More than £800m has been wiped off the stock market value of Royal Mail (RMG) after it issued a shock warning on Monday that profits will slump this year. Investors sent shares in the post and parcels group down almost 18% as the company refused to rule out higher stamp prices to rebuild profits. “We are going to be looking at all the levers that we have across revenues and cost [cutting],” said Stuart Simpson, the chief financial officer at Royal Mail, when asked directly about stamp price rises in a hastily organised conference call. Simpson also suggested jobs could be axed: “We are [also] looking at … management layers, head office structure and all discretionary spending. We are doing a full portfolio review.”
, which is controlled by the tycoon Mike Ashley, has dismissed the former directors and senior management of House of Fraser, less than two months after buying the department store group from its administrators. In a brusque statement issued to investors after the London stock market closed on Monday, Sports Direct said: “Following the collapse of House of Fraser on August 10 2018, and subsequent calls for an investigation into the circumstances of that collapse, the company today announces that we have dismissed the former directors and senior management of House of Fraser.” Ashley, the owner of Newcastle United Football Club, bought the department store out of administration for £90m in August. One of his first moves was to tear up the previous management team’s plan to close 31 of House of Fraser’s 59 stores.
Ryanair Holdings (RYA) has warned that full-year profits will be lower than expected, blaming the impact of strikes and rising oil prices. The budget airline said full-year profits will be 12% down. It has lowered the expected range from €1.25bn-€1.35bn (£1.1bn-£1.2bn) to €1.1bn-€1.2bn. It said it suffered a drop in traffic due topilot and cabin crew strikes in September, which hit consumer confidence and knocked forward bookings in the third quarter. Ryanair also cited higher oil prices. Its chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said: “While we successfully managed five strikes by 25% of our Irish pilots this summer, two recent co-ordinated strikes by cabin crew and pilots across five EU countries has affected passenger numbers (through flight cancellations), bookings and yields (as we re-accommodate disrupted passengers), and forward air fares into Q3. “While we regret these disruptions, we have on both strike days operated over 90% of our schedule.
“However, customer confidence, forward bookings and Q3 fares have been affected, most notably over the October school midterms and Christmas, in those five countries where unnecessary strikes have been repeated.”
