London-based listing would represent an attractive solution for international investors likely to be interested in the group.

Vivendi’s plan will be a welcome one after a series of setbacks for the London Stock Exchange in recent years.

The most high-profile company to snub the capital was theCambridge-based chip designer Arm, one of the UK’s few bona fide global tech success stories, which chose to float on the Nasdaq in New York last year in one of the biggest initial public offerings in recent years.

In February, Tui, Europe’s biggest package holiday operator, moved its stock exchange listing from the FTSE 250 to Frankfurt.

The building materials group CRH, one of the biggest companies on the FTSE 100, moved its primary listing to the US, following the UK-based plumbing equipment supplier Ferguson.

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The Carpetright brand and 54 of the flooring retailer’s stores are being bought by its rival Tapi Carpets and Floors in a deal that will save 300 jobs.

The multimillion-pound deal, which is expected to be finalised on Monday, does not include Carpetright’s head office in Purfleet, Essex, or 220 further shops, and will result in about 1,000 job losses.

The advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has been looking for a buyer for Carpetright after it filed a notice of intention to appoint an administrator earlier in July.

Tapi has been a bitter rival to Carpetright since it was co-founded in 2015 by Martin Harris, the son of “carpet king” Lord Harris of Peckham. Harris launched Tapi a year after he and his father stepped down as directors of Carpetright, which Lord Harris founded in 1988.

Harris left Tapi earlier this year, while Lord Harris remains an investor and adviser to the business.

The acquisition of Carpetright would enable Tapi to expand into a number of new areas, the company said. Lord Harris continues to have a role on the board of Tapi, which he co-owns with about 1,000 investors, the largest of which is the executive chair, Will Barker of US investment firm Camelot Capital Partners.

Tapi, which has 170 stores, said in a statement that it was “desperately sad not to have been able to save more of the business and customer orders”.

Jeevan Karir, the managing director of Tapi, added:

Our goal, initially, was to try to save all of Carpetright. However, as we looked into the details of the situation, we quickly established that saving the entire business was unviable. The business has been materially loss making for a number of years and it has significant debt held by the owner.

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Futures are pointing to a strong start for stocks when US markets open for trading in about an hours’ time:

• S&P 500 futures are up 0.6%

• Dow Jones futures are up 0.15%

• Nasdaq futures are up 1%

Dan Coatsworth, an investment analyst at AJ Bell, said it was a sign that markets were welcoming President Biden’s decision to pull out of the running for a fresh term in office.

However, he warned over a fresh bout of volatility, despite Biden’s decision to endorse his VP Kamala Harris as the potential Democrat nominee:

We could see heightened volatility over the next few weeks, with assets quickly changing direction depending on the latest comments from Washington.

Kamala Harris looks likely to be the Democratic nominee and while she might score better than Biden in the polls ahead of the election, there is still considerable uncertainty for investors to navigate as the nomination process plays out and election campaigning enters its final stage.

Gains for Bitcoin, which jumped on the prospect of a Trump win after the presidential nominee’s attempted assassination, have eased slightly on the Biden news, though it is still up around 0.8% against the US dollar. The cyptocurrency is expected to benefit from a potential unwinding of regulation under a prospective Trump presidency.

Coatsworth said:

Many investors will have looked at Trump’s ratings boost in the polls last week and placed trades on assets that could benefit if he returned to the White House. That included cryptocurrency, explaining why bitcoin has now pulled back on the news of Biden stepping down in the presidential election.

The so-called ‘Trump trade’ assumed a boost for corporate profit but increased pressure on the US fiscal situation and a kicker for inflation if the former president won this year’s election. A victory also implied heightened geopolitical tension given Trump’s track record of being outspoken.

The GMB union says the Harland and Wolff shipyard is “critical” to the UK’s future security.

GMB National Officer Matt Roberts said:

These are worrying times for workers and their families in Northern Ireland, Scotland and the South West.

These yards have been at the heart of UK manufacturing for centuries - from building the Titanic to the ships that defeated the Armada.

Now they are critical to our future security in building the Fleet Solid Support ships for our navy and in providing the renewables infrastructure needed to reach net zero.

These yards must be saved and their long-term sustainable future secured.

The Labour government says it is going to hold out for a “market” saviour to rescue Harland and Wolff, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds adds.

Extended comments from Reynolds released on the parliamentary website explain:

The Government believes, in this instance, that the market is best placed to resolve the commercial matters faced by Harland and Wolff.

Harland and Wolff indicates that these discussions on new financing should conclude in the next few days. This will involve the current CEO taking an immediate leave of absence and the onboarding of new management with a focus on recapitalisation and ensuring sustainable finances.

Reynolds adds that officials will work closely with the Ministry of Defence and National National Shipbuilding Office on the fleet solid support contract, for which Harland and Wolff remains a key subcontractor:

Officials in the Ministry of Defence are also well engaged with the prime contractor, Navantia, UK to monitor delivery of this important contract.

I welcome potential new financing for Harland and Wolff and the appointment of new management and wish them all the best in their continued efforts to build up this business.

CEOs from BA-owner IAG and Air India have been commenting on their own performance, surely in a bid to reassure shareholders, after the drop in Ryanair profits spooked investors.

IAG’s CEO Luis Gallego has said – according to Reuters – that corporate travel i still recovering but that demand is strong in its core north and south Atlantic markets.

Air India’s CEO Campbell Wilson, meanwhile, has said that the international market was ‘moderating’ for th next six months, but that the domestic market was strong.

More warnings about recovery time for the health sector after the CrowdStrike IT outages.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said GPs will “need time to catch up from lost work over the weekend”, adding that NHS England should “make clear to patients” this is the case.

The BMA said its GP committee will continue to talk to NHS England and patient record system supplier EMIS to secure a “better system of IT back-up” to ensure the “disaster” is not repeated.

Dr David Wrigley, deputy chairman of GPC England, the representative body for GPs at the BMA, said:

Friday was one of the toughest single days in recent times for GPs across England. Without a clinical IT system many were forced to return to pen and paper to be able to serve their patients.

While GPs and their teams worked hard to look after as many as they could, without access to the information they needed much of the work has had to be shifted into the coming week.

GPs have been pulling out all the stops this weekend to deal with the effects of Friday’s catastrophic loss of service and, as their IT systems come back online, we thank them and their staff for their hard work under exceptionally trying circumstances.

We also thank patients for bearing with general practice in this unprecedented situation.

Pharmacy services are expected to be “slower than usual” today as the recovery from the major global IT outage caused by the CrowdStrike update failures continues.

Nick Kaye, chairman of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA), said:

As pharmacists recover from last week’s IT outage and catch up on the backlog of prescriptions, we expect service in some community pharmacies to be slower than usual today.

Please be patient with your local pharmacy team if you are visiting them, as they may still be prioritising emergency prescriptions from their local GP surgeries as well as experiencing increased demand as services return to normal.

As ever, community pharmacies have worked hard to provide support for those who need them during this period.

Commenting on the global travel chaos caused by the CrowdStrike IT failures, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said the airline had 400 cancellations this weekend, mainly due to the fallout from Friday’s IT issues.

The UK government will need to raise taxes, increase borrowing or make spending cuts unless it can grow the economy by at least three times this year’s expected rate, according to analysis by the International Monetary Fund.

Economic growth would need to be around 2.6% in each year of parliament from next April before Labour can claim to have stabilised the public finances.

That is well above the rate of growth predicted by the IMF.

Last month the IMF predicted the UK economy will grow by 0.9% in the current financial year, ending in April 2025. That is projected to rise to around 1.6% or 1.7% in the remaining years of this parliament.

The calculations showed that the UK budget balance excluding interest payments will need to improve by between 0.8 and 1.4 percentage points of GDP per year to get debt under control.

In analysis for the Financial Times (paywall), IMF staff estimates show the acceleration in economic growth needed to avoid tough choices will necessitate a return to the expansionary period seen before the financial crash of 2008.

A Treasury spokesperson told the FT that the government was “under no illusions” about the scale of the challenge facing the economy.

Delivering economic growth will require tough choices and difficult decisions.

That is why we have already started to take the action necessary to fix the foundations of our economy, so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of our country better off.

Begbies Traynor data also showed that around 40,613 UK businesses are in “critical” financial distress, up 1.1% on the prior quarter and 34.5% higher than a year earlier:

Top 10 Sector Ranking – Critical Financial Distress

1. Construction 6,043

2. Support Services 5,758

3. Real Estate & Property Services 5,575

4. General Retailers 3,113

5. Professional Services 2,770

6. Health & Education 2,436

7. Telecommunications & Information Technology 2,256

8. Food & Drug Retailers 1,696

9. Bars & Restaurants 1,587

10. Media 1,467

There are concerns concerns about the continued impact of high interest rates – for both consumers and businesses – even with the prospect of near-term rate cuts.

Palmer said:

Additionally, the situation for the consumer remains very precarious. The latest figures from the Bank of England highlights how more than three million households will come off their fixed rate mortgages over the next two years – resulting in substantially higher repayments for many – which will in turn act as a drag on disposable incomes.

In a climate like this one, many businesses who were supported through the pandemic and its aftershocks by the government, will be hugely concerned by the very real prospect of a prolonged period of higher interest rates.

Many businesses who loaded up on cheap debt prior to the pandemic are simply not equipped to survive the current pressures and the financial burdens they face may ultimately prove too much.

Full story: Ryanair has said its profits plunged by almost half between April and June and warned that fares this summer would be “materially lower” than last year.

Europe’s largest airline reported profits of €360m (£303m) in the spring quarter, 46% lower than the same period last year, despite passenger numbers rising 10% to 55.5 million.

The downbeat results, which missed analysts’ estimates, drove the budget carrier’s share price down 12.5% in early trading on Monday.

The news also affected other publicly traded airline stocks. EasyJet fell 7.5%, Wizz Air was down 6.3% and IAG, the owner of British Airways and Iberia, slipped 3.3%.

The average cost of a fare dropped from €49.07 to €41.93 year on year, but the increase in passenger numbers helped limit the decline in total revenues to 1% at €363bn.

Ryanair said while it expected strong demand this summer, with passenger numbers likely to be up 8% overall this financial year, “pricing remains softer than we expected”:

We now expect second-quarter fares [July to September] to be materially lower than last summer…The final first-half outcome is, however, totally dependent on close-in bookings and yields in August and September.

“Close-in bookings” refer to customers waiting much longer than usual to book summer flights.

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British online supermarket group Ocado is getting a boost, and is one of the biggest risers on the FTSE 250.

Shares were bolstered after US grocer Kroger placed an order for a wide range of new automated technologies to roll out in warehouses across its network.

While the company did not put a value on the Kroger order, it said it would be using the tech in both current and future warehouses, suggesting a boost to future revenues.

It comes a week after Ocado raised its annual guidance for its technology arm. The company said it expects its tech division to achieve a “mid-teens” Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margin this year, up from previous guidance of more than 10%.

CEO Tim Steiner said last week that the global shift to online shopping had resumed, after a brief post-pandemic pause: “We expect to see a lot of long-term growth.”

A view of those Ryanair shares, which are getting hammered after the airline’s earnings results:

Matt Britzman, a senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown says there will be knock-on effects to the wider sector, as investors speculate whether rivals are feeling similar pressures:

Ryanair disappoints as the outlook over the key summer period looks weak

First quarter profit after tax of €360mn was well below what markets expected as ticket prices plummeted.

The outlook was poor, too, with Ryanair expecting lower prices as peak summer travel kicks in.

There will be knock-on effects to the wider sector from this, though it’s a little unclear whether the likes of easyJet are facing issues at quite this scale.