Podcasts

Italy's troubled flagship airline Alitalia will formally request to enter bankruptcy proceedings, after workers rejected a restructuring plan. The company has received more than 7 billion euros from the Italian state over the last decade. But without further support, it may end up permanently grounded.

Analysts are predicting underlying pre-tax profits for Sainsbury’s to be about £578m in its full-year results tomorrow, down from £587m last year. City observers are concerned that the company is leaning too heavily on its recent acquisition of Home Retail, which includes Argos and Habitat. Argos delivered growth of 4.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, like-for-like food sales in the same period fell 0.5 per cent.

A recent study from the Advertising Association has found a fifth of companies surveyed lost business due to the Brexit vote. James Murphy, Adam & Eve/DBB co-founder and AA chairman, said that "On the Friday afternoon of the vote, I got a phone call from a large North American client cancelling a contract, with the question: ‘What the hell have you guys done?’

Brussels is set to try and grab the London-based euro-clearing market according to reports today. This follows the news that last week's Downing Street dinner for Theresa May and EU Commission boss Jean-Claude Juncker didn't go well. Could the market be a source of tension in Brexit negotiations, or will it be a useful bargaining chip for the UK? Ed Bowsher spoke to John Rentoul, Chief Political Commentator for The Independent.

Sue Dougan meets branding and marketing expert Nadim Sadek. Nadim founded Sadek Wynberg Research in the 1990s, later sold on to WPP - he conducted research for the development of brands and communications for many of the world's blue-chip companies, including Unilever, Bacardi Global Brands, Kimberly-Clark, Vodafone and Sony Ericsson.

BP has released its first quarter results today, revealing that - on a replacement cost basis - it's gone back in the black. Is this all down to the recently rising oil price or are other factors at play? For more on this and the day's corporate news, Ed Bowsher spoke to Dan Thomas, Deputy Companies Editor at the Financial Times.

Data released today shows strong UK PMIs for manufacturing, up from 54.2 to 57.3 in April, beating out analysts expectations. Euro-Area manufacturing was also on the up, growing from 56.2 to 56.7. To discuss the causes behind this and more of the day's big macro news, Ed Bowsher was joined by Mike van Dulken, Head of Research at Accendo Markets.

Georgie Frost is joined by financial heavy weights Lindsay Cook and Andy Webb. This week they take on the malfunctioning smart meters charging people as much as seven times their normal bill. Plus why insurance companies are getting the sucker punch this week and is it really a good idea to pay off your student debt?

Over the weekend streaming giant Netflix has been held to ransom by hackers who released ten episodes of hit series Orange is the New Black after their demands went unmet. So do cyber security threats such as this really represent a growing risk to the entertainment industry? Share Radio's Tom Hill joined Georgie Frost in the studio to explain more.

How will UK tech start-ups fare post-Brexit and can the country still become a European equivalent of Silicon Valley? Georgie Frost meets Gordon & Eden- a leading specialist in recruiting digital and technology executives and part of the Leap 100 list of fastest growing companies.