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Tax dispute drags on for Cairn Energy in India: Cairn Energy is facing fresh complications in India as the country’s government appears to have snubbed the company’s efforts to resolve a $1.6 billion (£1 billion) tax dispute

Prime London rents exceed £100 a day: Tenants in London’s most upmarket neighbourhoods are paying more than £100 a day to rent two-bedroom flats, as increasing numbers of students and company rentals fuel demand for small homes in central locations

BBC loses control of TV rights for Olympics: The BBC could lose coverage of the Olympic games after the broadcast rights were awarded to Eurosport in a $1.45 billion (£922 million) deal.

Sky / Formula One: off-track entertainment: Sky already has committed one of its seven sports channels to Formula One. But it does not need to own the sport. Yes, the broadcaster is shifting its strategy towards content Ownership (via TV series such as Fortitude) rather than just distribution. The move helps to broaden the Sky brand worldwide. But Formula One would not be a good extension of that strategy. The sport has lost some of its popularity — its global television audience fell 12% last year, according to consultants Repucom. The relatively limited span of its viewers (mostly men over the age of 35) does not help. Even if Sky believes it can do better with Formula One than CVC, can it really afford to splash out on another investment so soon after the deals to create Sky Europe? Buying Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia from 21st Century Fox cost Sky £7 billion last year. Buying all of Formula One could cost up to £5 billion. Using debt would push Sky’s net debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation from an estimated 3 times in the current year, on Liberum estimates, to more than 5 times. Sky could use equity instead. But a rights issue would raise the question of whether Fox, Owner of 39% of Sky, would participate. Citigroup believes that it would, particularly if doing so meant blocking rival Liberty Global. But these questions should remain theoretical. Sky should pass on owning Formula One. The broadcaster built its brand on distributing content. Spending billions on a fairly niche sport is not a worthwhile detour.

Amicus Finance in talks on seeking U.K. bank licence: The former Chief Executive of GE Capital U.K. is planning to launch a retail bank with a focus on property-based lending.

Petrobras slashes investment to cut debt: Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned oil company, has slashed its five-year investment plan and production forecasts as it seeks to adjust to a devastating corruption scandal and the fall in oil prices.

Admiral seals connected car agreement with Redtail Telematics: Admiral has struck a connected car agreement that will allow the motor insurer to generate video footage of a crash using Google Earth within minutes of the accident occurring — even though no camera was present.

Frackers want law change as council blocks drilling plan: Plans for a multibillion-pound fracking industry in Britain have suffered a huge setback after councillors defied their own legal advisers by rejecting an application for the first drilling site.

UK consumer confidence climbed in June The consumer confidence recorded a rise to 7.00 in the UK, in June, compared to market expectations of a rise to a level of 2.00. In the prior month, the consumer confidence had registered a level of 1.00. UK net consumer credit rose more than expected in May Net consumer credit advanced £1.72 billion in the UK, in May, higher than market expectations for a rise of £1.10 billion. In the previous month, net consumer credit had registered a revised rise of £1.71 billion.

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 0.26% or $0.16 lower at $61.85 per barrel, ahead of the American Petroleum Institute weekly oil inventory data, scheduled to be released later today. Yesterday, the contract declined 1.98% or $1.25, to settle at $62.01 per barrel, its lowest level in more than two months, amid growing uncertainty regarding the deepening Greek crisis.

SEATTLE, June 29 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday it could begin its 2015 Arctic oil exploration drilling operations as early as the third week in July when its forecasters believe that sea ice over its prospects will begin to clear. The Polar Pioneer drilling rig arrived in Dutch Harbor, in Unalaska, off mainland Alaska, early on Saturday morning and will remain there until ice over the company's prospects begins to clear, company spokesman Curtis Smith said in a statement. "As of today, our in-house experts are forecasting the third week in July will present the first opportunity to begin drilling operations over our Burger prospects," Smith said. (Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle and Tim Gardner in Washington, D.C.: Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

U.K. mortgage approvals unexpectedly fell in May following a surge in April to their highest level in more than a year. Approvals dropped to 64,434 from a downwardly revised 67,580, the Bank of England said in London Monday. Economists had forecast a figure of 68,800, according to a Bloomberg survey. Recent surveys suggest record-low borrowing costs and improving household finances are reasserting themselves in the housing market, while the pressure on prices is being exacerbated by a continuing shortage of property for sale. The BOE said net mortgage lending -- gross loans less repayments -- was 2.1 billion pounds ($3.3 billion) in May compared with 1.7 billion pounds the previous month. Net consumer credit totaled 1 billion pounds. The effective interest rate on new mortgages fell 5 basis points to 2.59 percent. The rate on outstanding secured loans dipped 1 basis point to 3.11 percent.

Diageo in talks to sell Gleneagles: Diageo is in exclusive talks over the sale of Gleneagles Hotel in a £200 million deal that could be announced this week, reports have suggested

Activist investor Crystal Amber bucks trend by ploughing cash into North Sea oil: Fresh from making millions from its stake building in Thorntons and Aer Lingus, activist investor Crystal Amber is ploughing cash into a North Sea oil explorer.

Royal Dutch Shell bids to develop carbon capture project: A windswept North Sea gas platform, manned by half a dozen maintenance workers, seems an unlikely place to embark on a low-carbon revolution.

At 0330GMT today, Brent crude oil one month futures contract is trading 1.2% or $0.76 lower at $62.50 per barrel. On Friday, the contract climbed 0.09% or $0.06, to settle at $63.26 per barrel. Earlier in the session, oil prices fell amid concerns that Greece’s bailout woes could impact the global economy and that Iran could soon increase the global oil supply glut. However, the commodity pared losses and ended slightly higher amid expectations that cheap oil would lead to higher demand.

THE COPPER SUPPLY Challenges lie ahead The problem is: copper is not being discovered fast enough to meet upcoming demand. A study by Wood Mackenzie found that there will be a 10 million tonne supply deficit by 2028. That’s equal to the annual production of the world’s biggest copper mine (Escondida) multiplied by a factor of ten. There are several reasons for this. First, it now takes longer to go from discovery to production than ever before in the mining industry. Geological, environmental, and political challenges have brought the average lead time to around 20 years for new mines. Beyond all of the challenges above, the economics also have to line up. Thomson Reuters GFMS estimates that for new copper supply to be incentivized to come online, the copper price must be $3.50 per pound. Copper mining is all about grade or scale. The majority of global output comes from mega mines that have massive economies of scale to reduce costs. However, it has been a long-running trend that the grades for these established mines are dropping. A good example of this is Escondida, the world’s largest copper mine which is located in Chile. It produced 6% of global copper output in 2014, but the mine is facing a similar problem to that of other large copper projects: grades are dropping. In 2007, the copper grade was 1.72%, but it is predicted to drop to half of that in upcoming years. In fact, BHP Billiton is expecting a year-over-year decline of 24% between 2015 and 2016. Codelco is the world’s largest copper miner overall, and has recently announced a $25 billion investment plan to expand aging mines. It will spend $5 billion each year, but it expects no significant gain in production for its efforts. Separately; BHP expect a Copper Deficit from mid 2017 onwards which should support prices if it happens and augers well for KLG both this year as they upgrade their Resource and next year when they plan scoping study, PFS in the run up to production

Phone bank Atom aiming to raise £75 million to fund its launch: Atom, which was awarded a license by the Bank of England last week, has already raised £25 million from the likes of private equity tycoon Jon Moulton and legendary fund manager Neil Woodford to build its operations and infrastructure.

Right to rent: all landlords must check immigration status or face £3,000 fine: Landlords will face £3,000 penalties for failing to monitor the immigration status of their tenants or lodgers, as part of “right to rent” requirements that will apply across England within months.

Dunelm names former Dixons CEO John Browett as new Boss: Homewares store Dunelm has chosen veteran retailer John Browett as its new Chief executive, nine months after the surprise departure of former CEO Nick Wharton