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
- Employees of SABMiller PLC SAB.L are bracing themselves for thousands of job losses around the world after the brewer agreed to a 68 billion pound ($103.69 billion) takeover by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA ABI.BR . Anheuser-Busch InBev is renowned for cost-cutting, and analysts said that shrinking SABMiller's 69,000-strong workforce would be central to extracting estimated synergies of as much as $2 billion.
- The privatised water industry has been allowed to soak consumers for more than 800 million pounds in the past five years, an average of nearly 30 pounds a household, an investigation into the water market by the National Audit Office estimated.
The Guardian
- Volkswagen (DE:VOWG) AG VOWG_p.DE has announced 750 million pounds in spending cuts at its core division to help pay for a product overhaul following the emissions testing scandal that has rocked Europe's biggest carmaker.
- Inflation in Britain has dipped below zero for the second time this year, easing pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates from their record low. Official figures showed inflation was down from zero in August to -0.1 percent in September, helped by cheaper fuel prices.
The Telegraph
- House prices for first-time buyers surged to a record high in August, with the typical first-time buyer paying 3.8 percent more than they would have done a year earlier. The average price paid for a starter home in the United Kingdom is now 215,000 pounds.
Sky News
- The prospect of the biggest foreign takeover of a British firm has taken a leap forward, with Anheuser-Busch InBev SA ABI.BR agreeing terms with SABMiller PLC SAB.L . The deal would value SABMiller at almost 70 billion pounds - making it the fourth highest-value takeover of all time.
- Diageo PLC DGE.L is to accelerate its restructuring by agreeing a sale of a major chunk of its wine division to the Australian owner of Lindemans. Sky News has learnt that Diageo, which owns brands such as Blossom Hill and Piat d'Or, was poised to sign a deal to offload parts of its United Kingdom and United States wine operations to Treasury Wine Estates.
The Independent
- Yodel, the UK parcel carrier group, is seeking to hire 7,000 temporary drivers to handle Christmas deliveries, include 3,000 flexible or part-time workers to deliver parcels in their local area. The 7,000 new hires amount to a 70 percent boost to Yodel's employee numbers, adding significantly to its current army of between 8,000 and 10,000 drivers.
($1 = 0.6558 pounds)