triggered panic among investors on Monday after Mike Ashley’s retail empire delayed releasing its financial results amid warnings over its House of Fraser business and increased scrutiny by its auditors. The High Street giant hit shareholders with a catalogue of warnings that sent the shares crashing. Sports Direct will no longer publish results this Thursday as planned. It blamed the delay on “complexities” in the integration of House of Fraser, the department stores chain it bought out of administration last year for £90 million. It also pointed to “current uncertainty as to the future trading performance” of House of Fraser. The company added that the hold-up was also due to its auditor, Grant Thornton, facing increased scrutiny of its work with the retailer by the Financial Reporting Council regulator. Sports Direct said a number of areas were being looked at in the accounts that could “materially” affect guidance given in December.
Mirriad Advertising (MIRI) superimposes ads into the TV show or video, otherwise known as digital product placement. It means there is no need to hit watchers with adverts before or during the programme. The company is adamant its tactics are legitimate, adding that advertisers have being using product placement for years. The evidence is that the company’s idea is working and its client list includes Chinese video streaming platform Youku. Just last month it penned a new deal with internet giant Tencent. Off the back of the Tencent deal it has increased its revenues forecasts to £1.1 million in 2019 and £2.2 million in 2020. Analysts in the City believe the company is a slow burner, but could grow rapidly once it has a number of partnerships in place. It has some notable backers with George Soros holding a stake in the company through his fund management firm. Others include IP Group, Parkwalk Advisors and Garraway Capital Management.
Kevin Loosemore, the executive chairman of financial software firm Micro Focus International (MCRO), spooked the City by dumping half his shares in the firm and pocketing around £11.6 million in the process. Loosemore reckons that having just turned 60, “it is time for me to diversify a little”. He cashed in the shares last week and today sought to reassure the City that the move was for personal reasons. He said: “I remain committed to the business. Micro Focus has tremendous opportunity to prosper and to increase value and I will continue to work to deliver that.”
Housebuilder Persimmon (PSN), ahead of Channel 4 airing a Dispatches investigation tonight that features allegations of shoddy standards and poor customer care as well as those executive bonuses, saw its shares drop. The builder says it has made headway with improvements and pointed to progress made under its new leadership. It added: “We are confident that we will be able to demonstrate a sustained change once the measures have had time to take full effect.”
Clydesdale Bank owner CYBG (CYBG), shares were up 4p to 202.9p, after it agreed a new partnership with comparison website GoCompare to bring energy-switching services to customers that use the lender’s digital banking division.
There wasn’t as much enthusiasm on the mid-cap index for retailer Pets at Home Group (PETS). The firm said it is taking a stake in the online petsitting service Tailster, which provides alternatives to kennels and catteries for owners. No price was divulged and shares in Pets at Home dipped 0.2p to 200.4p as investors shrugged their shoulders.
Shares in bakery firm Finsbury Food Group (FIF) rose on Monday after it reported sales rose 3.8% to £315.3 million in the year to June 29. The AIM-listed company, which makes Star Wars cake ranges, added profits will be in line with hopes despite cost inflation pressures.
Since becoming GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) CEO last year, Emma Walmsley has swept through it like a tornado. Within months, she’d done a £10bn joint venture deal for Pfizer’s consumer business, declared a demerger of its pharmaceuticals arm and spent £4 billion buying US cancer specialist Tesaro. She hired aggressively too, bringing in among others pharma rock star Hal Barron. Tesaro’s takeover was his brainchild. Such big deals are clearly risky. GSK needed to boost its flagging pipeline of new drugs, but some fret it overpaid for Tesaro. Today came hope Barron and Walmsley were right after all. Tesaro’s key drug is Zejula, a treatment for ovarian cancer, a frightening disease diagnosed in 300,000 women a year. At the moment it is only prescribed two stages of treatment after chemo. It had been thought that it would only work earlier in the 15% of sufferers with a certain genetic make-up. Today’s study, however, suggests that’s not the case. Triple the number of patients may benefit than previously thought.
