Online estate agency Purplebricks Group (PURP) has seen its share price fall over 35% after cutting its revenue forecast for the year. For 2019, Purplebricks now expects its sales to reach between £130million to £140million, against initial forecasts of between £165million to £175million. The group blamed ‘headwinds’ in the Australian housing market and a ‘slower than expected’ response to its latest marketing campaign across the pond in the US. Amid turmoil across some of its international operations, the group also announced that the chief executives of both its UK and US arms will be leaving the company. Touching on its performance in the UK, the group said that while the housing market had continued to be ‘challenging for the estate agency industry’, the group still expects its sales in this country to rise by between 15 to 20% from the year before.
Centrica (CNA) – the firm behind British Gas – suffered a sharp drop in its shares today after the energy giant’s annual results undershot City expectations. Lacklustre figures and cost-cutting plans triggered fears that the group might slash its generous dividend payments, sending shares down 11% in early trading to £1.22 – its lowest level for a year. The company blamed external factors for the performance. Profits at its British Gas household supply arm tumbled 19% as, it said, an energy price cap and heightened competition triggered a customer exodus last year. British Gas shed nearly three quarters of a million, or 3%, of its customers. The gloomy Centrica also warned that Ofgem’s latest default tariff price cap, enforced at the start of 2019, was going to dent its future financial performance. It expects a one-off hit of £70million in the first year. On a brighter note, the group’s bottom line staged a modest recovery following a torrid performance in 2017. It chalked up a 12% rise in operating profits to £1.39billion, and revenues rose 6% to £29.7billion, but this fell short of analysts forecasts.
Barclays (BARC) has set aside £150million to cover the potential fallout from Brexit, its latest annual results revealed. The lender set aside the cash in the final three months of last year to cover ‘anticipated economic uncertainty’, which it claims could hamper its credit card and corporate loan operations within the UK. In contrast, on Wednesday, Lloyds Banking Group’s boss Antonio Horta-Osorio said that while the outlook for the economy remained ‘uncertain’, for the past year it had been ‘resilient.’ In the last year, Barclays’ profit came in at £3.5billion, which was unchanged from the previous year
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) boss Mike Coupe is fighting for his future after the grocer’s proposed £14billion merger with Asda was declared ‘dead in the water’. In a ruling that stunned the City, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) warned the deal could lead to higher prices and less choice for shoppers. The watchdog told the supermarket giants they could be required to sell hundreds of stores or even one of the brand names to get the deal through – or risk it being blocked. In an ominous sign, the CMA added that it was ‘likely to be difficult’ for the chains to address its concerns. Analysts warned Coupe’s days are numbered as the findings suggested the deal was likely to be blocked.
Glencore boss set for £186m windfall as mining giant promises dividend payouts worth 20 cents a share. Ivan Glasenberg will be handed the money after Glencore (GLEN) promised a payout worth 20 cents a share to investors. The 62-year-old owns more than 1.2bn Glencore shares, or almost 9% of the FTSE 100-listed group. They are currently worth nearly £3.8billion. In its full-year results, Switzerland-based Glencore also said it would buy back up to £1.5billion worth of its shares as higher pricing and production lifted full-year earnings by 8% to £12billion in 2018.
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) is doling out £4billion to investors and is launching a massive expansion in the pensions market. The bank will pay an annual dividend of 3.21p per share, or £2.3billion in total, to 2.5m small shareholders. And it will buy back £1.8billion of stock to drive up the share price. The announcement came as Lloyds revealed profits of £6billion for 2018, up 13% on a year earlier. The lender is on a crusade to conquer the pensions market, by luring 1m new customers by 2020.Bosses insisted this ambitious target would not trigger a return to the mis-selling scandals, such as payment protection insurance (PPI), which blighted Lloyds in the past. ‘This is a completely different Lloyds,’ said finance director George Culmer.
Intu plunges £1.4bn in value after beleaguered shopping centre owner scraps full-year dividend. Beleaguered shopping centre owner Intu Properties (INTU) has scrapped its full-year dividend after the value of its property empire tumbled by £1.4billion. The company, which owns 17 sites across the UK, reported annual losses of £1.2billion following the 13.3% slump in the value of its estate. Its centres, including the Trafford Centre in Manchester, Metrocentre in Gateshead and Lakeside in Essex, are now valued at £9.2billion, attract around 400m visitors a year.
Laura Ashley has warned that its full-year results look set to ‘fall short’ of market expectations, as its profits were wiped out in the last six months. In its first half, Ashley (Laura) Holding (ALY) like-for-like sales fell by 4.2%, with sales of furniture and decorating products particularly struggling. In a bid to spruce up its stores and turn its financial fortunes around, Laura Ashley has vowed to bolster its operations internationally and focus on becoming more of a ‘lifestyle brand.’
Graphene has been hailed as a super-material due to its incredible strength, but producer Haydale Graphene Industries (HAYD) is not so popular with its shareholders. The cash-strapped firm said it would have to tap investors for more money, issuing new shares at a ‘material discount’ to encourage buyers. Haydale said it was sounding out institutional investors, and that a more detailed announcement would follow soon.
One of Just Eat’s largest shareholders has renewed its attack on the takeaway company, in a blistering criticism of management. Cat Rock Capital, a US investment firm which owns around 2% of Just Eat (JE.), has published the transcript of a call it held with analysts discussing Just Eat’s fortunes. Cat Rock’s founder and managing partner Alex Captain said the ‘management situation at Just Eat [was] worse than we had previously expected’. He slammed the food delivery company for failing to contact candidates his firm proposed as chief executive, and for ignoring Cat Rock suggestions to get in touch with an expert who could help recruit a new boss.
Mcbride (MCB), which makes household cleaning products for some of Europe’s biggest retailers, slid as it issued a profit warning. The Oven Pride manufacturer warned prices of raw materials were not improving as quickly as it thought they would, and distribution costs were also rising. Profits for the year ending June 2019 will now be between 10% and 15% lower than the prior year’s £33.2million.
Investors in metals miner Acacia Mining (ACA) welcomed an announcement that Barrick Gold, which owns 63.9% of the company, was looking to resolve its disputes with the Tanzanian government. Even though Acacia’s management sounded a little put-out at being left in the dark, saying it had ‘not yet received any proposal from Barrick regarding a comprehensive resolution’, shares rose 28.8p, to 253.8p. A shake-up at the top of Barrick, which saw Mark Bristow from rival Randgold take the role of chief executive when the two merged last year, seems to have spurred Barrick into taking action over the struggling smaller miner. He has suggested paying £230million to the Tanzanian government, and giving it royalties and taxes from ongoing operations.
Online trading firm Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) finally began to turn around its fortunes after an accounting blunder last week wiped £1billion off its market value. Shares rose 6.5%, or 47p, to 767p as hedge fund tycoon Crispin Odey continued to snap up stock. He has increased his stake from 9.7% to 18.2%.
Oil and gas explorer San Leon Energy (SLE) shot up 17.3%, or 5.3p, to 35.9p as it offered to buy up to 50.5m shares back from investors. The 46p per share price it is offering was a 50% premium to San Leon’s value on Tuesday, but it is understood that hedge fund Toscafund, its largest shareholder, will not sell as it believes the shares could rise even further.
