There are mounting calls for super-rich fat cat executives to play a bigger part in shouldering the financial burden stemming from the crisis, which will end up hitting taxpayers hard in the pocket.

Analysts are predicting it will unveil first-quarter sales of around £59 billion. But the retail giant has been accused of abandoning fraud victims by closing a crucial helpline.

The retailer announced it would reopen its Lancashire textiles factory to make 8,000 washable gowns for Northumbria NHS Foundation Trust over four weeks.

The Investment Association said firms will need 'to take account of their individual circumstances particularly considering the impact on their stakeholders' when deciding executive pay.

Novacyt has inked a deal with the Department of Health to provide it with 288,000 tests a week. And Omega Diagnostics has made fresh strides in the race to roll out antibody tests.

Paracelsus Recovery said the rise in requests was mostly from high-flying businessmen who were struggling to adapt to their new style of life.

Treasury officials and the City watchdog expressed concern after it emerged a company is charging £500 upfront, then a percentage of the value of the loan if the application is successful.

James Benamor says Amigo was committing 'slow-motion suicide' by making 'irresponsible' loans and failing to alert shareholders to the potential cost of complaints.

Grocers have hired an army of 110,000 temporary staff to meet rising demand. Tesco is now delivering to more than a million people every week, an increase of 400,000 weekly delivery slots.

Just a day after arch-rival Airbus said it was 'bleeding cash' and may not survive, Boeing boss David Calhoun said: 'It is difficult to estimate when the situation will stabilise.'

Think-tank Reform is calling on Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor (pictured), to let businesses bring back employees on reduced hours but still receive some state support as lockdown is lifted.

Coronavirus has wiped out demand and IAG believes it will take several years for air travel to recover to 2019 levels.

Firms are accusing each other of 'profiteering' from the pandemic. An estate agency in the Lake District sparked a debate after it said it had completed a viewing on a £1.25m home.

The group, which has scrapped its dividend for shareholders and furloughed 16,500 staff, saw its share price jump over 19 per cent earlier today.

Dubai-based DP World says P&O needs the emergency cash to avoid collapse during the virus crisis.

While the group got off to a strong start this year, social distancing, Government lockdown interventions and economic uncertainty have started to take their toll.

It is thought that the brand, founded by make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury, 47, (pictured to the right of human rights lawyer Amal Clooney) could fetch more than £1bn.

Staley (pictured with wife Debora) said the coronavirus would have a lasting impact on where staff work. Around 70,000 of Barclays 80,000 employees are working from home.

On another bleak day for the sector, Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury predicted it could take 'three to five years' for passengers to be as willing to fly as before the crisis.

Glaxosmithkline, led by Emma Walmsley (pictured) and Astrazeneca both revealed a surge in first-quarter sales. Walmsley warned vaccines are not likely to become available for more than a year.

Amazon is expected to report profits of more than £7500 a second, meaning founder Jeff Bezos (pictured with girlfriend Lauren Sanchez) has added billions of dollars to his personal fortune.

Shareholders are to receive around a two-thirds cut in their dividend payments covering the last three months of 2019, from 47 cents per share to 16 cents.

Last year Shell was the most generous dividend payer in the UK, handing pension funds and investors £11.6bn.That amounted to 15.5 per cent of all payments made by FTSE 100 firms.

Just days after British Airways warned of 12,000 job cuts, business only expect to recover slowly as workers and consumers stay home and social distancing measures are put in place.

The pandemic could result in 257,000 fewer vehicles rolling off production lines this year, after output plunged by almost 38 per cent last month, an industry report predicted.

The bank, led by chief exec Antonio Horta-Osori (pictured), which is the UK's biggest mortgage provider and one of the largest lenders to small businesses, has handed out just.

As the economic toll of lockdown starts to rear its ugly head, employment, new orders and output in the sector fell at the fastest pace for 28 years last month.

Insurers have come under fire for refusing to pay out claims to companies which have been devastated by the lockdown. The Financial Conduct Authority plans to resolve this as quickly as possible.

Deloitte's survey of 104 finance chiefs found that 84 per cent were less optimistic about prospects, compared with 47 per cent three months ago - the survey's biggest drop in confidence on record.

More than 300 listed companies have cut or cancelled payouts as they battle to survive. It is now feared that total dividend payments will fall from £98.5 billion last year to just £47.2 billion this year.

According to the FTSE All-World Index, which measures the performance of thousands of companies around the world, global stocks grew at their highest monthly level in nine years.

The firm said that closing its stores in March has had a 'material impact' on trading and the company has initiated a 'broad range of actions to manage its costs and cash flow'.

The IHS Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index gave a reading of 33.4 in April - significantly below the 50 mark which indicates activity was flat.

In an indictment of the failure of the Government's original aid schemes to help many businesses, lenders received tens of thousands of applications for the new 'Bounce Back' loans within hours.

The US fashion brand's lenders will inject £322m of cash and take control of the chain at the same time as cancelling its debt. The preppy brand counts Meghan Markle among its high profile fans.

Carnival has been asked to give all the documents relating to the pandemic and its response to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

The tie-up would transform the telecoms market overnight, creating a powerhouse to challenge former state monopoly BT.

William Hill is benefiting to the tune of over £30m per month from the wage subsidy scheme and the business rates holiday, while Paddy Power is saving £400,000 per month in business rates.

Virgin blamed the 'severe impact' of coronavirus, which has prompted travel restrictions and forced airlines to ground fleets, and it comes just days after BA said it could also leave.

The Financial Reporting Council has found most accounting firms are failing to assess whether their audits of major companies are any good until after they have already published them.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme is looking at claims from 12,000 savers who bought so-called mini bonds from LCF and were left high and dry when the company collapsed.

The British telecoms giant has long been seen as a potential suitor for broadband provider Virgin after it previously held unsuccessful takeover talks with parent Liberty Global.

Vue boss Tim Richards is 'hopeful' that venues can be open in time for the release date of Nolan's new film, Tenet (starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson, pictured) on July 17.

The group admitted that around 12,000 of its credit card customers, or 1.2 per cent, were already seriously in arrears by three months or more before the pandemic.

The grocer said its decision to stop people ordering bottled mineral water helped it complete 6,000 extra orders a week.

Just hours after the online grocer revealed sales have jumped more than 40 per cent in the last five weeks, it emerged that 29.7 per cent of investors had voted against top pay at the company.

The FTSE-listed group will struggle after the number of hours its engines spent flying in April fell by 90 per cent. Across the first four months of the year, flying hours dropped 40 per cent.

ITV's chief exec Carolyn McCall has done the right things to limit the scarring. Some 800 workers have been furloughed, the dividend and executive pay have been cut and costs severely pruned.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey (pictured) has put pressure on banks to ramp up lending as the central bank predicted the economy would shrink by 30 per cent in the first half of the year.

Liberty Global and Telefonica - parent firms of Virgin Media and O2 respectively - said they had agreed a deal after announcing talks were under way on Monday.