  | Ocado Group (OCDO) has said its product range will be 50% bigger and offer lower prices and better quality products when it switches from Waitrose to Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) next year. The online grocer’s finance chief, Duncan Tatton-Brown, said it will stock 6,000 M&S products, compared with the 4,000 it sells as part of its supply deal with Waitrose, which ends in 2020. The alternatives on offer would be the “same price or lower, and of the same quality or better” than the Waitrose ones, he said. “Marks & Spencer has a lot more products than Waitrose so customers should find matching products from the existing range at the same or a cheaper price – and a few things they didn’t know they needed,” said Tatton-Brown. |
 | The hedge fund owned by the billionaire investor and anti-Brexit donor George Soros has made a £16m bet against shares in the owner of the Daily Mail newspaper. SFM UK Management, the London arm of the New York-based Soros Fund Management, this week took out a short position representing 0.9% of the shares of Daily Mail and General Trust A (Non.V) (DMGT), according to filings to the Financial Conduct Authority published on Thursday. DMGT, which also owns the Metro newspaper, bought the i newspaper and website at the end of November for £46.9m. However, its crown jewel is the Mail titles, including the Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail and Mail Online, which have been intensely critical of Soros because of his donations to liberal causes. |
 | Superdry (SDRY) has warned of a difficult Christmas for retailers as the fashion chain fell into the red and confessed to a near-£4m accounting error. The company flagged an “isolated error totalling £3.9m” related to stock handling costs as it reported a first-half loss of £4.2m, down from a £26.4m profit a year ago. Sales slumped 11% as Superdry, best known for its brightly coloured hoodies and T-shirts emblazoned with Japanese script, stopped using price cuts to tempt shoppers. To bolster its fashion credentials, the company hired Phil Dickinson as its creative director at the start of this year. However, the former Nike executive clashed with the financial press at a presentation in the City designed to trumpet his work on new ranges. He said talking to business reporters about fashion was like “talking to a brick” and told one female journalist not to touch the arm of his £600 Superdry varsity jacket with her “sweaty journalist palm”. |
| BHP Group PLC (BHP) has bucked shareholder pressure to quit the Minerals Council of Australia and will remain a member of the lobby group despite disagreeing with it over the importance of putting a price on carbon emissions. After a review of its membership of industry associations, first revealed by Guardian Australia, BHP has decided not to leave any of them. The move comes despite almost 30% of shareholders last month voting in favour of a resolution that would have forced BHP to quit the Minerals Council and other industry bodies that hold positions on global heating at odds with the company’s. Australia’s biggest super fund, AustralianSuper, has also attacked the Minerals Council’s position as “not strong enough”. “We will continue to work with the MCA to ensure that, where it is undertaking advocacy, this remains consistent with its stated policy,” BHP said in its review of industry organisations, released on Thursday. |
 | Lombard – Dixons Carphone (DC.) needs vision of Christmas Future. Retailer has long way to go to deliver a full, multichannel, 21st-century experience |
 | M&C Saatchi (SAA) draws FCA scrutiny over accounting woes. Financial regulator questions crisis-hit ad group on way it revealed errors |
 | Standard Chartered (STAN) sells stake in Indonesia’s Permata for $1.3bn. Sale to Thailand’s Bangkok Bank sets stage for share buyback by emerging markets lender |
 | Fuller Smith & Turner (FSTA) chief calls for shake-up of business rates. Pub group head says traditional businesses are suffering a disproportionate tax burden |
| Dixons Carphone (DC.) mobile phone unit hit by sharp sales fall. Chief executive promises this financial year will be ‘trough year’ for losses at the division |
| Superdry (SDRY) hit by sales drop but margins improve. Co-founder Julian Dunkerton describes clothing retailer’s start to peak third-quarter period ‘encouraging’ |
| Ocado Group (OCDO) has claimed its tie-up with Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) will deliver cheaper and better food than what it had been supplied by Waitrose. The online supermarket first revealed its deal with M&S in February, and expects to launch the service in September. But despite concerns about the new partnership, it said a review had found that more than 4,000 products it gets from Waitrose could be replaced by M&S substitutes ‘at the same price or lower, and of the same quality or better’. The company also said that recent surveys show customers are warming to the tie-up. Finance chief Duncan Tatton-Brown said the research shows ‘sales lost is coming down and the customer attractiveness to the new offer is coming up’. |
 | Serco Group (SRP) is poised to pay its first dividend since 2014 after the outsourcer’s UK operations returned to growth. Yesterday Rupert Soames, Serco’s boss, said the business had turned a corner and was finally considering a payout to patient investors. The 60-year-old said the company’s full-year results in February were expected to be ‘all for the good’ thanks to a healthy order book and its recovery in the UK. He added: ‘My starting point is that you should pay a dividend unless there are very good reasons why you can’t.’ |
 | PZ Cussons (PZC) is to part with its long-serving chief executive after warning that profit and revenue fell in the first half of the financial year. Alex Kanellis will step down from his role after 13 years in charge. In a trading update yesterday, management warned that challenging conditions on the High Street ‘adversely impacted overall revenue and profit’. It came in a period when PZ Cussons sold its Greek and Polish businesses in an attempt to streamline operations, and it now expects the next six months to improve. However, the firm added: ‘Full-year revenue and adjusted profit before tax is expected to be modestly below the prior year on a like-for-like basis.’ |
 | Purplebricks Group (PURP) claimed there is ‘pent up demand’ for its services after revealing its UK profit, instruction levels and margins had fallen. The number of UK-based instructions Purplebricks received in the first half of the year dropped by 15%, while its UK operating profit slumped 38.5% to £3.5million. Purplebricks said it was behind 5.3% of all properties sold in the UK in the first half and claimed to enjoy a 4.1% share of all UK listings. Across the UK, the group said it received 32,850 instructions in the first half of its financial year, down from 38,619 at the same point a year ago. But, per instruction, Purplebricks’ revenue rose from £1,209 to £1,352. |
 | The battle for Just Eat (JE.) could be settled through an auction. The food delivery group’s plan to merge with Dutch rival Takeaway has faced competition from a £5.1billion cash offer from Prosus, a fund owned by South African investment firm Naspers. Both suitors are in a race to woo supporters after Prosus took its hostile bid to Just Eat investors directly. Just Eat has since urged shareholders to back the Takeaway merger. But if neither side secures the backing they need by December 27, the contest could instead be decided by auction – unless the parties agree a different way forward. |
| Fuller Smith & Turner (FSTA) can look forward to celebrating its 175th birthday next year, as half-year pre-tax profits soared to £176.2million. The pub group’s profits has been boosted by its £250million sale to Japanese firm Asahi this year, and is £175.4million higher compared to the same period last year. The company said the firm was buoyed by higher sales in its pubs and hotels business with like-for-like sales up 2.1% and total revenue rising by 5.1% for the first 36 weeks to December 7. Chief executive Simon Emeny said the first six months of the year had seen the ‘biggest transformation in Fuller’s history’ and that the company was ‘in good stead to navigate further political and economic turbulence.’ The company said sales have continued to be solid for the rest of the year, despite a ‘context of consumer unease’ due to Brexit and political uncertainty. Earnings before tax and interest slipped marginally to £30.2million for the period. |
| Shares in Dixons Carphone (DC.) have jumped after the group revealed its losses have narrowed from £440million to £86million in the first half. But, the group said revenue from its mobile arm across the UK and Ireland fell by nearly a fifth, adding that this part of its business had, as expected, been ‘significantly loss making.’ Alex Baldock, the company’s chief executive, said that while the group had made ‘good progress’ overall, it was ‘still nowhere near its full potential.’Stripping out the effects of new reporting standards, the company’s half year profit fell from £60million to £24million. |
 | Anglo African Oil & Gas (AAOG) is slashing costs after the government authority it is partnered with in the Republic of Congo has failed to pay it more than £4million since September. The AIM-listed firm said this means it might not be able to drill a well there – and drilling could be stymied anyway by a rig not being available until June. Separately, it is also preparing to take legal action in Paris over a bungled transaction in Tunisia. |
 | Costain Group (COST) more than halved its profit guidance to between £17million and £19million, down from £38million to £42million, after it was told to pay to settle a dispute about a Welsh motorway project. |
 | John Laing Group (JLG) slumped after the infrastructure investor said in an update the value of its investments at the end of the year will be ‘marginally’ below forecasts. It will take a £50million hit from sterling trading at stronger levels between July and November. |
 | Balfour Beatty (BBY) fared better after it said annual revenue will top £8billion and profits will come in ahead of expectations. It reckons its order book will stand at more than £14billion, which it described as ‘significantly higher’ than the £12.6billion it reported at the end of 2018. |
 | Shares in Keller Group (KLR) jumped after confirming interim chief executive Mike Speakman will take the role permanently and promising it will hand shareholders extra cash through dividends in 2019 and 2020. |
| Aston Martin Holdings (AML) shares revved up to a five-month high after the luxury car maker revealed it has teamed up with European plane maker Airbus to design helicopters. They will unveil the aircraft on January 3 at Courchevel in the French Alps. Aston investors were encouraged by the latest indication the struggling company is rebuilding its reputation and branching out beyond the car market, which has slumped over the past year. | |
 | Mediclinic International (MDC) expects full-year revenues to grow by 6.5% in its southern Africa division, which includes its operations in Namibia and South Africa. It will also spend more money on staff and IT as it tries to boost ‘clinical quality and patient experience’. |
| The pound has enjoyed its biggest surge in a decade as the City cheered predictions of a strong Conservative majority that would finally end the Brexit deadlock. Investors piled into sterling after the exit poll suggested Boris Johnson would be given a majority strong enough to put to bed the uncertainty plaguing businesses and the economy. | |
| Costain Group (COST) unveils another profit warning as it shares £54m in extra costs for delayed dual carriageway project in Wales. Costain proudly claims to have been improving the lives of people since 1865. Except, that is, the good people of South Wales. The contractor has unveiled another profit warning after taking a £20m hit on a project to turn a stretch of road in the Brecon Beacons into a dual carriageway. The Welsh government has decided that Costain must shoulder some of the estimated £54m of additional costs after the scheme went over budget and suffered delays. |
 | Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) is to pay £40m in compensation to 730,000 customers after it uncovered a group of rogue staff “skimming” cash on foreign money transfers over four years. Workers on the lender’s foreign exchange desk manipulated the rates applied to overseas transactions between 2010 and 2014 – earning Natwest owner RBS tens of millions of pounds in extra profits. One customer, believed to be a large business, is to receive £70,000 in redress. The case is the first of its kind and is likely to force other large banks to check their own systems for evidence of similar wrongdoing. A string of lenders including RBS have previously been fined millions of pounds for cheating on currency markets. |
| Superdry (SDRY) plunged into the red and was forced to admit an accounting blunder as co-founder Julian Dunkerton battles to revive the struggling retailer’s fortunes. The company, which has almost 250 stores in 11 countries, said profits took a hit partly because of an “isolated” £3.9m error relating to costs linked to importing stock and moving items between warehouses last year. It also warned that sales could be dented over Christmas if rivals cut prices heavily, as Superdry is striving to move away from promotions and will not compete. The update came before a fractious meeting with the media at which Superdry’s new design boss Phil Dickinson lashed out at journalists. |
| PZ Cussons (PZC) long-serving chief executive Alex Kanellis will step down after the healthcare products maker warned that full-year revenue and profits would be below expectations due to “challenging market conditions”. Mr Kanellis, who has held the role since 2006, will leave the maker of Imperial Leather soap and Original Source shower gel at the end of next month. Caroline Silver will step in as executive chair until a replacement is found, the company said. |
| The United States is poised to cut tariffs on Chinese imports and cancel a new round of levies after reaching “a deal in principle” to resolve the 17-month trade war with Beijing. Last night President Trump held a meeting with his senior trade advisers and a written agreement is expected shortly. Mr Trump tweeted yesterday that America was “getting VERY close to a BIG DEAL with China”, adding: “They want it, and so do we!” Wall Street hit new highs as optimism grew that a phase one trade deal would be signed by the end of the year. | |
| Dixons Carphone (DC.) has insisted its recovery is on track despite a sharp fall in mobile phone sales dragging the retailer’s profits down by 60%. The company yesterday reported a 10% fall in like-for-like mobile phone sales for the half-year to October 26, pushing the division to a £49 million loss on an underlying basis. As a result of the mobile losses, underlying profits for Dixons Carphone fell from £60 million in same period last year to £24 million. However, Dixons Carphone claimed that it had been a “trough year” for mobile losses and that the division will break even by 2022. It kept its guidance for a £90 million full-year loss for the mobile business and stuck to its forecast of a 30% drop in group adjusted pre-tax profit to about £210 million. |
| Hopes of an imminent recovery at Superdry (SDRY) were knocked yesterday after the retailer posted another heavy fall in sales and the group sank to a loss on the back of an accounting error. As it reported a £4.2 million loss in its half-year results yesterday, Mr Dunkerton, 54, said that the company was “only eight months into a process that will take two to three years”. The loss, for the six months to October 26, was a sharp fall on the £26.4 million profits that it recorded a year ago. |
| Costain Group (COST) has issued its second profit warning in six months because of increasing costs from a delayed road building contract in south Wales. Yesterday Costain said that after a dispute over the cost of changes to the design of the A465 Heads of the Valleys contract with the Welsh government, an arbitrator has split responsibility. It partly reverses an earlier adjudication in favour of the company. Costain is in talks with the Welsh government in an attempt to reach a financial settlement but yesterday said that its annual underlying operating profit was expected to be between £17 million and £19 million. That is down from the £38 million to £42 million range issued in June when Costain also issued a profit warning. It expects its cash position to be hit by about £40 million. |
| M&C Saatchi (SAA) is the subject of a preliminary investigation by the City watchdog over the accounting crisis that has reduced its share price by 70% and precipitated a board revolt. The Financial Conduct Authority has asked the advertising agency for information into the accounting irregularities that came to light in August. The request could be the prelude to a formal investigation. The inquiry will put further pressure on the remaining boardroom directors at the London-based network of advertising and public relations agencies. |
| The maker of Imperial Leather soap has pushed out its boss after 13 years as it struggles to revive its fortunes. PZ Cussons (PZC) said that Alex Kanellis, 54, was to “retire” as chief executive at the end of January with no successor in place and an £800,000 exit deal, including a payment at the advice of its lawyers to settle “any potential claims”. His departure is understood to have come at the suggestion of the board, whose chairwoman, Caroline Silver, said it was “ready to move on to the next chapter under new leadership”. Yesterday it warned that continued “challenging market conditions” had led to a decline in its revenues and operating profits in the six months to the end of November and were likely to lead to “modestly” lower full-year profits. It had previously expected annual profits in line with last year. |
| Purplebricks Group (PURP) will test a new pricing model in Britain next year as it seeks to grow market share at home after an embarrassing retreat from its costly expansion overseas. The online estate agent, which was founded in 2012, has disrupted the industry with a hybrid concept that involves no physical branches and charges a fixed fee of £999, or £1,499 in London, regardless of whether a home is sold. The agency said it would start offering a wider range of prices from January, including paying part of the fee up front and part on completion. It increased its fixed fee by £100 per home in October. Vic Darvey, 47, chief executive, said he believed that the new pricing would help Purplebricks to increase its share “in a market that is clearly declining, where consumers are less confident about selling their homes or even putting their homes on the market”. |
| Ocado Group (OCDO) has said that Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) can now substitute the majority of Waitrose’s groceries at the same price or cheaper with its switch in food partners due next year. The online grocer set up a £750 million joint venture this year in a move that calls an end to its two-decade relationship with Waitrose and hands Marks & Spencer a 50% share in Ocado’s retail business. Duncan Tatton-Brown, Ocado’s chief financial officer, said that Ocado Retail had completed a range review and Marks & Spencer had either developed product or changed pack size to fill any gaps in its range. “Marks & Spencer has a lot more products than Waitrose so customers should find matching products of the existing range at the same or cheaper price and a few things they didn’t know they needed”, Mr Tatton-Brown, 54, said. |
| George Soros has made a £15.5 million bet against the owner of the Daily Mail, it emerged last night. Mr Soros has taken a significant short position in Daily Mail and General Trust A (Non.V) (DMGT). Mr Soros, 89, who oversaw a $28 billion hedge fund at the height of his power, has long sparred with the Mail over his position on Brexit. He has donated to Best for Britain, a campaign group that seeks to keep the country in the European Union, leading to calls from the newspaper for him to “butt out” and keep his “tainted money”. As well as the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, DMGT owns the Metro and i newspapers. The £1.7 billion group is chaired by Lord Rothermere, who owns a majority of the voting rights and has a 36% economic interest in the company. SFM UK Management, the London outpost of New York-based Soros Fund Management, has taken a net short position in DMGT of 0.91%, a Financial Conduct Authority document, published last night, showed. |
| John Laing Group (JLG) has warned that the pound’s rise on currency markets will cut £50 million off the value of its portfolio of trains, roads and renewable energy projects. In a gloomy trading update, it said falling power prices and macroeconomic jitters had carved a further £47 million from its collection of greenfield investments. As a result, net asset value would be “marginally below market expectations”, John Laing admitted. |
| Balfour Beatty (BBY) raised annual profit and cash forecasts yesterday after offloading overseas infrastructure assets. In a trading update for the year to December 11, the construction group said it expects annual profit from operations to be broadly level with last year’s £205 million, ahead of previous expectations of £200 million. Balfour Beatty said it expected cash to be about £310 million, ahead of previous guidance of £280 million to £300 million, and for revenue to be about 5% higher than last year’s £7.8 billion. Investors welcomed the update ahead of its full-year results in March. |
| Serco Group (SRP) will give “serious consideration” to paying its first dividend in six years after raising its forecasts. Serco lifted City expectations after winning several large contracts, predicting a revenue increase of 14% to £3.2 billion in the year to February. Executives expect to post organic revenue growth of 7% after particularly strong trading in the second half. Underlying profits before tax, excluding any one-off costs, is set to grow by almost a third this year to £120 million and continue to expand in 2020. The acquisition of an American naval systems unit from Alion, the engineering firm, has handed Serco a foothold in the growing US navy supplies market. Rupert Soames, chief executive, said there was “still a way to go”. |
| The boss of Fuller Smith & Turner (FSTA) has called on the new government to overhaul business rates and rein in wage inflation to ease the pressure on pubs. Simon Emeny, the pub company’s chief executive, also called for an immigration system that allowed the industry to continue recruiting the employees it needs. In the half year to September 28, rising rates and wage costs reduced the operating margin on its managed pubs and hotels division from 15.1% to 14.1%, with operating profits down 2% to £22.1 million, despite like-for-like sales growth of 2.7%. Mr Emeny, 54, said that industry-wide operating costs had risen by 6%: “We have been anticipating and flagging these cost pressures for the last two years and the impact can now quite clearly be seen.” |
 | Pure Gym Group (WI) (PGYM) is buying Fitness World Group, a company with 240 gyms across Denmark, Switzerland and Poland with a total of 600,000 members. The combined business will have 1.7 million members and almost 500 gyms with revenues of £426 million. The sellers are FSN Capital, a Norwegian private equity firm, and Kirkbi, the investment vehicle of the family that controls the Lego toy empire. Humphrey Cobbold, Pure Gym’s chief executive, described yesterday’s acquisition as a “transformational deal” that would accelerate its international expansion, which includes plans for trial sites in the US. |
 | JD Sports Fashion (JD.) stumbled earlier in the week when it was revealed that its largest shareholder had sold a big chunk of its holding. Pentland Group, which is run by the Rubin family, the biggest tax-payers in the UK, pocketed £177.6 million as it offloaded a 2.5% stake, although it still controls 51% of the stock. The sale spooked the market and sent JD’s shares tumbling by almost 10%, but analysts at Berenberg reckon that fall has created an “attractive buying opportunity”. “With no changes to JD’s fundamentals, we believe Wednesday’s negative reaction to the Pentland placing is overdone,” said Graham Renwick, a retail analyst at the bank, and his team. Mr Renwick poured cold water over concerns that the company had run its course, while dismissing suggestions that it was “just another Foot Locker” — an American peer that trades at a massive discount compared with JD. “We think that JD deserves to trade at a healthy premium to Foot Locker. Its greater diversification across product, brand and geography makes it a better-positioned business that is less volatile, faster growing and fundamentally more profitable.” In particular, Mr Renwick is a fan of JD Sports’ move into the US with the acquisition of Finish Line last summer, which he argues offers a “compelling growth opportunity”. The analysts remain “enthusiastic buyers” and they increased their price target to 860p after inching up their profit forecasts for the next couple of years. |
 | A full-year trading update from SThree (STHR) left investors disappointed as it blamed Brexit for a slump in UK revenues. Net fees in Britain fell 9% year-on-year, while the fourth quarter was particularly bad for the group as a whole, with fee growth of only 1%. That was below expectations of about 3% and well shy of the 9% it recorded in each of the first two quarters. |
| made a solid start to life as a listed company. Shares in the business, which provides a range of services to fund managers and institutional investors, started trading on Aim yesterday. They were floated at 57p ahead of the initial public offering, but closed 2p higher on their debut. The IPO valued MJ Hudson at just shy of £100 million and the company raised £29.3 million of new money which it will use to expand the business in the UK, Europe and the US. Dankse Bank, the largest bank in Denmark, now owns 5.1% of the stock, while Canaccord Genuity, which had backed the company before, increased its holding to 16.7%. Matthew Hudson, the founder and chief executive, chose not to cash in any of his shares, although several employees did, making a combined £2.1 million. Mr Hudson and his wife, Katherine, still own a 27.9% stake in the business he set up in 2010 and which had more than 750 clients. | |
 | Tempus – Relx plc (REL): Hold. Little to suggest that its reliably predictable earnings increases are likely to end anytime soon |
 | Tempus – Babcock International Group (BAB): Buy. Undervalued, with an improving balance sheet and plenty of prospects |
| Advertising mogul Lord Saatchi quit the agency that bears his name in protest at what he saw as his co-founders’ refusal to submit to new leadership and scrutiny, despite serious accounting failures that have plunged it into a deep crisis. The 73-year-old was part of a push to overhaul the boardroom at M&C Saatchi (SAA) that ended on Tuesday night with his resignation, along with the company’s three independent non-executive directors. Insiders told The Telegraph that the walkout was triggered by the refusal of M&C Saatchi co-founders Jeremy Sinclair, Bill Muirhead and David Kershaw to accept new supervision or a rapid investigation of accounting practices. |
 | Billionaire Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson has shared in a £42m payday from running now-axed train services. Virgin Group and Stagecoach Group (SGC), founded by transport magnates Sir Richard and Sir Brian Souter, collected the bumper dividend in the 12 months to March – their last full year operating the West Coast main line. The payouts, revealed in accounts filed with Companies House this week, come as the duo relinquish their grip on the after more than two decades in charge. Sir Brian, who founded Stagecoach in 1980, on Wednesday announced he is stepping down as chairman. He and his family are the largest shareholder in the transport operator. |
 | Embattled investor Mark Barnett has been fired from running the £1.3bn Edinburgh Inv Trust (EDIN) due to poor performance. Investment trusts, unlike open-ended funds, have independent boards that can hand assets to another company if it sees fit. Mark Barnett, who works for American fund house Invesco, has run the trust since 2014 after taking over from his mentor and colleague Neil Woodford. He ran the investments in the same style as his predecessor, aiming to provide a growing income by investing in undervalued British companies known as “value stocks, with a preference for smaller businesses. |
 | Ousted Superdry (SDRY) boss Euan Sutherland is to take charge of over-50s travel and insurance firm Saga (SAGA) as it battles to recover from a share price slump. He will take over on Jan 6 following the retirement of chief executive Lance Batchelor, who will stay on as a director until the end of next month. Mr Sutherland left ailing fashion retailer Superdry in April in a boardroom coup when investors handed control back to the company’s founder Julian Dunkerton. He was previously head of the Co-Operative Group, where some colleagues branded him “Pol Pot” because they felt he had tried to revolutionise the business too quickly. |
 | Questor: H&T Group (HAT) has endured four months of ups and downs. What should investors do? Questor share tip: strong results and an opportunistic acquisition were followed by a review of lending practices that could lead to ‘redress’ payments |
 | De La Rue (DLAR) can print money but struggles to make it. After losing UK passport contract, company is more reliant on exotic currency customers |
| M&C Saatchi (SAA) implosion sparked by accounting woes dispute. Directors quit after pressing for change at top of advertising group and questioning bonuses |
| Lex – JD Sports Fashion (JD.)/Pentland: right royal Rubin. Foreign expansion is driving growth but becoming the US ‘king of trainers’ will be a stretch |
| Lex – Stagecoach Group (SGC)/Brian Souter: a driven man. A new administration may make the transport group’s path even trickier to navigate |
| Saga (SAGA) hires former Superdry boss as chief executive. Shares at over-50s specialist have shed three-quarters of their value in five years |
| Stagecoach Group (SGC) co-founder Brian Souter to step down. Management shake-up at group follows loss of three big contracts in past 18 months |
| Saudi Aramco has secured its position as the most valuable listed company in history after investor appetite for the world’s biggest fossil fuel producer pushed its market value to $1.9tn (£1.4tn) on its first day of trade. Shares in the Saudi state-backed oil company defied Aramco’s critics by climbing nearly $200bn above the $1.7tn valuation set before its market debut on Riyadh’s stock exchange. The world’s biggest contributor to the climate crisis had been valued at more than Apple and Facebook – previously the world’s most valuable and fifth-most valuable companies respectively – combined. It is also twice the size of Amazon and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, and bigger than the next five listed oil companies put together. The record market listing is expected to keep rising on its second day of trade on the Tadawul stock exchange on Thursday after Aramco’s share price surge was capped at 10% under rules designed to safeguard market stability. | |
| Stagecoach Group (SGC) co-founder and longtime chairman, Sir Brian Souter, is to step down at the end of the year but will remain on the board as a non-executive director. He said the moment was right to spend more time with his family and on his other interests. The Scottish businessman, who has been a major donor to the Scottish National party, became a billionaire by growing a handful of buses into a multinational company spanning rail and bus routes. He remains a major shareholder in the group. Souter’s sister and Stagecoach co-founder, Ann Gloag, is also retiring from a non-executive director position on the board on 31 December. Ray O’Toole, a non-executive director, will be appointed as chairman. |
| The ousted former boss of Superdry (SDRY) will swap leather jackets for cruises and insurance for older customers after being hired to turn around Saga (SAGA), the struggling over-50s services provider. Euan Sutherland will take over the running of Saga in January from Lance Batchelor, who announced in June that he would be stepping down as chief executive after a profit warning sent shares plunging. Batchelor will leave the company at the end of January. Sutherland walked out of Superdry in March after five years at the helm when the fashion company’s founder, Julian Dunkerton, forced his way back on to the board in a dramatic shareholder vote. |
 | BT Group (BT.A) is to launch a monthly pass allowing sport fans to watch content including Premier League and Champions League football without a contract for the first time, as viewers move away from high-priced, long-term deals towards the flexibility offered by streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix. BT has previously used its portfolio of rights, including Premiership Rugby, boxing and wrestling, as a carrot to lock consumers into contracts for broadband, phone and TV services. The new £25-a-month pass allows anyone to dip in and out of BT Sport without having to pay hundreds of pounds over an annual contract. |
| The brother-and-sister team that set up Stagecoach Group (SGC) is vacating the driving seat after the transport group showed declining revenues in the last six months. Sir Brian Souter, 65, will step down as chairman but stay on the board, while Dame Ann Gloag will retire from the board. The siblings grew the business into what is now claimed to be Britain’s biggest bus, coach and tram operator, employing 24,000 people, and with more than 8,300 vehicles. Souter said: ‘The time is right for me to step down to spend time on my other interests and with my family.’ |
| Mark Barnett, the former protege of fallen fund manager Neil Woodford, has been fired from running a £1.1billion investment trust. The independent board of the Edinburgh Inv Trust (EDIN) said yesterday that it had sacked Barnett after ‘another weak result’. It comes as a further humiliation for the 48-year-old fund manager, who has been shunned in the City following the downfall of his former mentor Woodford. Glen Suarez, the Edinburgh trust’s chairman, said: ‘I am disappointed by another weak result for the company in the interim results, extending the period of underperformance to beyond three years.’ Barnett’s employer, US fund house Invesco, revealed last month that it was scaling back his role. Formerly the sole head of UK equities, Barnett will share the role with a colleague from next year. |
| JD Sports Fashion (JD.) was the biggest loser on the FTSE 100 after the retailer’s top shareholder cut its stake in the company. Pentland, which is still a majority owner with a 55% stake, said it is committed to remain a ‘long-term majority investor’ despite the sale. ‘Pentland is committed to remaining a long-term majority shareholder in JD at the same time as growing our portfolio of sports, outdoor and fashion brands through organic investment and acquisitions,’ said chairman Stephen Rubin. ‘Today’s share sale enables us to further this strategy by realising a small portion of our shareholding in JD to fund future investment activity, as well as increasing the free float to meet the increasing interest expressed in JD by other shareholders.’ |
 | Software provider Sopheon (SPE) fell after it said several contracts it expected to ink in the fourth quarter have been pushed back to 2020. The company, whose existing clients include Siemens and Pepsico, still has the same pipeline of work despite the ‘shift in timing’. It is the selected bidder for some of this work already – and could pin down another £7.5million worth by the end of this year. |
| The departures of co-founder Maurice Saatchi, House of Cards author Lord Dobbs and two other directors sent M&C Saatchi (SAA) into reverse. The boardroom exodus came just days after the advertising company issued its second profit warning in three months due to an accounting scandal. The board originally wanted chief executive David Kershaw to step down. But after taking soundings, it was clear major shareholders would be keen to see him stay to fix the £11.6million black hole in its accounts. On that advice, executive director Saatchi and non-executive directors Dobbs, Sir Michael Peat and Lorna Tilbian all quit, M&C Saatchi revealed on Tuesday. |
 | Business has been booming so much at the AA (AA.) that it is intending to use some of the cash it has generated to buy back some bonds – ‘imminently’. CMC Markets chief market analyst Michael Hewson said the news ‘appears to be predicated on the basis that, having had a torrid year, the outlook appears to be stabilising’. |
| Revenues at DWF Group PLC (DWF) rose 10% to £147million in the first half, though profits fell 12% to £5million as costs grew. DWF also announced it has expanded into Spain with the purchase of Rousaud Costas Duran for up to £42.5m in a cash-and-shares deal. It is DWF’s biggest takeover so far and will add 40 new partners to the group. | |
 | IG Group Holdings (IGG) edged lower after it appointed a new chairman. Robert McTighe, who also chairs BT Openreach, will take over from interim chair Jonathan Moulds on February 3. |
| Shares in newly floated Saudi Aramco surged by 10 per cent yesterday as the world’s biggest initial public offering was hailed as a success by the government in Riyadh. The state-controlled oil giant closed at 35.2 riyals ($9.39) on the first day of dealings on the Riyadh stock exchange after rising by the maximum permitted under local rules. It gave Saudi Aramco a market value of almost $1.9 trillion, confirming it as the world’s most valuable listed company, well ahead of $1.2 trillion Apple. It is larger than the five biggest multinational oil companies combined. Saudi Aramco priced its IPO last week when it raised a record $25.6 billion, more than the $25 billion raised by Alibaba, the Chinese technology group, in 2014. | |
| Neil Woodford’s former protégé has been sacked as the manager of the £1.3 billion Edinburgh Inv Trust (EDIN) after a prolonged period of underperformance. The sacking deepens the turmoil surrounding Mark Barnett, the Invesco stockpicker. Last month he was forced to publicly apologise for the poor performance of two other funds he runs at Invesco after Morningstar, an influential research firm, raised concerns about the portfolios. Mr Barnett, 49, has come under scrutiny after his former mentor became engulfed in crisis. He previously worked closely with Mr Woodford, who spent 26 years at Invesco before leaving in 2014 to set up on his own. |
| Stagecoach Group (SGC) has rearranged the seating on its top deck with founder Sir Brian Souter stepping down as chairman to become a non-executive director while sister Dame Ann Gloag leaves the board completely. The company yesterday revealed how much it has shrunk since its withdrawal from the US and its forced departure from railways in Britain, and how it now intends to start growing again with plans to enter the European passenger transport market. News of the moves by Sir Brian, 65, and Dame Ann, 77, who between them own nearly 25% of the company, fuelled speculation in the City that he may be hatching a buyout of the company. |
| M&C Saatchi (SAA) is aiming to hire four new independent directors by the end of next month in an attempt to stem the turmoil at the advertising company. Sources said the company has accelerated its search for fresh non-executives after four board members resigned on Tuesday, including Lord (Maurice) Saatchi, its co-founder. Jeremy Sinclair, 73, chairman, hopes to have agreed the new hires by the end of January, the sources said. |
 | António Horta-Osório has promised that Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) will “reflect, listen to our customers and change” after a critical review of how the lender treated fraud victims. The chief executive of Lloyds apologised “unreservedly” for the bank’s failings in a letter to Kevin Hollinrake, the former MP who has campaigned on behalf of small business owners whose livelihoods were damaged or destroyed by the HBOS Reading scam. Mr Horta-Osório promised to work with victims, their representatives and the City regulator after an independent review of the bank’s compensation scheme for those who lost out to the £1 billion crime found that it had not led to fair or reasonable outcomes. |
| A twice-bitten turnaround specialist has been hired to lead a third embattled company, Saga (SAGA). Euan Sutherland was named yesterday as chief executive of the insurance-to-cruises group for the over-50s. He replaces Lance Batchelor who announced plans for his departure in June after a profits warning. Mr Sutherland, 50, quit Superdry, the fashion retailer, in April after shareholders in effect gave him the thumbs-down by approving a boardroom coup that restored its co-founder Julian Dunkerton to the business. In 2014 he abruptly left Co-op Group, where he had been chief executive for only ten months, after a row with its 22 directors. He said that the mutually owned group was “ungovernable” after details of his £3.6 million pay packet were leaked. |
| Strong cashflows from being the self-styled fourth emergency service will mean that AA (AA.) begins to address its debt mountain, a legacy from its flotation by the private equity funds CVC and Permira five and a half years ago. The news that trading has been good and that it is dealing with a £2.6 billion borrowing millstone took shares in AA off their recent lows. The company has a turnover of just under £1 billion a year turnover and profits of little more than £100 million. |
| A row has broken out between Mike Ashley’s and Harrods over the closure of a House of Fraser department store in Milton Keynes. Sports Direct, which promised to turn House of Fraser into the “Harrods of the high street”, is shutting the outlet in Milton Keynes shopping centre and blaming the Knightsbridge store for the resulting 172 job losses. Mr Ashley, chief executive of Sports Direct, claims that he has offered to redevelop the House of Fraser in the Centre MK, or take only part of the store, but that Harrods, which has a legacy to the lease, has thwarted his efforts because it wants part of the store back for its new H Beauty concept. Harrods was bought by House of Fraser in 1959, which in turn was bought by Mohamed Fayed in 1985 before being separated into a private business in 1994. Harrods has a historical lease contract which means that if the Milton Keynes store becomes vacant the lease reverts to Harrods. | |
 | Europe’s biggest travel group is to cut its dividend to give it the resources to counter the challenging market and invest in growth. TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) said that for the year to the end of September it would pay a dividend of €0.54 a share, down from €0.72 last year, in line with its policy of benchmarking the payout in line with underlying earnings, which were lower. From this financial year onwards, however, Tui, an Anglo-German group, said that it would realign its dividend policy and pay out 30 to 40% of its underlying earnings, with a minimum payout of €0.35 a share. Fritz Joussen, its chief executive, said that the change would give the group scope to invest in its digital strategy. |
| DWF Group PLC (DWF) said that it had agreed to buy Rousaud Costas Duran, an independent Spanish firm with offices in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. It will pay up to £42.5 million in shares and cash and expects the deal to be accretive to adjusted earnings per share in the first financial year after completion. Andrew Leaitherland, chief executive, said that the deal would provide a network across the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America. | |
| The biggest investor in JD Sports Fashion (JD.) has sold a stake worth almost £180 million, putting the company’s shares under pressure in a rare blip for one of the retail sector’s star performers. Pentland Group, which has had a holding in the retailer for the past 14 years, offloaded 24 million shares, equivalent to 2.47% of JD Sports’ shares, in a 740p-a-share placement. The privately-owned group remains the company’s largest shareholder, controlling 55% of the business. It has committed to not reducing its stake below 50%. |
 | Majestic Wine (WINE) is to kickstart store openings after the completion yesterday of the acquisition of the chain by Fortress Investment Group, of America, from Naked Wines for £95 million. John Colley, who has returned as executive chairman two years after leaving the group, said that he had earmarked a small number of locations, including St Andrews, Marlow and Henley. He said that the group, which has 197 stores across the UK plus two in France compared to a peak of 213, would also seek new sites in prime locations where it was forced to give up the property. He cited its Blackheath store, which opened recently as a replacement for its Greenwich outlet. |
 | Investors looking to take a punt on Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) after its recent share price fall and subsequent demotion from the FTSE 100 should think again, says Numis, the City stockbroker. Shares in Hiscox have plunged by a quarter since the summer, which could lead some to think that they are now an “attractive prospect”. But don’t be fooled, warn Numis analysts. “We feel downside risk remains prominent, most notably in the form of potential capital strain if there are further earnings setbacks over the next 12 months, [such as] catastrophe events or reserve shortfalls,” they said in a research note. The analysts cut their recommendation to “add” from “hold”, which is still more bullish than their peers at Investec. The number-crunchers there repeated their “sell” recommendation, claiming that Hiscox’s share price, based on its current earnings forecasts, is “untenable”. |
 | SSP Group (SSPG) rose 8p to 645p after it was upgraded to “overweight” by Morgan Stanley. Issues, including weakening like-for-like sales and slowing margin growth, have kept the shares in a tight range, but Morgan Stanley thinks it can be a “high-flier” once again. Not only do the analysts think it can repeat last year’s organic sales growth of about 8%, but they also expect margins to come in better than the market is forecasting. “Guidance for flat margins would break a decade’s track record of expansion,” it said. “SSP has always exceeded its margin guidance, has a strong culture of efficiency gains, and we suspect the new CEO is being understandably conservative.” |
 | The market capitalisation of Petropavlovsk (POG) jumped above £400 million, for the first time in seven years. Its share price has more than doubled this year and they were up another ¾p, or 6.8 per cent, yesterday to 13p. The surging gold price has been behind the rise. |
 | Kromek Group (KMK) value jump by a quarter after it posted a bumper set of first-half results. Revenues over the six months to the end of October rose by 43% to a record £5.3 million, driven by increased demand for its DS3 radiation detector, used to detect dirty bombs. |
| Tempus – Marks & Spencer Group (MKS): Buy. Inexpensive play on a recovering retailer that would shine again if its latest turnaround works |
 | Tempus – Aggreko (AGK): Hold. Global leader in its field that still has growth options |
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