Small Unilever (ULVR) investors can block HQ move – regardless of how much stock they own. Private investors have the power to scupper Unilever’s plan to ditch its London HQ. The consumer goods giant, whose brands include Marmite and PG Tips, wants to move its base to the Netherlands. The Anglo-Dutch company needs the backing of investors holding 75% of Unilever shares voting for the change to pass.
Sky bidding war heads to £30bn: Hopes for knock-out blow of at least £17 a share. Sky (SKY) could fetch almost £30billion as a bidding war between two of the world’s biggest media titans reaches a dramatic climax today. Shares could go for up to £17 each as Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox fights Comcast for control of the broadcasting giant, analysts speculated. That would value Sky – whose hit shows include Game of Thrones and Succession – at £29.2billion.
Investment bank at HSBC Holdings (HSBA) is appalling and run by incompetent managers, staff claim. A damning memo sent to the board claims it has the worst-performing investment unit in the industry and a toxic culture means attempts by staff to explain problems are ignored. Titled ‘Global banking and markets: rewards for persistent failure’, the memo says: ‘We are entirely fed up and demoralised and have no confidence at all in the existing leadership. Unlike any other bank, there is no proper and effective route to provide upward feedback. Hence this memo, which is whistleblowing on incompetence.’ It adds: ‘Performance really is appalling.’
Tory MP slashes top pay at his mining company Pathfinder Minerals (PFP) as it fights survival. A miner run by Tory MP Sir Henry Bellingham has slashed salaries as it fights for survival – but promised bosses a share windfall if they turn the company around. The top brass at Pathfinder Minerals have had their pay cut to £25,000 a year – and even that will not be handed over until the company starts making enough money. The AIM-listed business has been unable to start its only mining project in Mozambique as it fights to win back licences it believes it was stripped of unlawfully by rivals seven years ago.
Moss Bros shares plummet 20% as menswear firm warns on profits after heatwave melts sales. The stock fell by more than 20% to 36p in early trading as an unscheduled statement laid bare the state of the its woes. Moss Bros Group (MOSB) said it swung to a £1.7million pre-tax loss in the first half of the year, a steep drop from the £3.9million in profits it posted last year. It also suffered a 3.3% drop in group sales to £64.5million, while retail like-for-likes fell 6.9%.
Takeaway firm Just Eat (JE.) was tossed aside by investors, as Uber made a move on its upmarket rival Deliveroo. Just Eat, which elbowed its way onto the FTSE 100 last year, fell 34p, to 674p after rumours emerged that Uber was considering buying Deliveroo.
Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT), which invests savers’ money in young, disruptive businesses, increased by 4.7%, or 3.8p, to 85.6p as it revealed its company Industrial Heat had rocketed in value.
British water-saving company Xeros Technology Group (XSG) has soared after signing a ten-year contract with a Mexican tannery. Xeros will supply Lefarc, which produces 5,000 hides a week, with its technology to help minimise water usage. The tannery supplies leather to brands such as Timberland and Wolverine, and its leather using Xeros’ technology should start appearing in products after March 2019.
Tasty (TAST) – the owner of Wildwood and Dim T restaurants – crashed by 11.8%, or 2p, to 15p. The company said it was struggling with fewer consumers wanting to spend in restaurants, a problem which had been exacerbated by the World Cup and unfavourable weather. It swung from a £210,000 profit in the first half of last year to a £309,000 loss this year. Even so, Tasty was confident that it could turn its performance around by investing more in successful sites and closing those which lag.
Yosi Fait, the boss of Telit Communications (TCM) which develops technology to make household machines communicate with each other over the internet, will be unable to see the turnaround of his company through after being ousted yesterday. Hedge fund manager Davide Serra, a shareholder, had been pushing for Fait’s departure after he was awarded a bumper share payout worth £8.2million.
