  | Wincanton (WIN) has abandoned efforts to buy troubled rival Eddie Stobart Logistics (ESL). The logistics firm said it had decided to drop its plans because of concerns about haulage group Eddie Stobart’s financial performance and liquidity. It means an alternative rescue deal put together by major shareholder DBAY Advisors, backed by the company’s board, is likely to go ahead. Eddie Stobart said it was disappointed with Wincanton’s decision.The firm was plunged into crisis in August when a black hole in its accounts of more than £2million was discovered, triggering the suspension of its shares and the exit of boss Alex Laffey. |
 | Future (FUTR) boss is in line for a bonus worth more than £18million. Zillah Byng-Thorne is expected to be handed about 1.24m shares under a performance-related scheme after hitting targets on profits and the stock price at the magazine publisher. Shares in the business – which publishes 132 titles including Classic Rock, Four Four Two and Total Film – stood at 83p when she took over in April 2014. Last night they closed up 66p, at 1480p. An investor who bought £1,000 of Future shares when Byng-Thorne became chief executive would have stock worth nearly £18,000. |
| Mike Ashley’s is to change its name to Frasers as the tycoon continues his efforts to go upmarket. The retailer last night said it would hold a shareholder vote on the change at a meeting on December 16 in London. It would see Sports Direct’s stock market ticker change from SPD to FRAS the next day. But it will not affect the Sports Direct stores. The change is almost certain to be approved because the vote requires 75% support and Ashley controls 63% of shares. | |
 | Unilever (ULVR) has insisted that PG Tips is not for sale. Nitin Paranjpe, the consumer group’s chief operating officer, said the tea remained a ‘strong brand’ and that it was looking for ways to boost sales. The comments came after the consumer goods giant, which also owns Marmite and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, reportedly told investors that it wanted to ‘be rid’ of its black tea businesses because of changing customer tastes. But asked if PG Tips had a future at the company, Paranjpe said: ‘We believe it does, and we are working to see how we will drive growth in those areas.’ But he did not rule out a sale in future. |
 | Hopes that snapping up Wagamama would boost troubled Frankie & Benny’s owner Restaurant Group (RTN) have been dented after it said growth had slowed. Shares in The Restaurant Group slid 7% on Monday morning after the firm warned that even the recently-acquired popular Asian food chain Wagamama will not be immune to the headwinds battering the casual dining sector. While sales continued to grow and Wagamama celebrated its first ever £1million takeaway week, the chain’s growth has slipped back from double-digit figures. As the restaurant reported a marked slowdown in growth, Wagamama boss Emma Woods said: ‘We look forward to 2020, and whilst we don’t expect to be immune to the various headwinds facing our industry, we will stay true to our positive culture and growth mindset,’ she said. |
 | Gold mining minnow Ariana Resources (AAU) rocketed after it signed an agreement to potentially partner with a Turkish construction group. Under the deal, known as a memorandum of understanding, the unnamed construction firm would spend more than £23million buying stakes in two of Ariana’s mining projects in Turkey. The possible partner would also inject a further £6million directly into developing one of the mines. |
 | International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) was in favour as investors welcomed a pay deal with its pilots’ union. Traders – as well as passengers – will be hoping the pact with Balpa heads off the risks of strikes at Christmas. The disagreement over pilots’ pay led to the first strikes in BA’s history in September, which saw 2,325 flights cancelled and cost IAG around £121million. Balpa has recommended a deal worth 12% over three years to its members, and the deal also agrees to improve working conditions and rostering. Members of the union still need to vote it through, but the City seems optimistic. |
 | Solgold (SOLG) surged to 21.65p after heavyweight mining business BHP Group PLC (BHP) paid £17million to raise its holding in the company from 11% to 14.7%, making it the largest shareholder. BHP bought 77m shares at 22.15p – 13% higher than the price of Solgold’s stock before the deal. It is another sign that big miners are keen to buy into copper projects as demand for electric cars soars. |
| will be renamed Frasers Group as owner Mike Ashley aims to elevate the company’s image. The move follows the retailer’s recent decision to launch an upmarket department store called Frasers that will offer brands from its House of Fraser, Flannels, Sports Direct and USC brands. The company said the move reflects its “transformation into the holder of a diversified portfolio of sports, fitness, fashion and lifestyle fascias”. “The change of name will not affect any rights of shareholders and existing share certificates should be retained as they will remain valid and no new share certificates will be issued.” | |
| Eddie Stobart Logistics (ESL) has attacked rival Wincanton (WIN) for failing to submit a takeover bid, leaving investors with just one option to rescue the troubled trucking company. The firm said it was “disappointed” with Wincanton, which had been given access to confidential files belonging to one of its fiercest rivals. Wincanton dropped out of the running on Monday afternoon, citing concerns about Eddie Stobart’s finances. Eddie Stobart is racing to secure fresh funding after being plunged into crisis earlier this year. It revealed a multimillion-pound hole in its accounts three months ago, leading to its shares being suspended and the chief executive stepping down with immediate effect. |
| Slowing sales at Wagamama and a gloomy outlook sent shares in its owner the Restaurant Group (RTN) tumbling on Monday. The noodle chain’s UK like-for-like sales rose 6.3% in the three months to September – less than half the 12.9% growth posted in the previous quarter. Sales in the US were up 12.5%. Shares fell sharply before recovering some losses to be 6% lower at 137.2p as some analysts also downgraded the the Restaurant Group’s other chains, Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito, in light of weak restaurant and cinema attendance data. It came as Emma Woods, chief executive, warned that Wagamama would not be immune to the “various headwinds facing our industry” next year. |
  | One of BT Group (BT.A) challengers in the race to upgrade Britain to full-fibre broadband is attempting to tear up its exclusive partnership with Vodafone Group (VOD) as part of a bid by its new owners to accelerate progress. Cityfibre, which was taken private for £538m in 2018 by Antin Infrastructure Partners and Goldman Sachs, is in talks to radically restructure a contract it signed two years ago. It grants Vodafone exclusive rights to sell broadband on the first phase of its new network. Under the current terms, CityFibre is unable to wholesale access to its first million full-fibre lines to Vodafone’s rivals while they are being built. |
 | A suitor for Just Eat (JE.) has attacked a rival bid as “wholly inadequate” and an attempt to buy the British delivery company “on the cheap”. Amsterdam-listed Takeaway.com labelled an approach by investment fund Prosus as “opportunistic” and claimed its offer was “superior”. Just Eat and Takeaway.com announced plans for an all-share merger in July after facing pressure from activist investor Cat Rock for several months. Prosus hit back at the rival bidder, with its chief executive Bob van Dijk saying that Takeaway.com’s offer “represents significant risk to Just Eat shareholders” as it doesn’t effectively address the investment needs of the company. |
| Eddie Stobart Logistics (ESL) is set to revert into the hands of a previous owner after a putative takeover by Wincanton (WIN), a rival, fell apart. Caught up in an accounting crisis, its profits halving and its chief executive having been forced out of the cab, Britain’s most famous trucking company looks set to fall back into the ownership of DBay, an investment firm formerly known as Laxey Partners, which floated the business two and half years ago. Eddie Stobart Logistics has been in the haulage business for more than half a century and is famed for its delivery lorries decked in red and green livery, each with their own name. It operates 2,500 lorries and employs 6,000 people. |
| Retail sales appear to have held firm this month amid signs of optimism on the high street as stores gear up for Christmas. According to the CBI, sales volumes have been broadly unchanged in November, with a net balance of -3% of respondents reporting increased sales over the year, the highest figure for seven months and better than the -10 per cent that had been forecast by analysts. The findings from the business lobby group’s distributive trades survey will provide some relief to economists. Consumers account for about two thirds of national output and have been the most robust sector of the economy in recent months. However, the retail sector has struggled because of rising costs and competition from online stores. | |
| is to rename itself Frasers Group as part of Mike Ashley’s attempt to push his retail empire upmarket. The company said yesterday that it had called a general meeting for December 16 to ask its shareholders to approve the name change, which comes before a plan to roll out a chain of luxury Frasers stores. The branding of the group’s Sports Direct shops will not be affected. The revamp marks the latest stage of Mr Ashley’s strategy to expand the company beyond its roots as a sportswear retailer and to overhaul its image. The tycoon, 55, started the business as a single shop in Maidenhead in 1982 called Mike Ashley Sports. | |
 | National Grid (NG.) has agreed to pay $36 million to end a dispute over gas supplies in New York after the state’s governor threatened to strip it of its licence to operate. The utility group backed down in its stand-off with Andrew Cuomo yesterday, agreeing to lift its moratorium on connecting new customers with immediate effect. The governor had set a deadline of today for National Grid to respond to prevent the state moving to revoke its licence. Mr Cuomo, 61, said that the company would pay $36 million as “a significant penalty for its failure to address the supply issue, its abuse of its customers and the adverse economic impact they have caused”. |
| The South African technology group attempting to gatecrash a recommended takeover of Just Eat (JE.) is under mounting pressure to up the ante after its cash offer was dismissed as “wholly inadequate”. Naspers, acting through its Amsterdam-listed Prosus subsidiary, is offering 710p a share in cash, while Takeaway.com, another listed Dutch company, has agreed an all-share proposal worth about 682p at last night’s close. Although the Prosus offer is higher, Just Eat favours the Takeaway.com merger because it would give shareholders exposure to “one of the leading online food delivery companies in the world with scale, strategic vision, industry-leading capabilities, leading positions in attractive markets and a diversified geographic presence”. |
| The collapse of Neil Woodford’s investment empire has drained liquidity from Aim, the market for small companies, and has made investors wary of thinly traded shares, a leading stockbroker has warned. Sam Smith, chief executive of finnCap (FCAP), said that the implosion of Woodford Investment Management had been “a nail in the coffin of an already quite difficult trading environment” for London’s junior stock market. “It was a huge problem in our market, the whole fund having to wind down,” she said. Mr Woodford, 59, is embroiled in crisis after he invested part of his under-performing £2.9 billion Equity Income Fund in unquoted companies and other listed small businesses whose shares are hard to sell. | |
| Wagamama continues to spice up the performance of Restaurant Group (RTN), although the rate of like-for-like sales growth in its core UK business slowed in the second quarter. According to the latest filing for Wagamama bondholders, the Japanese noodle bar chain reported UK like-for-like sales growth of 6.3% in the 13 weeks to September 29, well ahead of the wider casual dining sector. The rate of growth slowed from 12.9% in the first quarter and 9.7% for the previous 12 months, although it claimed that it had now traded ahead of the market every week for the past 287 weeks, outperforming its competitors by 5.1% in the second quarter. |
 | Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’ (RDSB) has suffered a setback in its push into green energy after losing out to Mitsubishi in the €4 billion battle for a Dutch power utility. The Anglo-Dutch energy group had been pursuing the acquisition of Eneco in a joint bid with PGGM, a Dutch pension fund service provider, but it was beaten yesterday by the Japanese conglomerate. Maarten Wetselaar, head of Shell’s “new energies” division, said that he was “disappointed” but would continue to look for other opportunities in the transition to greener energy. Shell reported profits of $24 billion last year, primarily from producing and selling oil and gas, but it is expanding into the electricity sector. |
 | Polar Capital Holdings (POLR) has been hit by almost £450 million of net outflows after it closed one of its Japan-focused funds and after a long-term client withdrew money from its two main portfolios. Polar Capital said yesterday that it had suffered £448 million of net outflows during the six months to the end of September, despite a rise in overall assets under management to £14.3 billion from £13.8 billion at March 31. The outflows were offset by a £915 million gain caused by market movements and fund performance. Investors pulled money after the asset manager said that it would merge an underperforming Japanese fund with its Japan Value Fund. The merger was completed last month. |
| BHP Group PLC (BHP) has raised its stake in an Ecuadorian copper and goldmine developer with a further £17 million investment. BHP will become the biggest shareholder in the London-listed Solgold (SOLG), overtaking Newcrest, after increasing its stake to 14.7%, from 11.1%. Shares in Solgold rose yesterday after it announced the deal, in which it will issue 77 million new shares priced at 22.15p per share. BHP is an Anglo-Australian group with underlying net profits of $9.1 billion last year, producing iron ore, coal, copper and oil. Global miners are seeking to increase their exposure to copper, which is forecast to be in increasing demand as the world electrifies |
 | HSBC Holdings (HSBA) top duo put futures on line with overhaul. Interim CEO Noel Quinn and CFO Ewen Stevenson know plan to streamline brings risks |
| Louis Vuitton’s owner LVMH is closing in on a £13billion deal to buy high-end jeweller Tiffany & Co. Tiffany, worn by celebrities such as Lady Gaga, has managed to squeeze even more money out of LVMH since the luxury goods group first declared its interest last month. The French firm, led by Europe’s richest man Bernard Arnault, originally proposed an all-cash offer of $120 per Tiffany share. Its latest bid stands at $135 per share, the Financial Times reported. The boards of both Tiffany and LVMH were set to meet last night to discuss the latest offer. A deal could be announced today. | |
| More than 1,000 betting shops have closed since April at a rate of four a day, analysis by The Mail on Sunday reveals. Betfred founder Fred Done last night said bookmakers had been left ‘fighting for their lives’ by a Government crackdown on addictive betting machines in April – and are being forced to scale back drastically as a result. New laws to tackle Britain’s gambling epidemic slashed the amount punters can bet on fixed odds betting terminals (FOBTs) from £100 to £2, wiping as much as 60% off betting shop profits. Analysis of company data showed bookies have shuttered 1,017 shops since the April ruling – and they have earmarked 982 more for closure by 2021. That would mean almost 2,000 of Britain’s 8,423 bricks-and mortar outlets closing within a three-year period, changing the face of high streets across the country. The prospect of culling around one in four betting shops is likely to be welcomed by those who see bookies as a blight on communities. But it would place in jeopardy more than 11,000 jobs, or around 10 per cent of the UK gambling industry’s workforce. |
| French conglomerate LVMH is closing in on a deal to buy Tiffany after tabling a higher offer for the New York-based jeweller. The Paris-based luxury group, controlled by Europe’s richest man Bernard Arnault, has raised its bid to $135 per share, the Financial Times reported. The boards of both companies are expected to meet on Sunday to approve the offer. Arnault’s latest bid for the US maker of diamond engagement rings values the company at $16.7bn, after Tifanny rebuffed LVMH’s initial $14.5bn offer, which would have given investors $120-per-share. LVMH and Tiffany did not immediately respond to requests for comment. |
| The boss of Future (FUTR), the publisher behind Classic Rock and Total Film, is in line for a payday of nearly £18 million after overseeing a twenty-fold surge in its share price over the past five years. Zillah Byng-Thorne, chief executive of Future, is expected to receive 1.24 million shares from a long-term incentive scheme after hitting all her performance targets. The award, worth £17.5 million at last week’s close, could vest as soon as today. The payout for Ms Thorne, 45, could stoke tensions with shareholders. She took home £4.78 million in the 12 months to the end of September last year, including a £1.45 million long-term share bonus. |
 | Labour has accused two of Britain’s biggest energy operators of “prolonging the rip-off” of consumers after they shifted their ownership offshore in order to complicate the party’s promise to renationalise them. National Grid (NG.) and SSE (SSE) confirmed yesterday that they had created new companies for the parts of their businesses deemed vulnerable to a Labour seizure and had registered them in jurisdictions in Switzerland, Luxembourg or Hong Kong. Both companies said that they had moved to protect the interests of their owners, which include smaller investors and local authority pension funds, with Labour committed to buying back the assets at a discount to their present value. |
 | Dignity (DTY), one of Britain’s biggest funeral providers, has complained to the advertising regulator after a comparison website published its nationwide prices online. Dignity has claimed that the prices on the website of Beyond, formerly called Funeralbooker, are misleading and “denigrate” Dignity’s service, adding that comments left on the page “misleadingly implied they had been written by members of the public”. The Advertising Standards Authority said that it would publish its decision “in due course”. Concerns about the cost of funerals have prompted an investigation into the industry by the Competition and Markets Authority. The Treasury also has been examining the pre-paid funeral market and it said in June that it planned to introduce statutory regulation of pre-arranged funerals. |
 | Ocado Group (OCDO) could soon launch a rapid response delivery service in the US to take on fast-growing rivals such as Uber Eats and American technology start-up Takeoff. It would be similar to the company’s fledgling Zoom service, currently being tested in West London, which delivers to the door in less than an hour. Ocado finance director Duncan Tatton-Brown is understood to have presented the idea to potential investors at a meeting in Barcelona. He said the plan could form part of the company’s ‘developing’ relationship with $120billion (£93billion) retailer Kroger and would cater to the growing demand for same-day delivery in major cities. The launch of Ocado Zoom – first revealed by The Mail on Sunday in February – allows shoppers to order food costing as little as £15 compared with a minimum of £40 through its main service. |
 | Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.), the challenger banking group formerly known as CYBG, is this week set to follow other banks and report a large dent in profit from PPI claims. The lender, which is shedding its less trendy Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank brands in favour of Sir Richard Branson’s famous Virgin name, is expected to reveal a £254million loss in its full-year results on Thursday after being flooded with claims ahead of the deadline in August. Virgin is also forecast to say competition in mortgages drove a two per cent drop in revenues to £1.65billion for 2018/19. CYBG acquired Virgin Money for £1.7 billion last year. It is rebranding stores with the Virgin logo and has changed its name to Virgin Money UK on the London Stock Exchange. |
 | Banking giant Lloyds is slashing 416 jobs to cut costs. Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) said it is creating 180 jobs in other parts of the bank. But that still leaves it with 1,122 fewer staff overall than a year ago. The bank is trying to reduce its total costs by more than £200million this year as it struggles to raise revenues due to low interest rates. Lloyds has also shut 112 branches, leaving some communities without any bank branches at all. The latest job cuts will affect its retail and commercial divisions and will hit a mixture of operational, back office and front office staff. |
 | Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) has poached a Tesco executive to run its troubled clothing department. Richard Price, who runs Tesco’s F&F brand, will take over as managing director of clothing and home at M&S in the new year. He was previously M&S’s menswear trading director for four years until he left in 2012, before which he was the group’s head of merchandise. The move comes after M&S chief executive Steve Rowe took direct control of the clothing and home division when former managing director, Jill McDonald, left in the summer. |
 | Land Securities Group (LAND), which owns the Westgate shopping centre in Oxford, Piccadilly Lights in the West End of London and Brighton Marina, has announced it has hired a new boss one week after post a half-year loss. Mark Allen, chief executive of St Modwen Properties, will take on the top job by no later than 1 June next year, but current boss Robert Noel will stay on at the firm ‘for the time being.’ Mr Allen will rake in a base annual salary of £800,000, and, as well as other benefits, get a £12,000 annual car allowance and be eligible for a £200,000 ‘one-off cash relocation payment.’ Subject to meeting performance conditions, Mr Allen will also be eligible to participate in Landsec’s Long-Term Incentive Plan, with a ‘maximum annual award of 300% of base salary.’ |
| MIDAS SHARE TIPS: Want to safeguard YOUR shares from Corbyn? Stick to the many, not the few! MIDAS VERDICT: Labour is proud of its radical promises. But the effect on ordinary investors and savers would be pernicious if the party gained a majority next month. Fortunately this is unlikely so shareholders would be unwise to up sticks and sell out now. But they should bear in mind that the best portfolio is a diverse portfolio – that means holding shares in a wide range of companies, with business interests in and beyond the UK. |
| Two of the UK’s largest power companies have quietly transferred the ownership of their British operations to offshore companies to protect themselves against Labour’s plan for renationalisation. National Grid (NG.) and SSE (SSE), which together own Britain’s gas and electricity transmission networks, confirmed on Sunday they had created overseas holding companies following Labour’s pledge to restore them to state ownership. SSE has put its UK business into a new Swiss holding company while National Grid has shifted its gas and electricity businesses into subsidiaries in Luxembourg and Hong Kong. The decisions, which follows a similar move by two water companies, are designed to protect their shareholders against any move to buy back the firms without paying what they would consider to be the full market value. |
 | A multinational energy firm accused by prosecutors of maintaining a fake set of accounts to disguise the payment of bribes to foreign government officials has been identified by the Guardian as the UK-based company Petrofac Ltd. (PFC). Petrofac has been under investigation by the UK’s anti-corruption agency, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), for suspected bribery and money laundering. The allegations of corruption have emerged as part of a separate investigation by US prosecutors into another firm, Unaoil. Petrofac said no charges had been brought against any of its companies or current employees since the SFO started its investigation three years ago. In a press statement published by US prosecutors last month, two brothers who ran Unaoil admitted their roles in paying multimillion-dollar bribes to officials in Kazakhstan and eight other countries over 17 years. Cyrus Ahsani, 51, and his brother Saman, 46, who managed Unaoil, pleaded guilty to facilitating the payment of bribes between 1999 and 2016. They admitted conspiring to facilitate bribes on behalf of multinational firms to secure oil and gas contracts for them. The US prosecutors alleged in a legal document published last month that 27 firms around the world conspired with Unaoil to corrupt officials in specified countries. |
| International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) – British Airways has agreed to a provisional pay settlement with its pilots, heading off the threat of Christmas disruption and bringing to an end one of the most damaging disputes in its history. The pilots union, Balpa, has recommended a deal worth 12% over three years to its members, more than a year after talks started and following strikes in September that cost the airline tens of millions of pounds a day. Pilots will still have to vote to accept the deal, which includes guarantees underpinning pay rises to inflation but does not have the profit-sharing scheme they had demanded, according to an email seen by the Financial Times. The deal also offers improvements to working conditions, including rosters. |
 | Legal & General Group (LGEN) has defended its decision to retain Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’ (RDSB) as one of the top stocks in its climate-conscious fund despite a pension client raising concerns about the oil corporation’s inclusion. PensionBee, an online pension provider that handles £650m worth of client assets, said it was being inundated with questions from its customers about the composition of one of Legal & General Investment Management’s Future World Funds, which counts Shell among its top 10 holdings. “While Shell has made some progress in the right direction, our customers are asking us on a daily basis whether Shell’s business model is sufficiently transitioning to a low-carbon economy to warrant continued inclusion in this responsible investment plan,” PensionBee’s chief executive, Romi Savova, said in a letter sent to LGIM this week. PensionBee, which has more than 60,000 customers, is believed to be one of the fund’s top five owners, with about £50m invested. |
| Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) has hired a senior Tesco executive to lead its latest attempt to reinvigorate its struggling clothing business. Richard Price, the head of Tesco’s F&F clothing and homewares label, has worked at M&S before. He spent seven years with the chain, rising to become menswear director, but left in 2012 after becoming disillusioned with the then M&S strategy. Price said: “I left the business because I felt it was drifting in the wrong direction but now feel we have a real chance to make it special again. The new team has already started to improve product and value and I am looking forward to working with them.” The 52 year-old businessman, who also ran the now defunct department store chain BHS for three years, is a more orthodox choice than his predecessor Jill McDonald, a former boss of Halfords and McDonalds who had no fashion experience before joining M&S. She was sacked in the summer after failing to buy enough stock to meet demand of a range promoted by TV presenter Holly Willoughby. M&S boss Steve Rowe described the stock levels as the worst “I have ever seen in my life”. |
  | British American Tobacco (BATS), Imperial Brands (IMB) – New York City could ban flavored vaping products as soon as next week, in a move that would make the metropolis of 8.6 million people the most populous place in America to ban flavored e-cigarettes. The backlash against flavored e-cigarettes has gained momentum after a vaping-linked illness swept across the United States, killing at least 40 people and sickening 2,000 more. Vaping bans have emerged in an effort to curb e-cigarettes’ appeal to young people. New York City was also home to one of the youngest victims of the epidemic: a 17-year-old Bronx boy, who died this October from complications related to the illness. The ban would halt the sale of all flavored e-cigarettes in New York City, except tobacco flavors. Already, there appears to be majority support for the measure in the city council, and the mayor, Bill de Blasio, said he supports the measure. Juul, which dominates the vaping industry, had already stopped selling flavors other than tobacco and menthol in an effort to stymy criticism. |
| Unilever (ULVR) is weighing up a sale of its traditional tea business including its historic PG Tips brand, amid cooling demand for the British cuppa. City sources said Unilever is exploring a sale of PG Tips and Lipton as part of efforts to cater to changing consumer tastes. Sales of black tea bags fell 3.4% last year, according to Kantar. It is understood that Unilever has revealed it could offload its tea unit in City meetings. One top 20 investor said: “Unilever has said ‘black tea, we’d love to be rid of it. Whether they can get someone to pay for it, that’s the million dollar question’.” The Anglo-Dutch company has also publicly hinted at a sale. |
| Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) has poached a senior Tesco executive to run its struggling clothing and home business – one of the toughest challenges in UK retail. The retailer has drafted in Richard Price, who is responsible for Tesco’s own-label clothing brand F&F, in the latest effort to revive sales. M&S has been suffering as rivals such as Primark and the supermarket chains undercut it on price, while shoppers increasingly buy more clothes online. Mr Price will assume the role from M&S chief executive Steve Rowe, who took personal charge of the clothing business after Jill McDonald was ousted by the retailer in July. |
 | The boss of Countryside Properties (CSP) is standing down after announcing a 5% rise in annual profits to £114.8m and increasing the number of homes built by a third to 5,733. Ian Sutcliffe said he planned to join his wife in retirement, having led the FTSE 250 business since 2015 and through its flotation the following year. Its shares have almost doubled since then to 371.8p, valuing the company at close to £1.7bn. Countryside posted a 16% rise in revenue to £5.7bn, although margins fell slightly to 21.7% after buying Westleigh Group. Westleigh focuses on affordable housing, which has lower margins. |
 | Questor: Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) shares are not as cheap as its pints but they’re still worth holding. Questor share tip: stock boasts the highest valuation in the sector but remains investors’ best bet among the boozers |
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