PRESS DIGEST- Financial Times - Jan. 3

Jan 3 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Headlines

- Airbus works on offer worth up to 1.8 bln euros for Atos cyber security unit

- Pension fund slashes value of its Thames Water stake by almost two-thirds

- One-quarter of UK buy now, pay later users hit by late repayment fees

- BT misses deadline on Huawei equipment ban

- HSBC's Zing app aims to challenge Revolut and Wise

Overview

- Airbus is working on an offer worth up to 1.8 billion euros for Atos's prized big data and cyber security unit, as the French IT services company seeks to restructure and cut its debt load, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

- The Universities Superannuation Scheme, one of the biggest investors in Thames Water, has slashed the value of its stake by nearly two-thirds, intensifying doubts over the financial health of the UK's largest water distributor.

- Almost one-quarter of UK's buy now, pay later users have been charged late repayment fees, with younger consumers hit hardest, according to a research that points to how people have turned to the unregulated form of credit to cope with rising living costs.

- BT has failed to fully hit an end-of-year UK government deadline for removing telecoms equipment supplied by Huawei after delays in migrating its 2G and 3G services, as providers race to strip the kit from their networks owing to security concerns.

- HSBC is set to launch a payments app in the UK that will offer cheap foreign exchange to retail consumers as the global lender seeks to compete with fast-growing digital rivals such as Revolut and Wise.

(Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)