Cashing in: Paul McGowan

Wilko’s administrators have defended the controversial role of Hilco, the vulture fund that swooped on the stricken discount retailer shortly before its collapse.

Hilco Capital loaned £40 million to Wilko and also acts as the liquidator of its stock, which has led to accusations of conflicts of interest.

Specialising in retail, Hilco has been on hand to help administrators with some of the UK’s most high-profile company failures, including at Woolworths, BHS and Debenhams.

It also owns DIY chain Homebase and the Denby pottery business after buying them when they ran into trading problems.

The business model has proved highly lucrative for the firm’s Belfast-born founder, Paul McGowan.

Hilco paid out dividends totalling £13.5 million in the past two years, most of which will have gone to him as the largest shareholder.

Wilko took the £40 million loan in January. That gave Hilco a seat at the top table of creditors and means the restructuring firm is likely get all its money back, unlike some others who are also owed large sums.

It is also in line to net chunky fees for advising administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers in valuing and selling off Wilko’s wares.

The GMB union, which represents some of the 12,500 workers facing redundancy, has raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest.

‘It’s clearly not right if a company owed money is also advising the administrators,’ said national officer Nadine Houghton. ‘In fact, it stinks.’

Hilco has a long history of making money from the High Street’s terminally ill and walking wounded.

The firm was set up by McGowan and former Harrods boss Paul Taylor in 2000 as the London arm of the US restructuring firm of the same name.

Homebase repaid a £132 million loan to a parent company ultimately owned by Hilco after receiving millions in state aid in the form of furlough money and business rates relief during the pandemic.

The DIY chain also handed more than £3 million in consultancy fees to Hilco firms, according to recent accounts. Hilco’s latest target is Superdry, the struggling fashion retailer. It has borrowed £25 million from Hilco – at the eye-watering rate of 10.5 per cent above the Bank of England base rate, currently 5.25 per cent. That means Superdry will pay almost 16 per cent interest on any cash it draws down.

The bumper paydays enjoyed by Hilco’s bosses contrast starkly with the uncertain future facing Wilko’s 12,500 staff and members of its pension fund, who risk losing some of their retirement benefits because the scheme has a £56 million hole.

As The Mail on Sunday recently revealed, the founding Wilkinson family paid themselves £77 million in dividends over the past decade – including a £3 million payment out of reserves last year as the loss-making chain headed towards the rocks.

But as Hilco’s dual role as lender and stock liquidator comes under more scrutiny, calls are growing for more regulation of the insolvency industry.

Last night PwC defended its role in hiring Hilco, saying its job was to get ‘the best outcome for creditors as a whole’.

‘Crucially, stock agents report to the administrators… we are responsible for all decision-making in pursuit of our statutory duties,’ it said.

Hilco was contacted for comment.

Legendary Coronation Street star Barbara Knox has signed to continue in her soap role just days before her 90th birthday.

The actress – who has played Rita Tanner continuously since 1972 following an initial appearance in 1964 – will remain on screen and has committed to working into 2024.

Barbara, who turns 90 on 30 September is the second oldest Corrie cast member to Ken Barlow actor Bill Roache, who is 91.

An insider told The Sun: ‘Barbara is in Corrie’s DNA. She is a true pro and the executives were delighted that she put pen to paper to ensure she’s on screens into next year.

‘Corrie is a lovely, steady place to work with a supportive team so it makes it easy to fit around family, having kids and as the cast have grown older.

On board: Legendary Coronation Street star Barbara Knox has signed to continue in her soap role just days before her 90th birthday

On screen: The actress – who has played Rita Tanner continuously since 1972 following an initial appearance in 1964 – will remain on screen and has committed to working into 2024

‘It was a no-brainer for Barbara to sign on the dotted line when the regular renewal of contracts came around this year.’

It is thought Barbara commands a healthy £200,000 per year for her role as Rita. 

It comes after it was announced Barbara’s 90th birthday would be marked with a one-off ITV special.

She will join TV presenter Bradley Walsh to look back at her life in a new documentary.

Katie Rawcliffe, Head of Entertainment Commissioning at ITV, said: ‘It’s easy to throw the words “legend” and “icon” around, but Barbara Knox really does embody both of those terms.

‘It’s a privilege to tell the story of one of British television’s most enduring stars as she celebrates a very special birthday.’

The documentary will arrive on ITV1 and ITVX in October, and it will trace the cobbles legend’s first footsteps into showbiz before her 1964 debut in Corrie.

She will also discuss some of her memorable storylines, such as the infamous Tram accident in 1989, and she will revisit the site.

Special: It comes after it was announced Barbara’s 90th birthday would be marked with a one-off ITV special (pictured in 1978)

Barbara will reflect on being awarded an MBE in 2010, and the documentary will feature interviews with several of her current and former Coronation Street co-stars.

What’s more, Barbara will share never seen before photos from her childhood.

The soap queen met the real Queen Elizabeth – who passed away in 2022 aged 96 – when she visited the Corrie set in 2021.

The monarch was greeted by soap stalwarts Barbara, William Roache, Sue Nicholls (Audrey Roberts) and Helen Worth (Gail Platt) outside the Rovers Return.

She looked delighted to meet the Corrie quartet, and during her cobbles visit – to celebrate the show’s 60th anniversary – she learned how the soap adapted its filming process amid the coronavirus pandemic.

She also chatted to Sally Ann Matthews (Jenny Connor) about hotpot during her visit to Manchester’s MediaCityUK in July 2021.

Speaking on Lorraine, she said: ‘We were still operating under COVID restrictions so we were all at two metres.

‘It was phenomenal and she had the sparkliest, smiley eyes you’ve ever seen and I chatted to her about take-away hotpot.

‘She was so engaged and for someone who’s met everybody and does three or four engagements in a day she listened to everybody and you could see she was taking it all in.

‘We were all in the Rovers practising our curtsy.’

Shares in US chipmaker Nvidia hit an all-time high last night as it cashed in on the artificial intelligence (AI) boom taking Wall Street by storm.

The stock surged after it revealed a blockbuster second quarter – smashing expectations and showing that the AI craze was here to stay.

Nvidia has been one of the winners of the explosion of AI, with its chips playing a vital role in ChatGPT, which has shifted the tech from fringe topic to a household name.

In a bumper set of results on Wednesday night, Nvidia said revenues more than doubled to £10.6billion in the three months to the end of June, and would climb to £13billion in the current quarter, a rise of around 170 per cent compared to the same time last year.

The business also posted an 843 per cent jump in its quarterly profits to £4.9billion.

The figures sent the shares soaring more than 6 per cent in New York yesterday to over $500 apiece for the first time.

Although the gains eased throughout the day’s trading, the shares have more than tripled this year alone, adding £700billion to Nvidia’s value.

That is around the same as the six biggest companies on the FTSE 100 are worth combined – from AstraZeneca and HSBC to Shell and BP as well as Diageo and Unilever.

The meteoric growth has handed a windfall to Nvidia’s founder and chief executive Jensen Huang, whose own wealth has ballooned by as much as £25billion so far this year. He owns a 3.5 per cent stake, worth £33billion.

Founded in 1993, the story of the world’s most valuable chip maker started at a Silicon Valley diner, with Huang and two other engineers, Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. Uncertain exactly what their business would look like, their initial strategy was to place early bets on markets that barely existed at the time, starting out with PC gaming and graphics processing.

This proved a major success, with their graphics processing unit now essential in the world of gaming in popular titles such as Call of Duty.

It also enjoyed some hype during the launch of the ‘metaverse’, the virtual reality pushed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg when he rebranded the company as Meta in 2021.

But its most recent bet in the world of AI has proved its most lucrative, making it the first semiconductor company to rack up a $1trillion market valuation in May.

It now means Nvidia, whose market cap is around $1.2trillion (£950m), is now a firm member of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ alongside fellow American corporate giants Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Tesla.

And analysts are confident that its spot in this elite club will not be short-lived.

Dan Ives, tech analyst at Wedbush Securities, said: ‘Nvidia’s guidance was a ‘drop the mic’ moment as investors now recognise this AI demand story is as real as any tech trend we have seen in the last 30 years. It is only comparable to the internet in 1995 and Apple’s iPhone launch in 2007.’

Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said: ‘Confidence is a funny thing. Without it markets limp along as investors shun risk and double down on perceived safe havens. With it sectors soar, and that’s exactly what happened after Nvidia proved the AI phenomena is no flash in the pan.’

But it’s not just analysts who are bullish about Nvidia.

Windfall: Nvidia’s founder and chief executive Jensen Huang

‘A new computing era has begun. Companies worldwide are transitioning from general-purpose to accelerated computing and generative AI,’ said Huang, who is known for his black leather jackets and a tattoo that looks like the Nvidia logo.

‘We have excellent visibility through the year and into next year,’ he added. ‘I think this is not a near-term thing, this is a long-term industry transition.’

And to truly underline this point, the company has said that it would buy back another £20billion of its shares, a move most firms make when leadership thinks the company is undervalued.

The company said it to ramp up production of its hardware into next year, appearing to silence doubts about whether this diner coffee-fuelled, start-up turned chip giant will keep growing.

Heavy rain battered the High Street last month and washed away demand for summer staples from bikinis to barbecues.

In a bleak update, the Office for National Statistics said retail sales fell 1.2 per cent in July, far worse than the 0.5 per cent slide expected by analysts.

The slump on the High Street came as the FTSE 100 index fell 0.7 per cent, or 47.48 points, to 7262.43, rounding off its third week of losses in a row.

Investors have been spooked by a cocktail of worries about the global economy, including rising interest rates and a slowdown in China where the debt-riddled property sector is creaking. Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said the ‘list of concerns’ facing investors shows ‘little sign of abating’.

Despite a heatwave in Europe, the UK endured its wettest July since 2009, and the sixth wettest on record since 1836.

Washout: Despite a heatwave in Europe, the UK endured its wettest July since 2009, and the sixth wettest on record since 1836

The wet weather and online promotions meant the proportion of sales made via the internet grew from 26 per cent in June to 27.4 per cent in July, the highest level since February 2022. There was a 2.6 per cent fall in retail sales volumes at the big supermarkets. While part of this was because of a drop in food sales, much of it was due to a fall in sales of other merchandise, particularly clothes.

ONS deputy director for surveys and economic indicators Heather Bovill said: ‘Retail sales fell sharply in July as poor weather impacted most sectors. It was a particularly bad month for supermarkets as the summer washout combined with the increased cost of living meant sluggish sales for both clothing and food.

‘Department store and household goods sales also dropped significantly.

‘The wet weather did mean a good month for online retailing, as discounting plus consumers shopping from the comfort of their homes boosted sales.’

The update came on another grim day for investors as the Footsie clocked up its third week of losses in a row. The slump in London has been echoed across Europe and Asia as well as on Wall Street as concerns over higher interest rates, a slowdown in China and global recession wreak havoc on financial markets.

Bond yields in the UK hit a 15-year high this week while in the US they are at levels last seen 16 years ago amid warnings that stubbornly high inflation will require interest rates to stay elevated for longer than previously thought.

Rates in the UK – which have already been increased from 0.1 per cent to 5.25 per cent in just 21 months – are set to hit 6 per cent by the end of the year and remain there until the second half of 2024.

That could prove to be a further headache for Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives should there be an autumn 2024 election. There was some respite yesterday as UK bond yields eased slightly after the slide in retail sales.

But it was not enough to suggest the Bank of England will pause its interest rate hiking cycle any time soon despite fears rising borrowing costs could tip the economy into recession.

The moribund German economy – which has been dubbed ‘the sick man of Europe’ – has already been hit by recession.

By contrast, the US economy continues to defy expectations despite higher borrowing costs, and the US Federal Reserve this week warned of ‘significant upside risks’ to inflation.

It was seen as a sign further rate hikes may be required, with investors also scaling back bets on rate cuts next year.

Jason Da Silva, director of global investment strategy at Arbuthnot Latham, said stock markets were paying the price for bond yields soaring.

‘The bond yields are saying you are probably going to have to keep rates higher for longer, and if growth starts to really pick up again, we might need to tighten further and stock markets are not liking that,’ he said.

The ructions on financial markets have spilled over into cryptocurrencies with bitcoin tumbling 10 per cent this week towards $26,000.

Attention will turn to the annual meeting of top central bankers in Wyoming, next week with investors set to scrutinise a speech by Fed chairman Jerome Powell on Friday for clues on the outlook for interest rates.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: ‘Whether it’s the brewing crisis in the Chinese property market, the surge in US bond yields on fears rates will stay higher for longer or the big drop in UK retail sales, things are starting to look a bit ugly out there.

‘The Footsie is demonstrating all the pep and get up and go of a teenager at 8am on a school day.’

Pandora said scrapping the tourist tax would be a salve for the High Street as it battles the cost-of-living crisis and train strikes.

Rasmus Brix, the jeweller’s general manager for the UK & Ireland, said the firm was ‘missing out’ due to the absence of VAT-free shopping for visitors to the UK.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces mounting pressure to reintroduce the tax-break, which he scrapped in 2021.

Tax blow: Rasmus Brix, general manager for the UK & Ireland at Pandora, said the charm-bracelet maker was ‘missing out’ due to the absence of VAT-free shopping for visitors to the UK

More than 350 business leaders have backed the Mail’s Scrap the Tourist Tax campaign. 

Brix told The Mail that scrapping the tax ‘could offer a significant boost for the retail sector and the economy as a whole’. He added it would help to ‘offset some of the disruption we’re seeing as a result of the weather, cost-of-living and ongoing train strikes’.

If tourists could benefit from a 20 per cent refund on their purchases, they would spend more on their average purchase and opt for more expensive jewellery, he said.

Pandora said global sales between April and June were 5 per cent higher than a year earlier.

Coronation Street revealed the new owners of the Rovers Returns Inn in Friday night’s episode.

Jenny Connor has been struggling to keep the business afloat with rising bills amid the cost of living crisis, with fears she may have to close the tavern for good. 

Her last resort saw her reach out to brewery owner Philip Newton and his son Henry for help but was upset when they declined her offer. 

But on Friday night’s episode,  Gemma Winter finally decided to accept a job with ex-Henry as his PA, on the condition that the brewery buy the pub.  

Gemma met up with Henry to tell him that if he promises to save the pub, she’ll accept his job offer, which resulted in Henry doing so.

Who’s next? Coronation Street revealed the new owners of the Rovers Returns Inn on Friday night’s episode

She’s out: Jenny Connor has been struggling to keep the business afloat with rising bills amid the cost of living crisis, with fears she may have to close the tavern for good

Jenny was thrilled upon hearing the news and later announced that Newton & Ridley were buying the pub and her staff’s jobs were saved.

Gemma had to break the news to Chesney that she will be working with ex Henry, to which Chesney tried to mask his anxiety over the situation. 

The pub, which was previously owned by Jenny, has had many landlords over the years.

The former landlords of the iconic pub included Jack and Vera Duckworth, Steve and Liz McDonald whilst Peter Barlow and Toyah Battersby and Michelle Connor.

Fans were quick to gush to Twitter to share their opinions over a possible plot-twist romance that could arise between Henry and Gemma.

Viewers wrote: ‘Don’t panic Chester, Hooray Henry doesn’t come anywhere close to matching your wit and charm.

‘Are we really supposed to believe Henry fancies Gemma? REALLY? ‘Absolutely love Henry newton and Gemma together. Please make them a couple again Henry’s the best character in coronation street by far! Xx’

Coronation Street airs on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX. 

Not happy: Gemma had to break the news to Chesney that she will be working with ex Henry to which Chesney tried to mask his anxiety over the situation

Uh-oh: Fans were quick to gush to Twitter to share their opinions over a possible plot-twist romance that could arise between Henry and Gemma

In an enlightening Instagram post, etiquette expert William Hanson has revealed whether it’s impolite to greet someone in the street while wearing sunglasses and listening to music.

The short answer is yes.

He says in the clip, which has been viewed over 14,000 times: ‘If you meet someone in the street and you’re wearing sunglasses and earphones, remove them before you have a conversation.’

MailOnline Travel asked William if exceptions to the ‘shades off’ rule can be made in very bright sunshine.

He said: ‘There will always be exceptions, but it would be better to whip them off for a short second while you greet the other person and put them back on shortly after, than to keep them on.’

In an enlightening Instagram post, etiquette expert William Hanson has revealed whether it’s impolite to greet someone in the street while wearing sunglasses and listening to music. He says the shades should be removed and the music stopped

William believes that it’s ‘crass’ to wear sunglasses indoors

And if it’s blinding light and you really do need to keep them on?

He said: ‘Be honest! Ask, “Would you mind awfully if I popped my sunglasses back on?” No one is going to say no.’

And is it OK to slide the sunglasses on to the top of the head rather than take them off altogether?

William continued: ‘In very casual situations, but ideally you’d remove them totally from your face.’

Should the music be turned off before the greeting? Or does it not matter?

William said: ‘It depends if you can multi-task – but most modern headphones automatically pause the music when the earphones are removed. A rare example of where technology can help good manners!’

We also asked William if it was bad manners to wear sunglasses indoors.

He was unequivocal, stating: ‘It’s very bad manners to wear your sunglasses indoors. It isn’t chic. It’s crass.

‘Eye contact is key for building rapport and trust with our fellow humans and sunglasses prevent that from happening.’

For more from William visit his Instagram profile here. He can be found tweeting at twitter.com/williamhanson.