* ROYAL MAIL: Postal workers at Royal Mail will strike for 24 hours on Feb. 16, the CWU said.
* SHELL: Shell's new Chief Executive Wael Sawan said renewables projects need to bring a return on investment in double digits for Shell to lure spending.
* STANDARD CHARTERED: Standard Chartered said it had been granted in-principle approval by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to set up a mainland securities firm.
* NATWEST: NatWest CEO Alison Rose will face grilling by British lawmakers next Tuesday over whether lenders are passing on enough of central bank interest rate rises to consumers.
* GLENCORE: Glencore unit Astron Energy is in the final stages of fully restarting production at its 100,000 barrel per day South African refinery.
* JD SPORTS: JD Sports will spend up to 3 bln pounds ($3.7 bln) to open as many as 1,750 stores over the next five years.
* BOE: Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said that he could not guarantee that any future increases in bank rate would be in smaller steps than the half-point increases it has made after recent meetings.
* UK MOTOR INSURANCE: British households saw their motor insurance bills rise by 8% on average over the last three months of 2022.
* GOLD: Gold prices steadied on Friday as traders digested rate-hike remarks from global central banks.
* The UK's main stock indexes rose on Thursday after the Bank of England said inflation had probably peaked and forecast a shallower recession in 2023.
* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: TODAY'S UK PAPERS > Financial Times > Other business headlines (Reporting by Sruthi Narasimha Chari in Bengaluru)
