Friday newspaper round-up: DP World, Rio Tinto, Boohoo

(Sharecast News) - The Dubai-based owner of P&O Ferries has lost its status as a formal partner in one of the government's biggest freeport projects, after widespread public anger over the firing without notice of 800 workers last month. Ministers have confirmed that DP World, the Emirati logistics giant behind P&O, no longer had a central role as a "partner" in the Solent freeport after the resignation of its UK commercial director from the scheme's board last week. - Guardian Rio Tinto has taken full control of an alumina refinery in which oligarchs Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg hold stakes after the Australian government slapped sanctions on the pair and banned the export of bauxite products to Russia. The oligarchs have an interest in Queensland Alumina Limited through shareholdings in En+ Group, a London-listed resources company which owns the second-largest aluminium producer in the world, Rusal. - Guardian

Cheaper electricity will encourage households to charge their cars overnight and use their washing machines outside peak periods under plans to keep bills down during the drive for net zero. Ministers hope "time-of-use" tariffs enabling people to pay less for electricity when demand is low will be more widely adopted as part of a major overhaul of the energy system in coming years. - Telegraph

The boss of Boohoo has insisted that its new "model factory" will be a profitable production site rather than just a showroom as Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis clothes are being made in the UK again after moving offshore almost three decades ago. Boohoo opened its first factory in Leicester in January, two years after the online retailer was engulfed in a scandal about the poor treatment of workers in the city's factories. The multimillion-pound site, a former VW garage on Thurmaston Lane, has been designed to show "best in class" standards, including training schemes for workers, who are paid above the minimum wage and are entitled to the same holidays and benefits as other Boohoo staff. - The Times

A British online car retailer has fallen deeper into the red after investing heavily in expansion and counting the cost of its stock market listing in New York last summer. Cazoo unveiled a sharp rise in annual revenues yesterday as it drove further into Europe's second-hand market, but it said that its pre-tax losses had widened to £549 million last year from £100 million in 2020. - The Times