   | Britain’s largest grocers are cutting prices to the bone in a tense festive stand-off with shoppers that has left stores facing a Christmas ‘bloodbath’. Food industry sources said sales at major supermarket chains, which have been poor for weeks, have crashed in the past ten days and left many stores struggling to match last year’s festive period. Bosses at some major names are said to have been left reeling by declines of as much as 10% on the weakest days compared to last year – possibly made worse by recent bad weather. Experts suggested ‘subdued’ consumers have snapped up essentials in shops while cutting back on treats. They also said the relentless growth of Aldi and Lidl means spending is spread more thinly across more shops across the UK. The result has been a pile-up of fresh stock for some stores. The market is awash with huge discounts including Tesco’s price-leading 500g of sprouts at 19p – less than a penny per sprout. It is also selling whole salmon at £5.50, half the previous price. Asda, Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW), Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) –which together with Tesco (TSCO) are the country’s four largest retailers – all have similar discounts on fresh produce. That includes drastic cuts on loose vegetables, but also lamb, beef joints and fish. |
 | Hummingbird Resources (HUM) is gearing up to restart drilling at its Yanfolila gold mine in Mali and to release a five-year plan for the project in early 2020. It estimated there are 165,000 more ounces of gold at the site than it originally thought. The company’s profile has been raised after it struck a deal to supply jeweller Boodles with ethical gold. It says it will make enough cash from its gold production to mean it can be debt-free in 2020. Production in Mali has previously been disrupted by heavy rains and weak infrastructure. A fall in the price of gold could hit the company, while shares are down by 2.6% so far this year. |
 | Financial services computing group Beeks Financial Cloud Group (BKS) surged after winning two major contracts. The firm, which provides cloud computing services for traders and hedge funds to complete trades more quickly, did not name the customers. But it bagged a contract worth £766million a year for three years with a financial markets technology group and a deal worth £1.1million over three years with an online payment provider. |
 | Just Eat (JE.) bosses stuck to their guns and urged shareholders to back a merger with Takeaway.com instead of a rival bid. The decision came after its two suitors sweetened their bids on Thursday in last-ditch efforts to woo the group. Dutch group Takeaway’s final all-stock merger proposal valued Just Eat’s shares at 916p, a 25% increase on its previous offer of around 731p, valuing the business at around £6.3billion. And Prosus, a Dutch-listed unit of South African conglomerate Naspers that began trying to gatecrash the Takeaway merger in November, raised its bid from just over £5billion to £5.5billion. Takeaway has been Just Eat’s preferred suitor throughout. The latter thinks it makes more sense for two food delivery companies to join forces, rather than being sold to Prosus, which wants to move into the market for the first time. |
 | AstraZeneca (AZN) made gains after it agreed to sell the commercial rights to two of its drugs to a French company, Juvise Pharmaceuticals, for £139million. One of the drugs stops the production of oestrogen in women who have gone through the menopause in a bid to stop cancer cells developing, while the other drug, Casodex, is a prostate cancer treatment. |
 | Waste management group Renewi (RWI) is relieved the Dutch government has lifted a ban on the use of thermally-treated soil, which aims to clean soil of chemicals such as petrol so that it can be reused. This means it could be able to sell soil made at a Renewi site in the Netherlands. |
 | Warpaint London (W7L) tumbled after it told shareholders to brace for annual profits to come in at between £5.1million and £5.5million, down from previous guidance of £6million to £7million. The make-up group said spending on its expansion in the US and hits from foreign exchange movements had contributed to the profit warning. Former BBC radio executive Stuart Last’s appointment as chief executive of podcast maker Audioboom failed to excite shares as they remained flat at 207.5p. |
 | Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) is facing two high-profile legal battles with entrepreneurs who say they were ruined by corrupt bankers at its infamous HBOS Reading branch, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The banking group – which bought HBOS in 2008 and so is liable for its past misbehaviour – was slammed earlier this month for botching a compensation scheme set up for victims of HBOS Reading, who included TV star and businessman Noel Edmonds. Now two entrepreneurs who had already lost faith in the scheme have launched multi-million pound claims in the High Court. If they are successful, Lloyds could face a string of new legal actions. Lloyds launched its HBOS Reading compensation review in 2017 after two former bankers and four others were jailed for running a scam which involved businesses being run into the ground for their own financial gain. |
 | MIDAS SHARE TIPS: Tune into a profit at STV Group (STVG) as Scotland’s television minnow takes on the age of streaming. Midas verdict: Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube lure a fair share of the viewing public but watching mainstream telly remains a favourite pastime, especially in Scotland. Pitts is determined to capitalise on this, with STV, the digital app and home-grown productions. The recipe seems to be working but there is plenty more potential for growth. At £3.80 the shares are a buy and the dividend offers an attractive income stream as well. |
 | MIDAS SHARE TIPS UPDATE: The Renewables Infrastructure Group Limited (TRIG) powers ahead. Midas verdict: TRIG was valued on the stock market at £300 million in 2013. Today, that has risen to more than £2 billion. As the business grows, it can participate in more projects and save money through economies of scale. Shareholders who invested in 2013 have done well but there should be more growth and income. For investors seeking shares that do well and do good, TRIG is an attractive choice. |
 | Cobham (COB) is to be loaded up with debt after a controversial £4bn takeover by US private equity firm Advent. The 85-year-old British pioneer of air-to-air refuelling is expected to issue more than £1bn of bonds following the deal, which was waved through late on Friday night by Andrea Leadsom, the Business Secretary, in the face of a furious backlash from its founding family. Advent is funding the takeover with £1.2bn of its own money and using short-term loans arranged with banks including Credit Suisse, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs for the remainder. |
 | The US private equity giant behind Addison Lee is expected to unveil a swoop on Aim-listed Harwood Wealth Management Group (HW.) tomorrow amid ongoing consolidation across the financial planning sector. Carlyle Group, which has held a majority stake in Addison Lee since 2013 and which also bankrolled Taylor Swift’s former record label, has reportedly struck a £100m deal for Harwood, a price in line with the company’s market capitalisation at the close on Friday. Over the past two months, shares in Harwood have surged by 24%. According to Sky News, which reported the acquisition, the deal will be unveiled when the London Stock Exchange opens tomorrow morning. |
 | A boardroom row has erupted at Aviva (AV.) over its refusal to trigger a radical break-up plan designed to drag the insurer out of its prolonged stock market slump. It is understood that some of its top directors have been pushing for the struggling insurer to consider splitting itself in two amid concerns that it could become the target of an aggressive activist investor. Senior City sources say such a bold move could boost Aviva’s flagging stock market value by as much as £3bn and see off the possible threat of an activist campaign from a powerful Wall Street agitator such as Elliott Management or Carl Icahn. The company is currently valued at £16.3bn on the London stock exchange. |
| The controversial £4bn takeover of aerospace and defence company Cobham (COB) by US private equity firm Advent has been approved by the Government. The deal – which received the backing of more than 90pc of Cobham investors – had raised concerns that it could harm British national security and damage the UK’s industrial base. Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom announced late on Friday night the sale can go ahead after she received assurances that UK interests would be protected with a series of binding undertakings. However, the timing of the decision was labelled “cynical” by Lady Nadine Cobham, daughter-in-law of the firm’s founder Sir Alan who had spearheaded resistance to the sale. |
 | Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’ (RDSB) said it will miss targets for the fourth quarter and take a $2.3bn hit on poorly performing operations in a disappointing end to a difficult year for the oil giant. The company forecast “materially lower” margins in its chemicals business and cut back projection for quarterly sales of oil products, which include gasoline, aviation fuel, and lubricants. It also highlighted impairment charges of nearly $2.3bn but did not specify what the costs related to. However, they are likely to pertain to Shell’s shale operations in the US. In recent months, oil majors have written down close to $20bn, mainly in their US shale assets, as an oversupply of gas pushes down prices. |
 | Questor: WPP (WPP) investors will need yet more patience but it has long-term recovery potential. Questor share tip: all-encompassing changes to its business model and the shares’ low valuation make the advertising firm a hold |
 | The gloom infecting the high street is spreading online, with more than 9,000 internet retailers reported to be suffering from significant financial distress. Bricks and mortar stores have endured a slump in sales in recent years as more shoppers shun the high street and shift online, driven by the ease of smartphone ordering and quick deliveries. However, new evidence shows that online retailers are also struggling amid savage discounting, steep return costs and stiff competition. The number of online retailers in distress has risen by 65% over the past three years to 9,000, according to Begbies Traynor Group (BEG). While there are significantly more high street retailers in distress, at 17,893, this number has plateaued since last Christmas. |
| Manufacturing is booming in the Conservative heartlands of southeast England but in the newly blue former “red wall” constituencies of the West Midlands and northwest the picture is far gloomier. Those are the headlines from Make UK, formerly the engineering employers’ federation, in its quarterly snapshot of industrial confidence. The southeast is, after the northwest, the second largest manufacturing region, employing 400,000 people. The report by the employers’ federation found that member firms in the southeast were well ahead of those in the regions, sometimes by a substantial margin, in terms of output, orders, employment and investment. | |
| The business secretary intervened in the takeover of a West Midlands aerospace company by a Chinese concern at the same time that she was waving through the controversial takeover of the UK aerospace business Cobham (COB) by an American private equity firm. Late on Friday Andrea Leadsom gave the green light to a £4 billion takeover of Cobham by Advent International despite fears that important UK technological knowhow was being sold off. On the same day, she took steps to block the takeover of a smaller rival, Mettis Aerospace of Redditch in the West Midlands, after its private equity owners agreed a deal with Ligeance Aerospace Technology, a company based in China and owned by Aerostar, a fund incorporated in the country. |
| Activist investors are thought to be turning their attention to a potential break-up of Aviva (AV.) after its chief executive refused to pursue a radical split of the business. Maurice Tulloch has pushed through a strategy to run its life and general insurance businesses separately, reversing his predecessor’s attempts to integrate the two and cross-sell products. However, the City had been hoping for a more dramatic break-up. It believes that a potential sale or listing of one of the divisions would revive the share price. Aviva is understood to have considered a dramatic separation of the business and discussed it with the board and advisers before Mr Tulloch opted for a watered-down alternative. Investment bankers believe that a separation could boost Aviva’s £16.3 billion market value by as much as £3 billion, according to The Sunday Telegraph, which first reported the threat of activists. |
 | NMC Health (NMC) accused hedge funds of colluding to damage its share price as it stepped up its counterattack on Muddy Waters whose report into the company on Tuesday has resulted in its share price halving. Muddy Waters said in its 34-page report that it had “serious doubts” about NMC’s financial statements, including its asset values, cash balance and reported profits and debts. The healthcare group has passed information to the City regulator, alleging that a group of hedge funds colluded with analysts and acted in “systematic fashion” to send the shares lower. The latest regulatory filings show four investors holding a combined 4.9% short position, although Muddy Waters is not among them. This suggests that its position is smaller than 0.5%, the level at which disclosure is required. Those listed are Gladstone, Psquared, AQR and Polar. All four were contacted for comment and there is no suggestion that these are the alleged funds. Separate figures from IHS Markit, the data company, shows that 12.2% of the shares were out on loan, a proxy for short-selling, on the eve of the Muddy Waters report. This represented £659 million by value, the highest of any British company, and 26% of its free float. NMC did not name the research firms allegedly colluding with the unnamed hedge funds. |
| Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) has promised to award £35,000 each to nearly 200 fraud victims after criticism of how it treated small business owners whose livelihoods were damaged or destroyed by the HBOS Reading scam. The decision to make the special payment to 191 victims comes as the bank seeks to respond to concerns over extra delays caused by a new review of the bank’s compensation scheme. Details of the payments were first reported by the Financial Times. Lloyds agreed to reassess damages claims after Sir Ross Cranston, 71, a retired High Court judge, concluded this month that the bank’s redress scheme had “serious shortcomings”. The Cranston review was launched in May in response to complaints from victims about an earlier independent review led by Russel Griggs, a banking adviser. The Griggs review paid out £80 million in compensation but has been blighted by allegations of flawed methodology and inconsistent payouts. |
| Takeaway.com was close to securing victory in the £5.5 billion bidding battle for Just Eat (JE.) after its rival for the British food delivery group threw in the towel. Naspers, bidding through its Dutch subsidiary Prosus, announced that it no longer planned to make market purchases of Just Eat shares in support of its 800p-a-share cash offer. Though its offer remains effective until January 10, the announcement is a clear admission of defeat. One source familiar with Prosus’s approach said: “They were in it to buy the whole company, not to end up as a minority shareholder.” The step back by Prosus follows Thursday’s dramatic events when, in less than an hour, both suitors sweetened their bids and declared them final. |
 | M&C Saatchi (SAA) has been hit by a row with a contractor who alleged it had overcharged a client by inflating the number of hours he and other staff had worked. The advertising agency launched an investigation after the contractor claimed that one of its South African subsidiaries, Creative Spark, was overcharging a client in the healthcare sector by hundreds of hours. M&C Saatchi disputed his claims and said the investigation had found no evidence of wrongdoing, with the client reappointing the agency. It said the allegations were an attempt to damage the agency and ensure it lost the contract to service Medscheme. However, The Sunday Times has seen WhatsApp messages in which staff in South Africa appear to discuss how to inflate the number of hours billed. |
 | The British branch of the billionaire Weston family’s empire has paid a £101m dividend as profits grew at Primark. Wittington Investments, the family’s main operating vehicle in Britain, posted a slight rise in pre-tax profits to £1.3bn on sales of £16bn in the year to September 14. Almost 80% of the payout will go to the Garfield Weston Foundation, as it owns the majority of Wittington’s shares. The rest will be split between the family. It beats the previous payout of £92m. Some 97% of Wittington’s profits come from its majority stake in Associated British Foods (ABF) as well as discount fashion retailer Primark. George Weston, 55, is ABF’s chief executive. Wittington also owns high-end grocer Fortnum & Mason. |
 | Babcock International Group (BAB) believes it has identified the anonymous analyst behind a damaging attack on the company. Babcock, one of the Ministry of Defence’s biggest suppliers, was blindsided in October last year when a previously unknown organisation, Boatman Capital Research, published a highly critical dossier. The report claimed the company had “systematically misled investors by burying bad news about its performance”, and called for the departures of chief executive Archie Bethel and then chairman Mike Turner. The 23-page attack wiped more than 5%, or £130m, from the company’s market value. Babcock published a rebuttal, claiming the report contained “many false and malicious statements”. The board hired the investigative firm Kroll to trace the author. It is believed to have identified David Robertson, a former journalist at The Times who worked at the corporate intelligence firm K2 and now runs his own company. Babcock is believed to have written to Robertson, 46, warning him to cease and desist, but is not thought to be taking further action. |
 | Debenhams (DEB) has spooked landlords by seeking fresh rent cuts just seven months after they were slashed in a restructuring, raising fears over its survival prospects. The retail chain is said to be targeting a further 25% reduction on about 20 stores in exchange for scrapping break clauses in the leases. The move has sparked panic among some property owners, who have sounded out rival Mike Ashley about taking on the sites when the break clauses become active. |
| Boris Johnson has defended the controversial £4bn takeover of UK defence and aerospace company Cobham (COB) by a US private equity firm. The government approved the sale of Cobham to Advent International after the deal was delayed because of national security concerns. When asked during a visit to see British troops in Estonia how comfortable he was with the takeover, Mr Johnson said: “I think it’s very important that we should have an open and dynamic market economy. “A lot of checks have been gone through to make sure that in that particular case all the security issues that might be raised can be satisfied and the UK will continue to be a very, very creative and dynamic contributor to that section of industry and all others.” |
 | David Wild, the divisive chief executive of Domino’s Pizza Group (DOM), has taken almost £3m of shares ahead of his expected departure from the chain. The 64-year-old, who has been locked in a spat with franchisees over profits, also cashed in £1.4m of the shares awarded as part of a long-term incentive scheme. The payday comes amid a series of top-level changes at the FTSE 250 takeaway group, which is under pressure from an American activist and is in the process of replacing Wild and the chairman, Stephen Hemsley. Wild, who took the top role in 2014 after working at retailers such as Tesco and Halfords, has been under fire for failing to resolve a fierce row with franchisees, some of whom have refused to open new stores. |
 | Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) has risked sparking a row with investors by changing the way it awards bonuses to its boss without giving shareholders a vote. Mitchells & Butlers will now award part of chief executive Phil Urban’s share bonus — worth more than £1m a year if targets are hit — based on performance relative to a wide range of listed leisure and travel companies, rather than its immediate pub peers. M&B, which runs more than 1,700 restaurants and pubs, justified the decision in its annual report by saying rivals Greene King and Ei Group had come off — or were about to come off — the stock market following bids. It would reduce its peer group of pub companies to three. The decision to change the award was made by the remuneration committee and is permitted under the company’s remuneration policy, but it is understood there was no shareholder vote. The change could make it easier to hit bonus targets. |
 | When Redrow (RDW) founder Steve Morgan sold a slice of his company the stock kept moving up. Although Morgan is no longer running the housebuilder — he retired in March — some in the City had felt his near-30% stake acted as a drag on the shares by reducing liquidity. He found plenty of buyers. Next to its peers, Redrow looks cheap. The shares are changing hands at all-time high prices, but the company trades at a discount of about 25% to the sector on both earnings and net asset value — key metrics. Like other builders, its margins have been fattened by the Help to Buy scheme. However, they are also higher naturally because Morgan scrapped cheaper designs, amassed a strong land bank and focused on Redrow’s flagship Heritage range of family homes when he returned in 2009, nine years after retiring for the first time. While he was away, the company fell into crisis. He forced his way back in with the support of hedge fund Toscafund. After 10 years turning the builder around, he was succeeded as executive chairman by John Tutte, previously chief executive. Jamie Fletcher, an analyst at research firm StockViews, has a bullish £12.50 price target. He expects margins of 20% to rise by 1.5 percentage points due to “unappreciated embedded value in the land bank”. While others say that is too optimistic — Fletcher’s assumptions need moderate house-price and build-cost inflation to come good — other factors suggest that Redrow is set fair. Boris Johnson’s “stonking” majority has provided much-needed political certainty, and Tutte reckons a stamp duty cut may be on the cards. Then there is the prospect of buyers rushing into Help to Buy before the scheme is restricted to first-time buyers in April 2021. Buy. |
| The battle for control of Just Eat (JE.) has intensified after fresh rival bids for the UK food delivery business. Takeaway.com of the Netherlands upped its all-share merger offer to a deal worth 916p a share. The offer, which would create one of the biggest food delivery groups in the world, values Just Eat at nearly £6.3bn, up from a previous bid in the summer that valued the company’s shares at 731p each. Prosus, the Amsterdam-listed offshoot of the South African technology group Naspers, had earlier raised its all-cash bid by £400m to £5.5bn, or 800p a share. The company previously made 740p- and 710p-per-share bids. Takeaway.com’s offer would hand Just Eat shareholders a 58% stake in the merged company, up from 52% as previously offered. It is also offering to sell Just Eat’s stake in the Brazilian delivery company iFood, which Just Eat owns in partnership with Prosus, and return half of the proceeds to shareholders. |
 | British Airways has taken a nosedive in UK passengers’ opinions and is now rated just above Ryanair at the bottom end of the airline rankings. The flag carrier was among the worst rated for food, seat comfort and value for money on both short and long-haul services in the annual Which? poll. BA questioned the accuracy of the survey, which is based on 6,500 readers’ opinions rather than comprehensive data, and found the best short-haul airline to be Aurigny Air, a small Channel Islands turboprop operator. However, the results will make for further unwelcome reading for BA, the formerly self-proclaimed “world’s favourite airline”, which celebrated a centenary this year. In the short-haul table, BA only beat Vueling, which is also part of International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG), and Ryanair, which once again came last. |
| NMC Health (NMC) held talks to raise €200m in off-balance sheet debt. Healthcare group under pressure from short-sellers over scale of borrowing |
 | Relx plc (REL) offloads Farmers Weekly to MAG. Sale marks end of FTSE 100 group’s switch from publishing to information and analytics |
| HBOS fraud victims to receive £35,000 special payout. Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) seeks to build bridges after criticism of compensation scheme |
 | Persimmon (PSN) report shows capitalism at its worst. The housebuilding industry needs to rediscover its sense of purpose |
 | Lex – Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS)/NatWest Markets: thorn to be riled. Further pruning at the investment banking arm is on the cards |
 | Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) new chief tackles consumer sector’s ‘toughest job’. Laxman Narasimhan grapples to close performance gap between UK group’s two halves |
| Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) top two investment bank executives depart. Further cuts expected at division as part of overhaul by new boss Alison Rose |
| Bidders for Just Eat (JE.) have increased their offers as a deadline to secure a takeover of the food delivery giant edges closer. Prosus, which is owned by South African investment giant Naspers, said it was ramping up its all-cash offer from £5.1billion to £5.5billion, or 800p per share. It said the latest move was its ‘final’ offer, ahead of a cut-off point in January, by when it must garner support. But within minutes, rival Takeaway.com also announced an improved bid for Just Eat. Takeaway.com, which is based in the Netherlands, has proposed an all-share merger with Just Eat that is supported by the company’s board. And yesterday it attempted to sweeten the deal, offering Just Eat’s shareholders a bigger slice of the enlarged company – 57.5% instead of 52.1%. ‘This is our best and final offer,’ Takeaway.com added. |
| The chief executive and chief financial officer of Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) underperforming investment banking arm have stepped down, the bank announced today. In the first significant move announced since new RBS chief executive Alison Rose started, Chris Marks and Richard Place have quit as bosses of Natwest Markets. It comes after the division has underperformed recently, contributing to tipping taxpayer-backed RBS to a loss in the third quarter, with shareholders calling on the bank to scale it back. Marks has been replaced on an interim basis by Robert Begbie, RBS treasurer, and will stay until June, while Place has been replaced by Robert Horrocks, RBS treasury finance director and will stay until March. Meanwhile, the bank has launched an internal and external search for permanent replacements. |
 | Plant Health Care (PHC) warned that revenue will miss forecasts this year after it was hit with last-minute disruptions. Bureaucratic problems in Brazil, where import licences have been held up, and a delay to a customer order mean its turnover will be around £5million this year. It made £6.1million in 2018. The firm, which makes biological products that agricultural groups can put on seeds and crops, was knocked by similar problems last year. |
| Two of NMC Health (NMC) top bosses have had £750million wiped off their fortunes this week as its shares have slumped. The Middle East-focused private hospital operator’s stock lost another 11% to close at 1536.5p last night. It has shed around 40% of its value – or £2.2billion – since outspoken US hedge fund Muddy Waters hit out at NMC on Tuesday, leaving it worth £3.21billion. Muddy Waters said it has taken a short position in the group – though it declined to say what size – and took aim at the company for allegedly understating its debt and querying its relationship with its auditor, EY. Last night NMC bit back following the Muddy Waters attack, claiming it is ‘false and misleading’. NMC said it has made all the disclosures it needs to and denied that there are any grey areas between the NMC and its auditor. NMC’s joint executive chairman and founder, Indian pharmacist Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, is the firm’s largest shareholder with a 19.2% stake. |
 | TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) had its rating cut from ‘buy’ to ‘hold’ by brokers at German bank Berenberg, sending its shares down 29.6p, to 948.2p. They warned the firm is making a ‘strategic error’ by moving away from its core business and chasing new areas such as cruise and hotel operations, which has ‘not delivered the growth it promised’. Berenberg think it’s becoming a riskier stock, though it could benefit from payments from Boeing over the grounded 737 Max aircraft. |
 | Stock Spirits Group (STCK) edged up 1p, to 199p after activist investor Western Gate urged it to pay a special dividend of €0.1219 per share. Western Gate, which is its second largest investor with a 10% stake, is the private family office of Portuguese businessman Luis Amaral has made a number of interventions in the company and ousted its chief executive in 2016. Western Gate said the Eastern European group needed to return cash to ‘patient’ shareholders who have seen shares fall since it went public will need to wait several years before having cash returned to them otherwise. |
| British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) was in the red after BA nosedived in a closely watched passenger satisfaction survey. It was rated the second-worst airline for long-haul and short-haul flights, and was slammed for food, seat comfort and value for money in the Which? poll of 6,500 passengers. BA was top of the short-haul poll in 2015 and its decline comes at the end of a turbulent period for BA which has seen its first ever strikes, IT failures and data breaches. |
| Just Eat (JE.) is poised to fall into the hands of Takeaway.com after the Dutch delivery firm landed a knockout blow in its tussle with tech titan Prosus. Both Takeaway and Prosus increased their offers on Thursday afternoon with best and final bids – with Takeaway leading the battle after a £5.5bn offer from its rival failed to convince. Although shareholders have until Jan 10 to decide which of the two approaches to accept, Takeaway revealed it is close to obtaining sufficient backing to force an all-share merger through. Major Just Eat investors, including the likes of fund manager Aberdeen Standard and its biggest shareholder STM Fidecs Trust, have shunned Prosus in favour of Takeaway. |
| NMC Health (NMC) has hit back at claims of financial mismanagement made by hedge fund Muddy Waters as “false and misleading”. In a lengthy 3,500 word statement published after London markets closed, the Abu Dhabi-based healthcare provider moved to assuage investor fears over its finances. Shares in the FTSE 100 firm have dropped by more than 40% since Tuesday when Muddy Waters first raised “serious doubts” over NMC’s finances and claimed there was poor corporate governance at the company. Muddy Waters, which is headed up by former lawyer Carson Bloc, also revealed that it had taken a short position in NMC. |
| The new boss of Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) has begun overhauling its investment banking arm barely a month after she hinted at changes. Alison Rose, the first woman to run one of Britain’s biggest four banks, kicked off the widely anticipated rejig of Natwest Markets on Thursday by announcing that its chief executive Chris Marks and finance chief Richard Place will stand down. She also looked to squash speculation that Natwest Markets, which sunk to a £193m loss during the third quarter, could be sold down or closed by insisting the unit “plays a crucial role within RBS”. |
| A Portuguese lollipop tycoon has rekindled a fight with the board of vodka and gin maker Stock Spirits Group (STCK) by demanding it pays out more than £20m to shareholders. Luis Amaral, Portugal’s eighth-richest person, called on Stock Spirits to fork out the €25m (£21m) special dividend and accused the firm of hoarding cash. His company Western Gate Private Investments said shareholders are stuck between a management team which has been boosting performance, and a board “that is unwilling to return cash to patient investors”. The company said it would consider extra pay-outs if the cash cannot be better spent on takeovers. Western Gate is Stock Spirits’ second-largest shareholder with a 10% stake. |
| Takeaway.com appeared to seize the initiative in the £5 billion-plus bidding battle for Just Eat (JE.) yesterday as both suitors fired their last shots in the increasingly acrimonious struggle. Less than an hour after the technology group Naspers, bidding through its Prosus subsidiary, had submitted a final cash offer of 800p a share, valuing Just Eat at £5.5 billion, Takeaway.com sweetened its all-paper proposal by offering shareholders in Just Eat a bigger slice of the enlarged company. When Takeaway.com announced the revised offer, which raises the ratio going to Just Eat’s investors from 52% to 57.5%, the Dutch food delivery group’s offer was worth 916p. Its Amsterdam-listed shares lost almost 10% to €80.25, however, so the value of the bid fell to 830p. In a further boost to its chances, Takeaway.com reduced the acceptance level for its bid from 75% to a simple majority of 50% plus one share. It revealed last night that it had received acceptances and commitments from investors speaking for 41.1% of Just Eat shareholders, putting victory tantalisingly close. |
 | Investors have rebuked Playtech (PTEC) over a bonus scheme that could hand the boss of the gambling software supplier shares worth more than £30 million. More than 45% of the votes cast at a shareholder meeting held yesterday to approve the bonus plan opposed granting the award. It is the latest investor revolt over executive pay at Playtech and is likely to raise further questions about its corporate governance. The bonus scheme is for nil-cost options over 1.9 million shares. It pays out if Playtech trades above certain levels for 30 business days running and is capped at £16. Mr Weizer will receive shares valued at £30.4 million if the ceiling is reached. |
| Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) new chief executive has removed the management of its loss-making investment bank, raising expectations of deep cuts to the division. Chris Marks, 48, chief executive of Natwest Markets, and Richard Place, 54, chief financial officer, have stepped down. The bank has begun a search for successors, with two insiders replacing them on an interim basis. RBS’s investment bank has been shrunk dramatically since the financial crisis, as part of the bank’s drive to cut costs and in recognition of its government-backed agenda to move from high-risk trading into more straightforward activities financing businesses in the UK. There have been increasing signs that Alison Rose, 50, who took over the top job at RBS on November 1, intends to make further cuts to the division, in response to its struggle to make returns that justify costs. |
| NMC Health (NMC) has concluded that Muddy Waters highly critical report was “false and misleading”. NMC Health issued its findings from an internal review yesterday, three days after Muddy Waters made a series of allegations. Muddy Waters had taken a short position before publishing the 34-page report on Tuesday, which said that it had “serious doubts about NMC’s financial statements, including its asset values, cash balance and reported profits and debts”. It said that it had addressed the “main areas of focus from conversations with shareholders” and referred to “factual inaccuracies”. |
| An activist shareholder has turned up the pressure for a shake-up at Stock Spirits Group (STCK), calling for fellow investors in the Polish vodka-maker to force the board to pay a special dividend. Western Gate Private Investments, which represents the family office of Luís Amaral, a Portuguese cash-and-carry tycoon with a 10% stake in Stock, questioned its strategy. Shareholders were “stuck in the middle” between a management improving the group’s operating performance and a board that was “unwilling to return cash to patient investors”, it said. The result was “a mid-cap company that is neither growing or delivering returns”. It said that despite its low debt ratio, Stock offered one of the lowest cash returns to shareholders among its peers with a dividend payout of 60.5% compared with an average of 71.3% for the sector. Western Gate, the biggest shareholder, said three acquisitions totalling €47.5 million since 2017 would not produce any returns until 2023 and called for a special dividend of €0.1219 per share. |
 | Shares in Circassia Pharmaceuticals (CIR) spluttered yesterday after one of its partners terminated a key licensing agreement. Circassia struck a $32.5 million deal with Beyond Air in January that gave it the right to sell Beyond Air’s Lung Fit PH respiratory treatment in the United States and China once it had been approved by regulators. Beyond Air said yesterday that it had cancelled the agreement, citing a “material breach” of contract. Circassia declined to elaborate further on the dispute, but said: “[The company] refutes the allegations in the strongest terms and believes there are no grounds to terminate the agreement. The company will enforce its rights under the agreement and defend its position vigorously.” Beyond Air, based in New York, said that the matter was with its lawyers and that it was looking for a new partner to replace Circassia. Analysts at Peel Hunt, the broker, described the decision as “surprising” but added that any short-term impact on Circassia was likely to be limited. “We estimate that even under a worst-case scenario where we fully remove Lung Fit from our model with no cost offset, Circassia’s [underlying profitability] still turns positive in 2020,” the broker said. |
 | A takeover approach for Centamin (DI) (CEY) appears to have stalled with the gold miner and its suitor both unwilling to make the next move. Endeavour wants Centamin to request an extension to a “put up or shut up” deadline of December 31. It argues that the deadline for making an offer or walking away leaves insufficient time to complete due diligence. Centamin has, however, said it will only request an extension if Endeavour begins due diligence by disclosing information. Endeavour has said it went public to appeal to shareholders in Centamin after it refused to engage in talks. The chairman of Centamin met the chief executive of Endeavour last weekend and non-disclosure agreements were signed as a precursor to due diligence. However, progress has stalled over the issue of whether due diligence should begin before or after an extension request is submitted. Centamin complains that Endeavour has “repeatedly refused to engage in a proper manner”, while Endeavour accuses Centamin of a “lack of meaningful engagement”. |
 | Residents of Shanghai are being encouraged to opt for a drop of Irish stout. Diageo (DGE) yesterday launched a Guinness Gatehouse “brand experience” in the city to introduce locals and visitors to the black stuff. The 1,000 sq m attraction in the Jing’an district, offering visitors a wide range of Guinness brews and merchandise, is the first adaptation of the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, a popular tourist attraction. The launch comes on the back of a steady rise in Chinese visitors to the Dublin venue over the past decade. More than 80,000 Asian tourists visited the Storehouse last year, more than half of them Chinese. |
 | Analysts have speculated that Capita (CPI) bosses might be better off breaking up the outsourced services contractor. The company has struggled of late and was forced into a £700 million rescue rights issue last year. It has been criticised by some in the City for having its thumbs in too many pies, as well as for strategic drift and mismanagement, and Deutsche Bank reckons it would be better off carving up the business. “Ultimately, we would see more upside in breaking the company up than keeping it together,” said Tom Sykes, an analyst at the bank. Sykes is telling clients to sell Capita shares, saying the market got a little too excited after Boris Johnson’s election win last week, with its share price jumping by 15%. |
 | Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) shares dropped after HSBC who has long been a buyer of the stock, now has it as a “hold”. The shares have risen by 50% this year and the bank isn’t convinced there is much more upside. “Costs are under control but the sales momentum doesn’t look as powerful as it once was,” HSBC said. |
| Watches of Switzerland (WOSG) ticked 25¼p higher to 346p after the retailer confirmed that Rolex is to raise the price of its luxury timepieces from the beginning of January. The average price of a Rolex in the US will rise by about 3%, although it will be closer to 7.5% in the UK, where the weak pound has given buyers an advantage over other countries. | |
 | PureTech Health (PRTC) shares shone yesterday as the biotech’s male hair loss treatment breezed through a mid-stage clinical study. After three months, people using the device saw a 44% increase in visible hair count, about three times more than existing treatments achieve. A phase III study has been pencilled in for the first half of next year, and analysts at Peel Hunt, the City stockbroker, think the treatment has a 70% chance of success. Should the product make it to market, they reckon a peak sales target of $360 million a year is “undemanding”. |
 | GCP Student Living (DIGS) announced a surprise £75 million fundraising, in response to “specific market demand” from the Dutch pension fund manager APG Asset Management. APG is buying shares for 168½p each, a 6.3% discount to Wednesday’s closing price. GCP will use the funds to buy Scape Canalside, a block of flats in east London. |
 | Tempus – Intertek Group (ITRK): Buy. High-quality group with strong growth potential, reliable earnings and consistent dividend |
 | Tempus – Softcat (SCT): Take profits. The shares have had a storming run and would release good value |
| Britain’s largest trade union is seeking assurances over about 2,600 manufacturing jobs at Vauxhall after the carmaker’s parent company, PSA, announced a £38bn (€45bn) merger with Fiat Chrysler that will create the world’s fourth-biggest carmaker. Vauxhall’s workforce includes 1,100 staff at its Ellesmere Port plant in Wirral and around 1,500 people making the Vivaro van in Luton. PSA, which also owns Peugeot, and Fiat Chrysler confirmed there would be no plant closures as part of €3.7bn in cost savings targeted from the deal, but the Unite union immediately raised concerns. “Unite will … be seeking guarantees about new investment to ensure that the company’s UK factories are able to continue to build high-quality cars and vans to meet the challenges of the transition to electric vehicles,” said Unite’s national officer Des Quinn. | |
| International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) – British Airways has taken a nosedive in UK passengers’ opinions and is now rated just above Ryanair at the bottom end of the airline rankings. The flag carrier was among the worst rated for food, seat comfort and value for money on both short and long-haul services in the annual Which? poll. BA questioned the accuracy of the survey, which is based on 6,500 readers’ opinions rather than comprehensive data, and found the best short-haul airline to be Aurigny Air, a small Channel Islands turboprop operator. However, the results will make for further unwelcome reading for BA, the formerly self-proclaimed “world’s favourite airline”, which celebrated a centenary this year. |
| Lex – Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’ (RDSB): oil dump. Worry less about the tax subsidy and more about North Sea oil decommissioning cost overruns |
 | Pearson (PSON) chief John Fallon to retire next year. Educational publisher also announces sale of remaining stake in Penguin Random House |
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