BMW (ETR:BMW) will shut its Mini factory in Oxford for a month immediately after the official Brexit date, Sky reports. The Oxford Mini plant is the company’s main British manufacturing factory. The plant on the outskirts of Oxford employs 4,500 people and usually produces 5,000 cars per week. However, it will not produce cars for a month from 1 April 2019, at the very least. This is to allow the company to enter into the next stages of its Brexit contingency plans. As a result, the annual summer maintenance shutdown will not take place later in the year. The period immediately after Brexit will now host the shutdown in order to avoid further disruption. But, this demonstrates just how disruptive a no-deal Brexit may be. Furthermore, it exemplifies the lack of confidence big businesses have in Theresa May’s ability to secure an exit deal. Maintenance, management and catering staff will continue to work despite no cars being produced. Back in February 2016, David Davis claimed that the UK is “too valuable a market for Europe to shut off”, Sky reports. BMW said: “While we believe this worst case scenario is an unlikely outcome, we have to plan for it”.

The chief executive of Danske Bank has resigned amid allegations of a major money-laundering scandal. Thomas Borgen will continue in his role until a replacement is found, said the bank on Wednesday. “Even though the investigation conducted by the external law firm concludes that I have lived up to my legal obligations, I believe that it is best for all parties that I resign,” he said. “It is clear that Danske Bank has failed to live up to its responsibility in the case of possible money laundering in Estonia.” “I deeply regret this,” he added in a statement. The Copenhagen-based bank has been at the centre of a money laundering scandal where the bank’s Estonian operations were used to launder as much as $9.1 billion between 2007 and 2015. “As the CEO, I have the management responsibility for the things that take place in the bank, and, of course, I take on this responsibility,” said the bank’s chief. “It has been clear to me for some time that resigning would be the right thing to do, but I have held off the decision, because I have felt a responsibility for seeing the bank through this difficult period towards presentation of the investigations,” he added. Shares in Danske fell over four percent in Copenhagen following Borgen’s resignation, lowering the group’s full-year outlook. Earlier this year, the bank reported a 45 percent fall in profits. Danske Bank is the latest bank involved in money laundering scandals. Last year, Deutsche Bank AG (ETR: DBK) was fined almost $700 million for helping Russians move $10 billion. Earlier this month, ING Group NV (NYSE: ING) earlier this month paid $900 million to settle a laundering case. Shares in Danske Bank (CPH: DANSKE) are currently trading down 6.29 percent at 163,85 (0922GMT).

The Irish government has been paid the €14.3 billion (£12.7 billion) it was owed in taxes from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). In 2016, the European Commission ruled that Apple was receiving unfair tax incentives. Apple and Dublin are appealing against this ruling. Irish finance minister, Paschal Donohoe, said in a statement: “While the government fundamentally disagrees with the commission’s analysis and is seeking an annulment of that decision, as committed members of the European Union, we have always confirmed that we would recover the alleged state aid.” The Irish government has maintained that it has never given Apple any special deal and the taxes collected were in line with the law. Dublin began recovering the money in May and has now recovered the €13.1 billion in disputed taxes plus interest of €1.2 billion. The total amount collected equates to Ireland’s health budget for the year. The money collected will be held in an escrow fund while the appeal takes place. The appeal is expected to last several years before being resolved. The Irish Finance Ministry said: “These sums will be placed into an escrow fund with the proceeds being released only when there has been a final determination in the European Courts over the validity of the Commission’s Decision.” An Apple spokesperson said the company was confident over the appeal. “The Commission’s case against Ireland has never been about how much Apple pays in taxes, it’s about which government gets the money. The United States government and the Irish government both agree we’ve paid our taxes according to the law.” Ireland’s low tax rate has attracted several tech giants to locate European operations in the country. Groups based in Ireland include Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL).  

Former HSBC analyst, Hervé Falciani, will not receive an extradition for leaking the details of thousands of HSBC clients. The Guardian has reported that Spain’s high court rejected Switzerland’s second request for an extradition. Whilst working for HSBC back in 2008, Falciani leaked the private details of roughly 130,000 holders of secret Swiss accounts. After being handed to French investigators, other European Governments also received the private information. Falciani is a French citizen and former HSBC worker and has divided public opinion. Some consider him a “hero” for igniting investigations in certain countries. Whereas Swiss courts have sentenced him to five years in jail for the data leak. But, several of these clients were suspected of tax evasion. Indeed, France, Austria, Belgium, Spain and Argentina launched investigations because of the information leaked. Despite this, Switzerland remains certain that the data was stolen and thus legally invalid. Additionally, the Guardian have said that Falciani is currently seeking refuge in France from his Swiss jail sentence. This is the second extradition request that Spanish courts have denied. This is because the charges Switzerland has made are not criminalised in Spain. The Spanish court said: “The Spanish criminal code does not include any charge similar to the crime of ‘aggravated financial espionage’ for which the Swiss justice had sentenced Falciani to a five-year prison sentence”.    

China has retaliated to Donald Trump’s recent wave of tariffs by imposing an additional $60 billion (£56 billion) of imports from the US. Following the US’s decision to introduce $200 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods that will be implemented next week, China announced the tariffs that will affect imports including aircraft and coffee. Trump announced the latest retaliation on Monday that will apply to almost 6,000 items. The US President warned of a further $276 billion of tariffs if China retaliated. Trump used Twitter to accuse China of “actively trying to impact and change our election by attacking our farmers, ranchers and industrial workers because of their loyalty to me”. “What China does not understand is that these people are great patriots and fully understand that China has been taking advantage of the United States on trade for many years.” “They also know that I am the one that knows how to stop it. There will be great and fast economic retaliation against China if our farmers, ranchers and/or industrial workers are targeted!” Investors were expecting Trump’s latest tariffs and therefore there was minimal impact on the market. Chang Wei Liang of Mizuho Bank said: “Given that markets have been bracing for this tariff announcement, we expect a muted rather than dramatic sell-off in Asian equities and currencies today.” Keith Wade, the chief economist at Schroders, said the tariffs are likely to impact the many US companies that operate in China. Companies include Nike (NYSE: NKE) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). “Very zealous enforcement of regulations could make life quite difficult for companies. America is also probably more dependent on China than the official trade figures suggest,” he said.  

Haydale (LON:HAYD) and the Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating are now contracted to develop wearable advanced technology. Indeed, the English Institute of Sport (EIS) awarded the contract, which will develop wearable technology for 2020 Olympic and Paralympic athletes. The apparel range for elite athletes will incorporate flexible, printable coatings and Haydale’s advanced materials. In fact, during the run up to 2020, athletes will wear the clothing during training and competitions. Director of Performance and Innovation for the English Institute of Sport, Dr Matt Parker, said: “The EIS performance innovation team is continually looking for external expertise that can help us optimise athlete performance,” “We believe the partnership with Haydale and WCPC will allow us at the EIS to make significant advances in our use of wearable technologies.” Additionally, the EIS is “delighted” to be working with Haydale and the Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating. At 12:35 BST Haydale shares were trading at -1.65%.

BMW has announced plans to shut its UK factory for one month on the same day Britain plans to leave the EU. The car manufacturer said on Tuesday that it will stop making cars from 29 March 2019 in order to minimise the potential disruption a no-deal Brexit. A BMW spokesperson said on Tuesday: “Planned annual maintenance periods at BMW Group production sites allow essential updating and equipment replacement to be completed over several weeks, while there is no production taking place.” “As a responsible organisation, we have scheduled next year’s annual maintenance period at Mini Plant Oxford to start on 1 April, when the UK exits the EU, to minimise the risk of any possible short-term parts-supply disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit.” “While we believe this worst-case scenario is an unlikely outcome, we have to plan for it.” The news from BMW comes amid several warnings from car manufacturers with factories in the UK. On Monday, Jaguar Land Rover announced that it was introducing a three-day week at its Castle Bromwich plant due to “continuing headwinds impacting the car industry”. The reduction of worker hours will impact the 2,000 employees based at the factory. Jaguar has said the reduction in hours will preserve the jobs of its employees rather than axing the roles. On Tuesday, Honda (TYO: 7267) warned that a no-deal Brexit would cost tens of millions of pounds. Last week Jaguar boss Ralf Speth warned that tens of thousands of jobs in the motor industry will be at risk if a no-deal Brexit goes ahead. The BMW spokesperson said that the car manufacturer would remain committed to the UK, adding: “We remain committed to our operations in Britain, which is the only country in the world where we manufacture for all three of our automotive brands.” Shares in BMW (ETR: BMW) are trading at 82,50 (1343GMT).  

Phoenix Global Mining Ltd (LON:PGM) has produced results for its ongoing drill programme at the Empire Copper Mine in Idaho. Phoenix Global Mining is a metal explorer and developer, and is US-focused. Its main focus is the advancement of the Empire mine into an open pit copper oxide production. The results include several highlights. First, they outline extensive evidence that copper sulphides lie below the Empire mine. Likewise, just north-west of the Empire pit lies a new zone of mineralisation. This “Red Star” outcrop holds heavy oxide/sulphide mineralisation. Furthermore, the results show that five drill hole intercepts contain predominantly chalcopyrite and bornite copper sulphide mineralisation. CEO Dennis Thomas commented: “These results are “game changing” for the Company given they provide extensive evidence that a high-grade feeder system exists below the Empire oxide resource and demonstrate the existence of such a sulphide system within the Empire Mine.” Moreover, Thomas added: “To date, we have focused on the oxides at surface but these results will inevitably require following up with further exploration of the sulphide system. We now have five drill holes that have intercepted predominantly chalcopyrite and bornite copper sulphide mineralisation in high-grade vein structures. This batch of results has given us renewed confidence to explore the sulphides in more detail. Also, quite significantly we have reported material gold and silver grades that would boost project economics. In addition, the CEO explained: “We are pleased to report the discovery of a new zone of surface mineralisation in the Empire block, now referred to as Red Star. Red Star is located approximately 330 metres north-west of the northern end of the Empire resource area and is a 20-meter-wide surface outcrop across the structure.” At 12.23 BST today, Phoenix Global Mining shares were trading at +12.79%.