Nov 21 (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

- UK ministers resist car industry pressure to ease fines on

EV sales targets

- UK cuts fines for boilermakers in climbdown on heat pump

sales

- Grant Thornton UK picks private equity over US merger

- Unilever ( UL ) shelves planned sale of its ice cream business to

private equity

Overview

- The UK government looks set to reject pleas from electric

carmakers to spare them from paying fines until 2026 if they

fail to meet targets and deadlines to sell EV's to the British

market.

- The UK government is set to cut the level of planned fines

for boilermakers who fail to sell enough heat pumps, in a

climbdown that follows heavy pushback from industry, with the

planned penalties, due to be introduced in April next year, will

be cut from 3,000 pounds ($3,795.90)to 500 pounds for every heat

pump sale short of official targets.

- Grant Thornton UK, the country's sixth largest accounting

firm by revenue, has agreed to sell a stake to the buyout group

Cinven, beating rival offers from other private equity groups

including Sweden's EQT, and from Grant Thornton's

sister firm in the U.S., which had proposed a transatlantic

merger.

- Unilever ( UL ) has shelved plans to run a sales process

intended to find a private equity buyer for its 15 billion euro

($15.82 billion) ice cream division and will instead focus on a

push to spin off the unit in an independent listing.

($1 = 0.7903 pounds)

($1 = 0.9480 euros)

(Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)