Category: 3. Business

Monitoring strain evolution in water-sand systems using distributed acoustic sensing for geohazard early warning
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No longer ‘unloved’: retailers investing more in physical stores, UK data shows | Retail industry

UK retailers are investing more in bricks and mortar, with shopping centres and food stores leading a revival, according to research.

Retailers and property investors are reallocating capital back into physical stores, according to the property group Knight Frank.

The switch represents a fillip for high streets and shopping centres after a difficult decade, which culminated in the shutdown of most stores during pandemic lockdowns and an accompanying surge in online shopping.

The growth in online retail has fallen back and flatlined at between 26% and 28% of overall retail sales since a peak of 35% in mid-2020.

Retail has outperformed all other types of commercial property this year, with 9.2% returns on investments in the year to September, Knight Frank said. This is ahead of industrial properties, at 9.1% and offices at 3.2%.

Shopping centres and food stores are the joint top performers this year, each delivering 10.2% growth in returns.

Shopping centres such as Bluewater in Kent are seeking to attract people with ‘experiences’ and activities including zip wiring. Photograph: supplied

Shopping centres are now seeking to attract visitors with “experiences” and activities such as zipwires and darts, to complement shops. While large centres tend to do well, smaller, older malls are suffering because retail chains’ preference for fewer larger stores, Knight Frank said.

Next year, retail property is forecast to deliver investment returns of 9.5%.

Will Lund, the head of retail capital markets at Knight Frank, said: “With online penetration flatlining and retailers reinvesting in physical space, the narrative around retail has fundamentally changed. We have great confidence that this demand is going to drive a return to decade-high investment volumes in 2026 and we are expecting a busy year.”

In November, the chief executive of the commercial property development and investment company Landsec, Mark Allan, said it was prioritising buying more retail assets over the next 12 to 18 months, in a sector that had long been considered “unloved”.

Landsec, which owns and manages large shopping centres such as Bluewater in Kent and Trinity Leeds, has sold £295m of offices as it shifts towards retail and residential. The company is in talks to buy the Silverburn shopping centre near Glasgow for £250m early next year.

British Land, another big developer, focuses mainly on London office campuses and retail parks. “Office attendance is accelerating, retailers are expanding out of town, and supply remains very constrained across both markets,” its chief executive, Simon Carter, has said.

Landsec is in talks to buy the Silverburn shopping centre near Glasgow for £250m early next year. Photograph: Jeff Holmes JSHPIX/REX/Shutterstock

A number of shopping centres have changed hands this year and supermarkets and other food stores have increased sale-and-leaseback transactions.

Knight Frank is managing the sale of Merry Hill near Dudley and expects to sell the West Midlands shopping complex for £300m, with 10 investors bidding.

Last month, Frasers Group, the owner of Sports Direct, bought the Braehead shopping centre near Glasgow, one of Scotland’s busiest, from SGS UK Retail in a deal reportedly worth £220m.

Knight Frank estimated that £5.8bn was invested in retail assets in 2025, down 17% from the previous year because of a shortage of properties. Transaction levels rose in the second half if the year, and with pricing strengthening, that momentum is expected to carry into 2026.

Charlie Barke, the head of capital markets at Knight Frank, said: “We’ve got fewer willing sellers because people are expecting these assets to start to perform well again. So stock supply to the market is limited for the first time in quite a long time, and now demand for investments exceeds supply in the retail sector.”

Across the country, 13.5% of shops stand empty, the lowest vacancy rate since 2020, with a further drop expected next year.

On the high street, £420m of shops were traded in the second half of 2025, up 150% on the first half. Prime centres and regional cities are expected to deliver rental growth of 6.9% this year.

Sam Waterworth, a partner at Knight Frank, said: “Retail has decisively turned a corner with 2025 marking the high street’s rebound.”

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Lower Thames Crossing: Highways spent £50m buying affected houses

Purchasing properties affected by large-scale construction projects is common practice, and is often carried out well in advance of work taking place.

A spokesperson for National Highways said the LTC would “improve journeys and bring significant benefits to people and businesses across the region”, but acknowledged there would be “an impact on properties along the route of the new road”.

“Through a comprehensive programme of consultation we have been able to significantly reduce the number affected by almost 70%, and reached voluntary agreements with many,” they said.

The spokesperson added that National Highways had been in touch “with all people with an interest in land affected by the project for almost a decade”, and was “committed to paying a fair market value to property owners.”

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Silver crosses $77 mark while gold, platinum stretch record highs

Silver breached the $77 mark for the first time on Friday, while gold and platinum hit record highs, buoyed by expectations of U.S. Federal Reserve rate cuts and geopolitical tensions that fueled safe-haven demand.

Spot silver jumped 7.5% to $77.30 per ounce, as of 1:53 p.m. ET (1853 GMT), after touching an all-time high of $77.40 earlier today, marking a 167% year-to-date surge driven by supply deficits, its designation as a U.S. critical mineral, and strong investment inflows.

Spot gold was up 1.2% at $4,531.41 per ounce, after hitting a record $4,549.71 earlier. U.S. gold futures for February delivery settled 1.1% higher at $4,552.70.

“Expectations for further Fed easing in 2026, a weak dollar and heightened geopolitical tensions are driving volatility in thin markets. While there is some risk of profit-taking before the year-end, the trend remains strong,” said Peter Grant, vice president and senior metals strategist at Zaner Metals.

Markets are anticipating two rate cuts in 2026, with the first likely around mid-year amid speculation that U.S. President Donald Trump could name a dovish Fed chair, reinforcing expectations for a more accommodative monetary stance.

The U.S. dollar index was on track for a weekly decline, enhancing the appeal of dollar-priced gold for overseas buyers.

On the geopolitical front, the U.S. carried out airstrikes against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria, Trump said on Thursday.

“$80 in silver is within reach by year-end. For gold, the next objective is $4,686.61, with $5,000 likely in the first half of next year,” Grant added.

Gold remains poised for its strongest annual gain since 1979, underpinned by Fed policy easing, central bank purchases, ETF inflows, and ongoing de-dollarization trends.

On the physical demand side, gold discounts in India widened to their highest in more than six months this week as a relentless price rally curbed retail buying, while discounts in China narrowed sharply from last week’s five-year highs.

Elsewhere, spot platinum rose 9.8% to $2,437.72 per ounce, having earlier hit a record high of $2,454.12 while palladium surged 14% to $1,927.81, its highest level in more than three years.

All precious metals logged weekly gains, with platinum recording its strongest weekly rise on record.

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Sound Mechanics: Sheppard’s Auto Service still firing on all cylinders 50 years in | News, Sports, Jobs

Sheppard’s Auto Service, located at 1903 Seventh St. in Parkersburg, commemorated its 50th anniversary in 2025. The business has maintained a commitment to customer service by giving people what they need and not trying to sell them something they don’t. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — Sheppard’s Auto Service celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.

The business was founded by John Sheppard who became interested in working on cars in high school which led him to an automotive school in St. Louis after he graduated from Parkersburg High School in 1964. He came back to Parkersburg and worked at Hupp-Wharton Cadillac Olds for 10 years.

After considering going into the ministry, Sheppard felt God was guiding him in a different direction which led him to open his own business in 1975 with the help of his friend David Hale, a vice president at United National Bank.

Sheppard passed away Jan. 8, 2024. However, the business remains, marking its 50th anniversary in May.

“(Hale) was really a wonderful man, and he was the one who helped us get started,” said Helen Sheppard, John’s wife. “John always liked working for Wharton, but he wanted his own business.”

They worked with Hale and set up financing. A neighbor agreed to rent them space behind the IGA store on Seventh Street, around where Astorg Ford is now, she said. The address was officially on Homeland Avenue, a dead end street to which they always had to give directions.

“When we started, we had John as the mechanic and me in the office,” Helen said, adding they were soon able to hire another mechanic.

In the beginning, the Sheppards were all at the garage along with their children Angie and Blaine, who would play nearby. Helen originally worked in the office, did the banking, drove people home and back while their cars were worked on and was a parts runner.

As time went on they eventually were able to hire a number of mechanics and someone who could do the office work.

They were at that original location until 1983 when they got financing and had their current location built at 1903 Seventh St.

“That is how we did it, just working and paying those bills every month,” Helen said. “John believed in treating people fairly and being honest with people.

“He did not believe in trying to get people to pay for things they did not need. He always did his best, and he tried to be fair.”

John approached people and their cars like he would approach his own vehicle, his wife said.

“We always did what we thought was right to help people,” she said. “We have had a lot of good people working for us.”

Danny Egbert, has worked at Sheppard’s for over 47 years as a mechanic and now runs the garage.

“A lot of the leadership from John has kept the business going and built the business over the years,” he said. “We try to carry on his legacy.”

Sheppard sold the business to his son Blaine 13 years ago on Oct. 1, 2012, when he semi-retired, but remained a presence at the garage until he passed.

“It was in his blood,” Egbert said. “The key to the success of the business is we have always tried to be honest with people and treat people how we would want to be treated.

“We try our best not to do any unnecessary work. If they need something done, it actually needs done.”

The biggest change over the years has been the cars themselves and the systems they have had to learn to fix and deal with, resulting in the garage having to invest in more expensive equipment and the training to use it, Helen said.

“John was always learning, and he always had to learn something new,” she said, adding they also had other mechanic friends and some of the dealerships who could help them out from time to time if there was something new or unique they encountered.

“He loved cars,” Helen said. “He worked hard.”

Blaine Sheppard said his father would not have been surprised that the garage was still going.

“I think he would have expected it to still be here,” he said.

His father always enjoyed talking with people, which is why he kept going in after he sold the business, Blaine said. The people who worked there were like family to him.

“Relationships were what it was all about for him,” he said. “It was all about the customers. He did not mind talking to people. He enjoyed talking to people.”

In an article that ran in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel on June 7, 2015 to commemorate the business’ 40th anniversary, John Sheppard praised the customers who have continually brought their cars to them to work on and for recommending the garage to other people.

“We have been blessed with so many great customers,” he said. “It has been great. You build relationships with so many people. Some of the customers I have go back 50 years, when I worked at Wharton’s. I have customers that I worked on their cars back in the ’60s. I am definitely working on their grandkids’ cars now.

“It is amazing how God has blessed us with so many customers. They are more than just customers; they are friends.”

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com

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Italy and Spain shake off ‘periphery’ tag as borrowing premiums hit 16-year low

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Government borrowing costs paid by Italy and Spain have fallen to their lowest level relative to Germany in 16 years, as investors reward Rome and Madrid for belt-tightening and grow more worried about surging debt elsewhere in the Eurozone.

The extra yield on 10-year Italian debt compared with German Bunds — a closely watched measure of the risk associated with lending to Italy — narrowed to within 0.7 percentage points this month, the lowest since late 2009.

Strong economic growth in Spain has helped to cut its 10-year spread with Germany to less than 0.5 percentage points. That is also the lowest since before the Eurozone crisis, when high debt loads drove up both countries’ borrowing costs and stoked worries about the currency bloc breaking up.

“We are having a melting together of the periphery with countries previously considered safer investments, such as France, Belgium and Austria,” said Ales Koutny, head of international rates at asset management company Vanguard. “Markets have long memories but also at the right incentive, they are willing to turn the page.”

Fund managers have warmed to Italian and Spanish debt amid a broad upswing in southern Europe’s economic fortunes, arguing that it no longer makes sense to categorise such borrowers as the Eurozone’s riskier “periphery”.

Meanwhile, a yawning budget deficit and political turmoil in France — traditionally seen as one of the bloc’s safer economies — has pushed its borrowing costs above Spain’s. Even Germany, the Euro area’s de facto safe haven, has undergone a reassessment by markets after launching a €1tn spending push.

Vanguard’s Koutny expects spreads to tighten even further next year, taking Italy’s to 0.5 to 0.6 percentage points over Germany, and Spain to 0.3 to 0.4 percentage points.

Pedro Sanchez smiles while posing for a group photo with members of the government before the last cabinet meeting of the year. — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is leading the world’s fastest-growing large advanced economy for the second year running in 2025 © Reuters

Investors point to Spain’s improving economic trajectory and Italy’s prudent fiscal policies under a politically stable government, as part of a broad reduction in fiscal risks for these countries as well as for other previous debt hotspots such as Greece.

Ken Egan, director of European sovereign credit at rating agency KBRA, said the better economic fortunes of southern European countries meant there was a “tale of two Europes, a tale of the north and the south”.

He contrasted southern European economies’ “decisive swing” away from chronic deficits with sovereigns such as France where “ageing costs, weaker growth and heavier spending [have] eroded their fiscal positions”. Credit agencies, including S&P, predict France’s debt to GDP will reach 120 per cent in the next few years.

Line chart of Additional 10-year yield vs Germany (% points) showing France now pays a higher premium to borrow than Spain

Spain is set to be the world’s fastest-growing large advanced economy for the second year running in 2025. Thanks to a combination of immigration, tourism, low energy costs and EU funds, the IMF is forecasting GDP expansion of 2.9 per cent for the country this year.

Allied with a rising tax take, that growth is set to reduce Spain’s deficit from 3.2 per cent of GDP in 2024 to 2.5 per cent this year, according to Bank of Spain forecasts.

Italy’s economy is far more sluggish, with its growth forecast to remain below 1 per cent of GDP until at least 2027. However, investors have warmed to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose right-wing government has displayed a strong commitment to deficit reduction, despite pressures from workers wrestling with a cost-of-living squeeze.

Economists say Rome is also finally reaping the benefits of previous efforts to curb tax evasion, which is boosting revenue collection.

Italy believes its fiscal deficit, which was 7.2 per cent in 2023, will come in at 3 per cent for 2025, allowing Rome to exit the EU’s excessive deficit procedure faster than anticipated, at a time when Paris is overstepping borrowing targets agreed in Brussels.

In absolute terms, Italian and Spanish borrowing costs remain elevated compared with the era of very low or negative interest rates on either side of the Covid pandemic. Overall, Italy’s borrowing costs have gone broadly sideways this year at about 3.5 per cent, and Spain’s have ticked up close to 3.3 per cent.

But trading much closer to counterparts long deemed to be safer bets for investors means these bonds are “entering into a very different regime”, said James McAlevey, head of global aggregate and absolute return at BNP Paribas Asset Management.

“[This is] beginning to open up the potential global demand for those markets to [a broader group of] investors,” added McAlevey, saying that ultra-cautious managers of central bank reserve assets may begin to look at the debt of Italy or Spain when investing their foreign reserves.

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Data centres turn to aircraft engines to avoid grid connection delays

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Data centre developers are turning to aircraft engines and fossil fuel generators to power the AI boom, as supply chain shortages and long waits to connect to the grid delay cheaper and cleaner alternatives.

Manufacturers of aeroderivative turbines — which are based on or made from jet engines — and diesel generators have reported increased demand because of data centres seeking to bypass the grid as they wait for larger gas turbines.

“The incentives have never been greater for any sort of technology that can supply power,” said Kasparas Spokas, director of the Clean Air Task Force’s electricity programme.

The need for on-site energy is booming as data centres face wait times of up to seven years to connect to the grid, as well as a backlash over their impact on utility bills. By installing power sources such as aeroderivative turbines and generators next to their data centres, developers can power the training and running of their artificial intelligence models without the immediate need for a grid connection.

GE Vernova is supplying data centre developer Crusoe with aeroderivative turbines that are expected to produce nearly 1 gigawatt of power for OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank’s Stargate data centre in Texas.

The Stargate AI data centre in Abilene, Texas © Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg

Ken Parks, GE Vernova’s chief financial officer, told investors in December that the company was seeing “growing demand” for its aeroderivative and smaller gas units, which “serve as bridge power supporting data centre needs”.

Orders of the company’s aeroderivative turbines rose by a third in the first three quarters of 2025 compared with the previous year.

ProEnergy has sold more than 1GW of its 50 megawatt gas turbines directly adapted from jet engines. While the company is increasingly making parts from scratch, it also uses CF6-80C2 engine cores, which are found in Boeing 747s.

“We can deliver more quickly than bigger original equipment manufacturers,” said Andrew Gilbert, partner of Energy Capital Partners, ProEnergy Holdings’ majority investor. “The ability to find a few hundred megawatts to get started with, and then grow over time is useful too.”

Sections of the economy seemingly outside of the AI boom are pivoting towards power to pick up revenue.

Sam Altman-backed aviation start-up Boom Supersonic announced a deal to sell to Crusoe turbines that are expected to provide 1.2GW of power and are “virtually identical” to those built for its jets.

Boom Supersonic intends to use earnings from power turbines to help fund its jet business.

“Three or four years ago I imagined we would do the airplane first and energy second,” chief executive Blake Scholl told the Financial Times. “But then I got a call from Sam Altman who said: ‘Please, please, please make us something.’”

The use of generators fuelled by diesel and gas is also increasing. Manufacturer Cummins has sold more than 39GW worth of power to data centres and nearly doubled its capacity this year.

While generators are often used by data centres as backup power, Cummins’ data centres executive director Paulette Carter says they are seeing “growing interest in on-site primary power”.

Energy secretary Chris Wright has suggested commandeering existing backup generators to fortify the grid, telling Fox News in November: “We will take backup generators already at data centres or behind the back of a Walmart and bring those on when we need extra electricity production.”

The use of generators has prompted concerns over emissions, since smaller power sources tend to be less efficient.

While local and federal regulators place limits on when backup generators can be used, these are being loosened in response to data centre demand. In Virginia, where “data centre alley” is located, the Department of Environmental Quality is considering allowing data centres to run diesel generators more often, while the Environmental Protection Agency said data centres could use generators to maintain stable power.

“In almost all cases I can imagine, emissions are going to be much worse for data centres powered by on-site fossil-based generation, relative to sourcing power from the grid derived from efficient gas generators and renewables,” said Mark Dyson, electricity managing director at the Rocky Mountain Institute.

However, the cost of on-site power is likely to be higher than a simple grid connection, since such arrangements miss out on the economies of scale that utilities enjoy. Analysts at BNP Paribas modelled the price of power at a behind-the-metre gas plant Williams Company is building in Ohio, for which Meta will be a customer. The result was $175 per megawatt hour, which is roughly double the average cost of electricity for industrial customers.

The rush for power may also die down when hyperscalers slow their capital spending.

“We’re in a very strong market right now, but it won’t stay like that forever,” said Mark Axford of Axford Turbine Consultants.

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Instagram is coming for your house move

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Obio Jones was ready to make a major life change. The former digital marketing executive turned Instagram influencer was moving from his home town of Atlanta to Los Angeles. But, “I got a price breakdown for the move”, he recalls. “It was significant” — in the region of $8,000. Instead, Jones wondered if he could offset those overheads by securing a sponsored partnership — if he could do it with fashion brands, why not with a moving company. It was all content, right?

“Moving is stressful for a lot of people, and the idea of recording it isn’t ideal,” Jones does admit. “But we came up with a storyline about moving across the country to chase dreams.” In exchange for a one-minute video Reel and two Story posts on his Instagram page, delivered to his 190,000 followers within a week of that cross-country move, Roadway Moving waived their charges.

Who in their right mind would be gripped by a visual diary of someone moving house? You might well ask. But I refer you to people posting pictures of their plates of food. Those with semi-significant followings across Instagram, TikTok and more, including celebrities such as model Winnie Harlow, are all in.

There has been huge pressure on moving costs in the past five years, thanks to price rises in everything from labour to fuel, with some costs up by 80 per cent, according to the International Association of Movers; long-distance moves can now regularly cost as much as $6,000, according to Royal Moving & Storage’s 2025 cost trends report. So why not? Firms in the US that now operate formal marketing programmes include Piece of Cake, FlatRate Moving, both of them NYC-based, plus WellKnown Moving in Philadelphia. Roadway operates countrywide. The world is their removal van, you might say.

Roadway offered a 10 per cent off link code to Jones’s followers — and many used it, he says. He doesn’t recall any non-disparagement clauses in the contract he signed with Roadway, but admits that it’s hard to be wholly upbeat. “Movers can break your things, or lose them,” he says, “But [on screen] you do feel a lot of pressure to talk in a positive light.” Still, one advantage of documenting the process is the team motivation to make it go as smoothly as possible.

Jones has now moved three times with Roadway

Roadway marketing director Valerie Fiordaliso helped create its influencer programme; she says the firm has gone from partnering with around 100 individuals over the first couple of years to more than 1,000 per year now. The first partnership she brokered, in 2017, was with Arielle Charnas, one of the original high-impact influencers. Charnas parlayed her social clout, with more than 1mn followers, into a fashion partnership with Nordstrom that same year, before launching her own brand, Something Navy. (Charnas has since become a polarising figure, starting with controversial Covid 19-related posts during the pandemic, though her follower footprint remains in the seven figures.) “It was done in a very organic manner, nothing like how we do it now with a full process and legal teams,” Fiordaliso recalls. “We just had to give it a go and hope for the best.”

Charnas, who was moving with her husband and child across New York City, embraced the partnership with gusto, roping in her closet organiser to appear too, arranging her vast shoe collection and more. The impact was instant, says Fiordaliso. She quickly created a one-sheet form where other would-be Roadway partners could pitch for discounted or complimentary moving services. Selection criteria depend on time of year — summer is busiest, so competition is fiercer. There’s strictly no fee. “Everyone wants to negotiate, but we can’t do $5,000 per post.” She also stresses this isn’t simply a Gen-Z gimmick. “We work with all ages — we just worked with a woman in her sixties whose husband passed away from cancer and she got remarried, so she’s moving, and we could tell her story.”

Story-lined sponsored content like this might be stressful to capture during an already fraught experience but influencers will likely already have planned to document it in detail, says Mae Karwowski, chief executive and founder of influencer marketing agency Obviously. Since influencers often document their every activity, a house move is just more “content”. “It makes a ton of sense,” she notes, another “plot twist” for the account. Given that it’s a momentous life event that most people experience, she adds, one that is both costly and infrequent, people are likely to be seeking recommendations.

Roadway has worked with Jones not once but twice more. Last December, he was ditching his first LA apartment — “It was not ideal and I broke the lease, so I added a comedic energy to it” — and once more when he moved in with his now husband, actor Jermelle Simon, in April. “That added a little texture to it,” he says. Jones expects he might move again in the next couple of years, but isn’t sure he’ll keep re-upping that deal. “I would do it again, but if it’s too stressful, I might see the value in paying for it myself.”

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Global hotel groups bet on customer loyalty to beat online and AI agents

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Major hotel groups are intensifying efforts to get customers to book directly, as they seek to save on commissions paid to online platforms and prepare for the rise of artificial intelligence “agents”.

Marriott, the world’s largest hotel company, last month said its Bonvoy loyalty programme, which registers all customers who do not use intermediaries, had almost 260mn members by the end of September, up 18 per cent from a year earlier.

Rivals such as Hilton, Hyatt and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts have also boosted direct bookings by using technology and more attractive perks. Hilton has made it easier for customers to reach elite loyalty status and agreed partnerships, including with MSC Cruises’ luxury division Explora Journeys, that enable members to spend points outside its portfolio.

Operators have long complained about the fees imposed by online travel agents (OTAs) such as Expedia and Booking.com, which typically take a cut of between 15 per cent and 25 per cent, and see the push for direct sales as crucial to taking fuller advantage of the arrival of advanced AI.

AI “agents” — autonomous bots capable of arranging travel for users — could provide hotel groups a cheaper alternative to online travel agents. But they could also divert business away from the big brands by making customers less conscious of brand recognition.

“Generative AI is shifting travel planning from traditional search into more conversational and agent-led environments. So that makes building relationships [with customers] a bit more strategic and important,” said Chema Basterrechea, chief operations officer at Radisson Hotel Group.

Boosting direct bookings could help Radisson capture more guest data and offer “a much more personalised experience” that encourages repeat business, Basterrechea said.

Marriott’s chief financial officer Leeny Oberg said at a conference this month that bookings made through AI channels “could potentially be cheaper than the OTAs”.

Hotel groups have long worked with online travel agents because they provide access to incremental business, but hope that more robust ties with customers will reduce the share of bookings done through them.

“You don’t want to rely on Booking and Expedia: they’re expensive channels and they’re extremely hard to defend your position on,” said Bernstein analyst Richard Clarke.

Hilton’s efforts to lure more direct bookings include offering access to a £650 football-themed suite, decorated with boots and memorabilia, at its hotel at the official training ground for England’s national teams. Guests can even get a training session with a qualified coach.

Geoff Ballotti, chief executive of Wyndham, said that tools like ChatGPT and Gemini presented “a unique opportunity for us to continue to reduce our dependency on OTAs”. The company’s own AI tools were already “driving more direct bookings”, he added.

Glenn Fogel, chief executive of Booking Holdings, which owns Priceline and Booking.com, said OTAs were “absolutely” in competition with hotels’ in-house loyalty programmes that sought to promote more direct bookings.

“You’re just one click away from going to another way to do your booking, so you’ve got to always be providing better service because people like [Marriott] Bonvoy and people like Hilton Honors are very powerful.”

But Expedia’s chief commercial officer Greg Schulze said there was “space for all of us” in the $3tn travel industry and argued that his company’s technology platforms added “complementary value”, especially for smaller operators that are not part of the big chains.

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Weight-loss drugs come for Fluffy and Fido

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The global boom in weight-loss drugs has reshaped human medicine, propelled pharmaceutical shares and redrawn expectations about chronic disease. Now drugmakers spy a new growth market in the US: portly pets.

Americans may fret over their waistlines, but their cats and dogs are in even worse shape. An estimated 60 per cent of the country’s cats and dogs are either overweight or obese according to a 2022 survey by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. Diabetes — once rare in animals — is now among the most expensive chronic conditions in veterinary practice.

This is, of course, a financial opportunity. Owners lavish extraordinary sums on their animals. Pet spending reached $183bn in 2023, nearly four times 2003 levels, data from the Federal Reserve shows. If semaglutide can shrink a human waistline, why not a feline one? A handful of firms believe that obesity medicine, which transformed human healthcare in just a few years, could become a lucrative veterinary category.

The most ambitious of these is Okava, a San Francisco start-up testing a GLP-1 drug — exenatide — delivered not by injection but by a miniature implant. Weekly injections may be tolerable for humans motivated by vanity; persuading a family to jab a struggling cat is another matter altogether. A long-acting implant that requires only two visits a year to the vet could solve the problem neatly.

Okava launched its first clinical trial, MEOW-1, earlier this month and hopes to eventually market the treatment for up to $200 a month. That is steep, but not outlandish in a world where “premium” pet foods cost just as much and elaborate veterinary insurance plans have become mainstream middle-class indulgences.

Yet the path to animal-size profits is far from smooth. Okava is only in the early-stage clinical trial phase of testing the drug. Lifestyle interventions such as diet and exercise remain veterinarians’ preferred first step. And history offers caution. In 2007, Pfizer got FDA approval for Slentrol, the first prescription weight-loss drug for dogs. After Pfizer spun off its Zoetis animal-health subsidiary, the therapy was discontinued because of limited demand.

The economics of veterinary obesity may now be shifting. Diabetes care for an animal is expensive and the process is laborious: twice-daily insulin injections, regular glucose monitoring and frequent vet visits. If GLP-1-based therapies can prevent the disease or send mild cases into remission, owners may embrace them not to discipline their pets’ diets but to avoid far greater costs later.

For drugmakers, the appeal is less sentimental. The human obesity-drug market may one day reach saturation; pet medicine, by contrast, remains under-developed. The incentives are aligned: anxious owners, rising chronic disease and a pharmacy sector hungry for new profit pools. Pharma’s next battleground, then, may be the living-room sofa — and the overfed creature sprawled across it.

pan.yuk@ft.com