Galliford Try plummets 19% as crisis for builders spreads. Building giant Galliford Try (GFRD) became the latest government contractor to hit the rocks on Tuesday after issuing a colossal profit warning linked to its struggling construction division, triggering a 19% share price collapse. The builder piled more pressure on the struggling outsourcing industry as it said pre-tax profits in the year to June could be up to £40 million lower than the expected £156 million. Investors ditched the firm, which has been plagued by delays and budgets overrunning, sending shares down 138.17p, over 19%, to 587.33p.
Provident Financial lashes out at NSF offer. Provident Financial (PFG) on Tuesday launched a broadside against hostile bidder Non-Standard Finance (NSF), attacking its track record and warning that the deal would destroy shareholder value. NSF already has the backing of 50% of the shareholders for its all-share bid, putting it in a strong position. But the deal now looks much less certain to go through than it did at first, with the competition watchdogs investigating what effect a merger would have on the market for credit to the poor. Provident’s chairman Patrick Snowball, in a letter aimed at persuading the 50% of undecided investors to come out against the takeover, said it was “still the same dreadful deal that it was on day one. “It is more of a coup d’état than a hostile takeover, spearheaded by a management team at NSF with a track record of value-destructive acquisitions”.
Some of Britain’s biggest companies are ripping up their advertising plans and rethinking how they communicate with consumers in a data-driven, digital world. Unilever (ULVR), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Next (NXT), Centrica (CNA) and Vodafone Group (VOD) are some of the FTSE 100 giants to signal a change in marketing strategy over recent months. There is a common theme: they want more digital thinking, increased personalisation and greater speed and efficiency from their advertising and communications. All of them have reorganised their roster of agencies or put their advertising account up for pitch. There is a sense of urgency because many of these companies are at risk from the new breed of direct-to-consumer, digital disruptor brands. Ad agency groups such as WPP (WPP) and Publicis Groupe — which has just reported a 1.6% slump in first-quarter revenues and bought data business Epsilon in the search for growth — are feeling the pain.
