Mike Ashley offers £150 million lifeline to Debenhams as deadline looms. Mike Ashley’s on Monday offered to plough £150 million of fresh funding into Debenhams (DEB) in a last-ditch attempt to take control of the ailing business. The sportswear tycoon, who has a 29.9% stake in Debenhams, has until tonight to come up with a detailed plan as part of a refinancing deal to keep the chain afloat. The deadline, imposed by Debenhams’ lenders, is likely to be extended for the banks to consider the offer. The move comes after bitter clashes when Ashley accused Debenhams management of “a sustained programme of falsehoods and denials”, and urged them to take a lie-detector test about a meeting between the two firms.
Keywords Studios (KWS) tackles Fortnite frenzy as success puts rivals out of business. Fortnite, the videogame loved by kids and hated by bemused parents, is putting rival games makers out of business due to its phenomenal success, a major supplier said on Monday. Keywords Studios, which makes the “picks and shovels” for videogame producers, said the “Fortnite effect” had led to spending cuts from developers, terminated games and also contributed to the collapse of four clients. The popular battle royale-style game, made by US developer Epic Games, has attracted 200 million players and become a playground craze, but that has sapped interest in other games.
Shares in Aston Martin Holdings (AML) moved at top speed on Monday, but the SatNav was set in the wrong direction. Investors ditched the luxury car-maker after Deutsche Bank downgraded its recommendation on the stock from Buy to Hold. The City was unimpressed as Deutsche pointed to Brexit-related uncertainty and volatility in the global car market as analysts halved their share price target from 2000p to 1000p. It is the latest setback for James Bond’s favourite car brand which floated at 1900p in October- but the stock quickly fell amid anger that they had been overpriced.
Saga (SAGA) the over-50s specialist, which floated in 2014, last week unveiled a drastic plan to shrink the size of the insurance division after admitting its selling strategy was wrong. It suffered today when UBS downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral. UBS analyst Jonny Urwin said: “Since its IPO, Saga has now profit-warned twice and removed its medium-term earnings growth guidance. We find further execution risks around the new strategy, which we expect to weigh on the price-to-earnings multiple.”
Engineering firm Meggitt (MGGT) was down, falling 4.4p to 522.4p. It was among suppliers hit by an announcement late on Friday from Boeing, which said it plans to cut its monthly 737 aircraft production.
Bakkavor Group (BAKK) shares had a better day after the firm published its annual report where chief executive Agust Gudmundsson acknowledged difficulties in the UK market including subdued consumer confidence. However, he remained bullish and said: “In the second half, we anticipate an uplift in UK revenues as we benefit from recently secured new business.” Gudmundsson, who this year saw his annual pay rise to £768,750 from £750,000, added that he expects a “significant improvement” in trading in the second half of the year and the full-year group performance.
AIM-listed IT services provider Adept4 (AD4) today said it has received notice of termination of a customer contract. Without its £700,000 of recurring revenue the firm now expects sales and profits this year will be below forecasts. Adept4 is “considering legal redress”.
