Lloyds raises mortgage rate for new borrowers New mortgage borrowers with Lloyds TSB and Cheltenham & Gloucester must pay a much higher standard variable rate when their initial deal expires. Current borrowers revert to a standard variable rate (SVR) of just 2% above bank rate, so currently paying 2.5%.

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Carmaker Jaguar Land Rover is going to start assembling vehicles in China, the BBC can confirm. “We will need to manufacture at least two models in China,” said chief executive Carl-Peter Forster in an interview. “We’ll take one to two years to set it up, but first we will need a partner.”

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US retailer Toys R Us said it planned to become a public company again – with a flotation it hopes will raise up to $800m (£554m). The company was taken out of public ownership in 2006, when it was bought by a consortium including private equity firms.

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Oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to buy US natural gas explorer East Resources for $4.7bn (£3.2bn). The cash offer was made to East Resources and its private equity investor Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR).

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Nissan Motor recalled Infiniti G35 sedans and coupes affecting as many as 134,000 cars due to a connector that could cause airbags not to deploy during a crash, U.S. regulators said. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said as many as 134,215 Infiniti G35 sedans from model years 2005-2006 and G35

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The US economy grew at an annualised rate of 3.2% in the first three months of the year, official figures have shown. The continued recovery in the world’s biggest economy was founded on strong personal consumption, the Commerce Department said.

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Societe Generale beat forecasts for first-quarter profit, helped by investment banking, and predicted a lasting rebound in 2010. Societe Generale also said its exposure to Greek sovereign debt was 3 billion euros ($4 billion), a day after its share price fell to a two-month low amid market turmoil over Greece.

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