Royal Mail is splashing out £214million on a Canadian parcels firm as it boosts its presence outside of the UK. It is buying Dicom Canada from Chicago private equity firm Wind Point Partners. Since 2016 Royal Mail (RMG) has spent around £80million on North American businesses Postal Express and Golden State Overnight.
Sir Martin Sorrell sent a note congratulating Mark Read, his successor at WPP (WPP), and dispensing words of advice. Sorrell, 73, emailed a message this weekend in his capacity as WPP’s seventh-biggest shareholder to Read and his senior colleague Andrew Scott, the chief operating officer.
Shares in sportswear retailer Footasylum (FOOT) plunged 51% yesterday after it issued its second profits warning in less than three months. The fall comes less than a year after its debut on the London Stock Exchange in November, when it was valued at £171million.
An MP has warned Coca-Cola that any attempts to shy away from paying its fair share of tax in its £3.9billion takeover of Costa Coffee will not be tolerated. Peter Kyle, a member of the Commons business committee, said the US fizzy drinks conglomerate could face a full investigation if its purchase of Costa poses a threat to the amount of tax flowing into HMRC’s coffers. Whitbread (WTB), the owner of Costa, stunned markets last week when chief executive Alison Brittain revealed it was selling the High Street coffee chain.
Brexit pessimism at animal medications business Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) caused investors to take flight yesterday. The company revealed in its full-year results that it was preparing for a hard Brexit and, even though the impact of this on its finances would be ‘immaterial’, its shares still plummeted. The main risks of leaving would centre around having to get its products approved and tested by an EU regulator, Dechra said.
Safestyle UK (SFE) announced it had cracked its competitor Niamac Developments, settling a long-running legal case. Niamac had been trading under the name of Safeglaze UK, causing Safestyle to accuse it of infringing its trademark. Niamac agreed to ditch the name and rebrand, promising not to mislead customers into thinking it was related to Safestyle. It did not reveal any financial elements of the deal.
The biggest slides were at water companies United Utilities Group (UU.) and Severn Trent (SVT), as investors digested their plans to cut bills for customers.
Frontera Resources Corporation (DI) (FRR) rocketed on London’s junior market. Its shares shot up 80.9%, or 0.2p, to 0.4p as it revealed it had signed agreements with two major industry players. Investors got excited as the company said it was discussing a deal with the two heavyweight competitors regarding help in managing wells in Georgia.
Future (FUTR) edged up 5.3%, or 22.5p, to 447p. The business said: ‘We have seen a positive performance from World Cup-related campaigns.’
Shares were tarnished at Greatland Gold (GGP), even after it unveiled ‘very encouraging’ results from its Wishbone, Carnegie and Empress mining sites in Australia. The problem came for investors as it said it would pay DDH1, its drilling provider, in shares as well as money for its latest drilling project in the Havieron gold site. DDH1 will get 11.4million new shares worth a current value of £120,455. Because this involves the creation of new shares, it will lower the value of those already held by investors. Greatland tried to put a positive spin on the announcement, saying DDH1’s agreement to accept shares showed its ‘support and confidence in the Havieron project’.
