 | Private equity suitors are circling troubled banknote maker De La Rue (DLAR) as they prepare to pick off its more promising businesses. Shares in De La Rue, which lost the prestigious contract to print Britain’s post-Brexit blue passport last year, tumbled last month after the firm released the latest in a string of profit warnings. Predators have now seized on this opportunity to look at snapping up De La Rue’s product authentication arm for a knock-down price. Three private equity firms –one headquartered in the UK and two US firms with London offices – are weighing up a bid for the division. De La Rue’s product authentication unit creates tracking software and physical labels to help prevent trade in fraudulent items, from cigarettes to official football shirts. |
 | Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) has quietly shelved its Classic womenswear label to bring an end to its ‘confusing’ stable of brands. It follows a review of its women’s clothing brands and a drive to appeal to a broader range of shoppers. It will now focus on M&S Collection, Autograph and its recently relaunched Per Una. M&S still has a Classic section on its online shop promising ‘everyday quality’ and ‘timeless tailoring’. But this weekend that part of the website is not displaying any items of clothing and a source said it was on the brink of being removed. Classic was launched in 2001 to appeal directly to women over-55 – once referred to as the chain’s ‘core’ shoppers. A spokeswoman said the ‘best parts’ of the Classic range have now been absorbed into the main M&S Collection. It follows the fate of other former labels including Limited, Portfolio and Indigo. |
 | It’s full steam ahead for the rescue of Titanic manufacturer Harland & Wolff as its buyer prepares to tap investors for £6million. Infrastrata (INFA) will announce a placing of new shares to the market this morning for 0.3p each. It will use the cash to pay £5.25million for Harland & Wolff’s engineering assets, securing the future of the shipyard’s 70 employees. |
 | Kier Group (KIE) has admitted to covering its former chief executive’s home broadband bill in a pay report that is set to trigger a shareholder revolt this week. Influential shareholder advisory groups ISS and Glass Lewis have both told investors to vote against approving the executive payments at the key Government contractor’s annual general meeting on Friday. Kier – which has seen its market value fall from around £1 billion to less than £200 million in a year – paid its board a total of £2.1 million in the year to June, when the firm reported losses of £245 million. The total is down from £5.5 million the year before because Kier did not pay any bonuses in 2018-19. But Kier’s annual report reveals that Haydn Mursell – ousted as chief executive in January after a bungled share sale – still took home £423,000, down from £1.5 million the previous year. |
| Oil titan Saudi Aramco will offer just 0.5% of its shares to individual investors when it floats. The firm, owned by the Saudi Arabian state, published its long-awaited prospectus over the weekend. But the 658-page document was light on detail, and revealed nothing about how much the shares would be valued at, the total percentage of the company which would be sold, or a date for the stock market listing. |
 | Tech giant Prosus is warning Just Eat (JE.) investors that it will walk away from its pursuit of the delivery company if they back a rival plan to merge with Takeaway.com. Despite being armed with a €20bn (£17bn) warchest, boss Bob van Dijk is telling Just Eat shareholders that Prosus is not interested in buying both companies. Just Eat has rejected a £5bn hostile swoop by Prosus, the Dutch arm of South Africa internet titan Naspers. Its board is instead recommending investors support a planned merger with Takeaway.com that was announced this summer. Mr van Dijk is to continue sounding out Just Eat investors this week in the hope of persuading them to back Prosus’ “full and fair” offer. |
  | A top shareholder in Non-Standard Finance (NSF) is exploring a break-up of the doorstep lender in the wake of its failed hostile takeover of larger rival Provident Financial (PFG). Alchemy, which specialises in investing in distressed companies and owns 19% of NSF, is understood to preparing to push the company’s board to offload its personal credit business Loans at Home. One senior City executive with close links to the company said Alchemy was likely to take an “active” role in an overhaul of NSF. Loans at Home is the UK’s third largest provider of instant loans and was acquired by NSF from consumer finance provider S&U in 2015. |
| Investors will start bidding for a slice of the world’s most profitable company Saudi Aramco from next Sunday in what could be the biggest ever stock market listing. The once secretive oil behemoth said in its 658-page IPO prospectus published late Saturday night that it will offer 0.5% of its shares to ordinary investors during the float, roughly $10bn (£7.3bn) worth if it hits its ambitious $2 trillion valuation. The listing will begin on November 17. However key details about the deal, including the offer price and amount of shares being offered, were not included in the prospectus. | |
| A wintry washout dealt a fresh blow to Britain’s retailers, putting off would-be shoppers from venturing out on to the high street last month. Footfall fell 3.2% compared with last year – the largest drop in October for seven years, according to figures released today. Data compiled by the British Retail Consortium and Springboard revealed that high streets had fared worst, falling 4.9%. Shopping centre footfall was 2.4% lower with retail parks, which have been more resilient in recent years, 0.5% down. Retailers bemoaned the rain and cold weather that hit parts of Britain last month. | |
 | Two months into his tenure at Dixons Carphone (DC.) the new boss Alex Baldock launched a scathing attack on his predecessor declaring that he had found “plenty to fix” at the retailer in a classic example of kitchen sinking. His matter-of-fact assessment was served with a profit warning at the end of May last year. Things have arguably gone from bad to worse since. Another profit alert ensued; it had to admit the biggest data breach in UK history, albeit predating Baldock; the City watchdog then slapped Dixons with a £29m fine for mis-selling insurance to its customers a decade ago; there was a shareholder backlash over the chief executive’s £2.3m long-term share bonuses. |
  | Thomas Cook Group (TCG) landing slots at Gatwick and Bristol airports have been sold to easyJet (EZJ) for £36m. The airline said on Friday that it had won the race for the collapsed travel firm’s most valuable asset. Some 12 summer and eight winter slots at Gatwick and six summer and one winter pairs at Bristol will be transferred to the Luton-based carrier. Meanwhile, Jet2 has bought landing slots owned by Thomas Cook at Manchester, Birmingham and Stansted airports for an undisclosed sum, the official receiver said. Thomas Cook was placed into liquidation at the end of September after failing to secure a £1.1bn rescue from lenders and shareholders. |
 | Questor: this little-known Aim firm has built a tech portfolio of fast-growing stocks. Buy. Questor share tip: Draper Esprit (GROW) approach of investing in unlisted early-stage businesses seems to be paying off |
| The risks facing potential investors in Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil producer have been laid bare as the company prepares for what will be the world’s biggest initial public offering. Saudi Aramco has published the prospectus for its listing on the Tadawul stock exchange in Riyadh, a flotation that that could value the business at $1.5 trillion. The document, which was released late on Saturday night and runs to more than 650 pages, was scant on details about the share sale, but it did outline a host of risks, ranging from climate change to social unrest in the Middle East, that could threaten the business. The prospectus brings the longdelayed flotation a step closer. Saudi Aramco is the world’s most profitable company, generating net income of $111 billion last year. It is the world’s largest oil producer, with output of 10.3 million barrels of crude per day in 2018. Its flotation is the brainchild of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 34, who wants to use the money raised from the listing to overhaul the country’s economy. However, the share sale has faced delays and there is scepticism that the deal will achieve the $2 trillion valuation for the company that is being sought. | |
| Wet weather put a dampener on the retail sector last month, with shopper visits to stores declining at the worst rate in October for seven years. Shopper numbers fell by 3.2% year-on-year, according to the British Retail Consortium, the trade body, and Springboard. It was a steeper decline than in September and in both the three-month and annual averages. High streets were hit hardest, with footfall down 4.9% and declining in all but one area in the last week of the month That compared with a 0.5% decrease in retail parks, the first drop in five months, and a 2.4% decline in shopping centres, a slight improvement on the three-month average. | |
  | easyJet (EZJ) is set to step into the void created by the collapse of Thomas Cook Group (TCG) and reveal details of the launch before Christmas of its own package holiday business. Easyjet is to reveal plans to relaunch its own holidays subsidiary next week. Its move into packaged holidays is the fruition of a plan set in motion soon after Johan Lundgren became the airline’s chief executive nearly two years ago. Reworking its existing offering as a package holiday subsidiary puts Easyjet on the other side of the argument put forward by Michael O’Leary, Ryanair Holdings (RYA) chief executive, who said that the collapse of Thomas Cook showed that the age of the package holiday was dead. Mr Lundgren, a former senior executive of the TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI), is understood to believe that a holiday subsidiary will become a “super-ancillary” revenue-raiser for Easyjet at a time when the airline’s company’s financial fortunes are treading water. Next week Easyjet is expected to report a drop of at least 3% in annual pre-tax profits from last year’s £445 million because of record losses suffered last winter and trouble turning its entry into the German market — via the acquisition of assets of the insolvent Air Berlin — into profitability. So-called ancillary revenues, or income additional to fares such as payments for reserved seats, are a strong growth area and already account for more than a fifth of Easyjet’s revenues. |
| Sweden’s state-owned power company is considering quitting the British household energy market after only two and a half years, describing it as a “mess”. Vattenfall entered the market in June 2017 when it bought iSupply Energy, a Bournemouth-based business with about 120,000 household customers. However, Magnus Hall, Vattenfall’s chief executive, said that the market had proved to be “very difficult” because of strong competition and a government-imposed price cap. He said that the utility was considering “how we deal with it” and that one option would be “to potentially divest”. | |
| The annual accounts of Clintons are overdue as the greetings card chain seeks approval from landlords for a restructuring and closure of stores. The retailer is discussing plans to shut 66 of its 332 shops and to cut the rent on a further 206 by agreeing deals linking payments to store performance. The proposed company voluntary arrangement was outlined in meetings with landlords towards the end of last week and KPMG, the Big Four accounting group, is on hand to support the process, It was appointed this year to oversee a strategic review of Clintons. A company voluntary arrangement, or CVA, is an insolvency procedure that allows struggling retailers to cut rents and close stores. | |
| Stores and restaurants are complaining that payment processing companies are holding on to their money and squeezing what are already tight retail cashflows. “[Payment companies] are being really opportunistic and at the slightest whiff of distress they are suddenly holding on to cash for longer, which is the worst thing a business needs when it is going through a tough patch,” one restructuring expert said. The effects can be dramatic. A restructuring industry source said that they could “understand in situations when a customer has put a big order in for furniture and there is a risk that the company might collapse before it is made or delivered, but I can see no reason for why they are extending their hold on cash for restaurants, because there can be no shorter timeframe between ordering a burger and eating it”. | |
 | Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) has struck a deal to sell groceries in Australia in its biggest push to enter the wholesale market and catch up with its rivals. The supermarket has struck a partnership with Coles, Australia’s second biggest food and drink retailer, to supply its 2,400 outlets. Sainsbury’s is understood to be supplying its range of cupboard essentials, such as tins of soup, beans and dried pasta, and its homewares range. The retailer sells cooking equipment such as baking tins under its Tu label, but this will bear the Coles brand name in Australia. Coles wants to increase its range of own-brand products from 25% to about 40%. It has a 27% share of the Australian market but is facing stiff competition from Aldi, the discounter that is taking a similarly aggressive approach to expansion as it has done in Britain. |
| Infrastrata (INFA) is set to raise £6 million to seal the deal to save Harland & Wolff. Infrastrata says that it has launched an equity fundraising to complete the £5.25 million acquisition announced last month of the historic Belfast shipyard, which is much diminished from the days when it was capable of building the Titanic a century ago and supertankers in the 1960s. In recent years it has become a renewable energy fabrication business. The saving of Harland & Wolff from liquidation should lead to the 79 jobs remaining at the yard being saved. Infrastrata has launched an open offer that will allow private investors to subscribe alongside institutional investors and directors. The fundraising book will close today. |
| Employers expect to take on more staff in the final quarter of the year, led by the public sector after the government signalled the end of austerity. The latest labour market outlook report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that public sector employers planned to raise pay and recruitment. The survey of 1,016 employers in September coincided with Sajid Javid, the chancellor, vowing in a spending review to raise public spending after a decade of austerity. Both main parties are promising to open the coffers as they campaign for next month’s general election. The CIPD’s survey recorded a net employment score of +22, up from +18, boosted by a larger proportion of employers expecting to increase, rather than decrease, total staffing levels. The scores were broadly based, but were highest in construction, administration and support services and healthcare.The public sector balance rose sharply from +2 to +14, the highest in more than five years, which the CIPD said was “most likely buoyed by the government’s signalling of the end of austerity”. |
 | The new boss of Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) faces the prospect of government intervention over its failure to persuade small business customers to switch to rival lenders. The official body responsible for overseeing the scheme may impose new conditions on the state-controlled bank to increase the number of switchers. This would represent an embarrassing start for Alison Rose, 49, who took on the top job a week ago and is the first woman to run a big British bank. RBS has been trying to transfer more than 100,000 small business customers over the past decade. It was ordered to make the move by the European Commission as part of state aid penalties after receiving a £46 billion taxpayer-funded bailout in 2008 and 2009. Under the latest version of the plan, launched in February, RBS was meant to switch 120,000 small and medium-sized customers via a specially created website to other banks by next August. |
 | Standard Chartered (STAN) has promised to be more transparent about executive pay after its boss took a £237,000 cut to his pension allowance in an attempt to calm investors’ anger about his retirement benefits. Bill Winters, chief executive, yesterday agreed to halve the £474,000 cash payment he had been due to receive as an allowance. Andy Halford, finance chief, had his allowance halved to £147,000 from £294,000. The cuts, which were revealed by The Times, take effect from January and come after nearly 40% of the bank’s shareholders refused to back the lender’s new executive pay policy at its annual meeting in May. |
 | International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) the group behind British Airways and Iberia of Spain has slashed its expansion plans as it grapples with faltering demand for flights amid waning economic growth. Shares slid to 541¾p after the company said that it was cutting back its forecasts for capacity growth over the next three years. The business now expects “available seat kilometres”, an industry metric, to increase by 3.4% a year between 2020 and 2022, a significant reduction from its previous target of 6% growth between this year and 2023. The downgrade was disclosed at a capital markets day hosted by IAG and comes just a week after Willie Walsh, its chief executive, warned at the group’s third-quarter results that the wider economic environment had softened this year. |
 | Two British budget airlines have bought prized take-off and landing slots at London Gatwick and Manchester airports from Thomas Cook Group (TCG), the failed travel company. easyJet (EZJ) bought Thomas Cook’s slots at Gatwick and Bristol airports for £36 million, while Jet2.com bought slots at Manchester, Birmingham and Stansted for an undisclosed price. Easyjet acquired a dozen summer slot pairs and eight winter slot pairs at Gatwick, as well as six summer slot pairs and one winter slot pair at Bristol. Jet2, which is owned by Dart Group (DTG), took to the air in 2003 and has a fleet of 100 aircraft. It is the third biggest UK airline behind British Airways and Easyjet. |
 | Shares of Games Workshop Group (GAW) jumped after it issued a forecast-beating trading update. The company, which owns and licences the Warhammer game, said that it had performed well since its last update in September, with both sales and profits improved on the same period last year. Royalties were “significantly ahead of the prior year, driven by the timing of guarantee income on signing new licences”. As a result, the group upgraded its first-half guidance, forecasting sales up 12% to at least £140 million and pre-tax profit up 35% to not less than £55 million. Charles Hall, an analyst at Peel Hunt, its house broker, lifted his full-year forecasts by about 9%. |
 | Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) said that Andy Briggs, 53, would join the group on January 1 and would formally replace Clive Bannister, 61, in March after a handover. Mr Briggs, who has spent more than 30 years working in the sector, was in the running for the chief executive’s job at Aviva, where he was in charge of the UK division, but was beaten to the position by Maurice Tulloch, 50, who ran the international business. He is also a former executive with Prudential and chairman of the Association of British Insurers, the industry body. |
| Funding Circle (FCH) has started diverting some borrowers away from its peer-to-peer lending site to rivals and traditional banks. The company, which aims to break the stranglehold of traditional lenders, is understood to be referring new customers to French bank BNP Paribas, as well as fintech competitors including small business lenders Iwoca and MarketInvoice. A source close to Funding Circle said the decision was made as a way to help borrowers seeking larger unsecured loans above £500,000, instead of turning them away. Funding Circle, led by Samir Desai, receives a fee for the referral. | |
 | The chairman of grocery chain Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) is set to take the same role at gambling giant Flutter Entertainment as it closes in on an £11bn merger. Flutter Entertainment (FLTR), the owner of Paddy Power, is drawing up plans to appoint Andrew Higginson as chairman; he joined its board as a non-executive director last month. The imminent appointment raises the prospect of former Tesco executive Higginson, 62, stepping down from the board of the Bradford-based FTSE 100 supermarket. Higginson is understood to be in line to take over from Gary McGann, 69, when he retires from the gambling giant, where he is paid €450,000 (£390,000). A source suggested it could be announced as early as the annual meeting in May. |
 | The German discount giant Lidl is set to ramp up the pressure on the big four supermarkets with bold plans to open another 230 stores. Christian Hartnagel, UK boss of the grocery chain, plans to open the extra stores in the next three years, taking its total to 1,000 by 2023. That accelerates Lidl’s growth plans after it previously said it would open 50 to 60 stores a year. Lidl and fellow discounter Aldi continue to spread across the UK despite the efforts of Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW), Sainsbury (J) (SBRY), Tesco (TSCO) and Asda to narrow the price gap that has allowed their upstart rivals to undercut them dramatically. Aldi plans to open about 50 stores a year for the next two years, and between them the discounters now account for 14% of the UK grocery industry, according to researcher Kantar Worldpanel. That is up from just over 5% in 2008. The German companies initially focused their expansion on areas where land was cheap, but are now pushing harder in London and the southeast, where the higher rents have historically acted as a deterrent. In recent years, they have both invested more heavily in their premium ranges, which has helped draw in more affluent shoppers. |
    | The productivity crisis can be solved if big companies work more closely with the small businesses in their supply chain, according to a campaign launched this week aimed at boosting the output of Britain’s workforce. Companies including Amazon, Google, BAE Systems (BA.) and Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) will promise to boost the UK’s productivity by encouraging greater adoption of tech skills among their suppliers and offering mentoring programmes for managers. In total, 100 large corporations will sign up to the project run by Be the Business, a productivity programme funded by government and private money. Other corporate giants involved include Cisco, Salesforce, British Land Company (BLND) and Aviva (AV.). |
| American private equity giant Lone Star is understood to be among the bidders stalking parts of Kier Group (KIE) as the embattled builder attempts to raise cash. Kier is fighting for survival after racking up debts of about £500m amid turmoil in the construction industry. The company said in June that it would sell “non-core” assets including its house-building division, Kier Living. It has appointed advisers from CBRE to find a buyer for its investment and development arm, Kier Property. The division includes the Arena Central scheme in Birmingham, which it took control of last year for £30m. Early bids for the property business are understood to have been due last week, with several parties signalling an interest, including distressed-assets specialist Lone Star. |
 | National Grid (NG.) is set to reveal a dip in profits when it reports half-year results on Thursday, as the threat of nationalisation hangs over it. Analysts expect the operator of gas and power transmission networks to post underlying pre-tax profits of £748m for the six months to the end of September, against £816m for the same period last year. The profit slide comes after August’s power cut, which knocked out 5% of the country’s power supply and caused blackouts. Two large power generators — the Hornsea wind farm off the Yorkshire coast and the Little Barford gas-fired power plant in Bedfordshire — failed simultaneously, leaving millions of commuters stranded on trains and at railway stations. |
 | ITV (ITV) has seen advertising sales lifted by its televising of the Rugby World Cup. Analysts expect the broadcaster of Jane Austen period drama Sanditon to record a 0.5% rise in ad sales for the three months to September when it updates the market on Tuesday. The Rugby World Cup is expected to have attracted more advertisers — although the update will cover only the start of the competition. It comes after ad sales at ITV fell during the first and second quarters by 7% and 2% respectively. Uncertainty over Brexit caused advertisers to cut spending and the broadcaster has struggled to match last year when it was boosted by the football World Cup in Russia. |
 | FDM Group (Holdings) (FDM) trains graduates and former servicemen and women to become IT experts and then contracts them out to blue-chip companies. FDM’s staff specialise in software testing, development and helpdesk services. HSBC is one of its biggest customers. The bank’s cost-cutting drive sparked concerns that FDM’s contract could be hit. That, coupled with fears that a Brexit blow to the economy could choke off demand from customers such as the government, has rattled investors. While rival IT services firms suffered when the financial services sector reined in costs during the banking crisis 11 years ago, FDM proved resilient. It recorded sales growth of 4.8% and 1.3% respectively in 2008 and 2009 — and remained profitable. Part of that is down to FDM’s price advantage: it charges a third less than the market rates. Analyst Peter McNally at Panmure Gordon backs FDM to remain strong, with sales up 10% to £270m and profits up 6% to £54m for the year. Of the £40.5m in expected net operating cash flow, he thinks £35.3m will be paid in dividends. McNally has set a target of £11.40 — 51% above the current share price. As digital transformation and the AI revolution sweep through the workplace, the need for IT services will strengthen. FDM should be a winning bet. Buy. |
 | Mothercare (MTC) is launching a closing down sale with nearly all products “dramatically reduced” as it prepares to close all its 79 stores and its website in the UK. The retailer is to begin clearing stock with the sale on Friday after appointing administrators from the advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers on Tuesday, who are to close down its UK retail arm with the loss of more than 2,800 jobs within the next few months. Jobs at Mothercare’s warehouse and call centres – which are outsourced to other companies – are also at risk. The company said any product warranties or guarantees would remain valid and customers should spend any gift cards as soon as possible in the UK. Gift cards will no longer be available to purchase. |
| Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) has thrown down the gauntlet to John Lewis this year with an all-dancing Christmas advert featuring a signature “shoulder roll” move that it hopes could set dancefloors and social media alight over the festive season. Set to House of Pain’s 1992 hit Jump Around, the ad was made by the British director Jake Nava, best known for Beyoncé’s Single Ladies music video. The M&S ad, which launched on Friday, features a cast of dancers “jumping around” in M&S jumpers. The choreography in the M&S’s “Go Jumpers” commercial is less complex than the routine tackled by Beyoncé and her backing troupe in Nava’s video, with the retailer offering advice on how to master the simple move (instructions: “adopt a power stance” and then roll your shoulder forward and back – and repeat). The store chain is hoping shoulder-rollers will then film their efforts and share their videos on social media using the hashtag #gojumpers. |
| The luxury carmaker Aston Martin Holdings (AML) has slumped to £13m loss over the most recent three months, blaming tough trading conditions in the UK and Europe and weak sales of its Vantage two-seater sports car. Aston Martin has pinned its hopes on a “second century plan” unveiled in 2016, under which it launches seven new cars in seven years. The Vantage, which costs from £120,900, is the second model in the plan, but sales have been weaker than expected because the two-seater luxury sports car market is in decline. Andy Palmer, the chief executive, acknowledged that things had not gone as expected. “We didn’t expect the downturn in the market, we didn’t expect the delay of Brexit … We are working to the plan and DBX is a key part of that plan.” | |
 | Seven months after the founder of Superdry (SDRY) forced his way back into the fashion business it has reported a steep fall in sales but said its profit margins were starting to recover as it ended widespread discounting. Sales tumbled by more than 11% in the first half of its financial year as Julian Dunkerton retook the helm and overhauled the retailer, which was running frequent promotions to increase sales. “We are moving the business away from a reliance on constant promotions, and while this focus on full price sales has affected revenue in the first half, this is being partially offset by a better gross margin performance,” he said. |
| The £200m cost of closing 15 supermarkets and dozens of Argos stores has all but wiped out profits at Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) as the supermarket faces rising competition from discount rivals. The UK’s second largest grocer said pretax profits dived more than 90% to £9m in the six months to 21 September after the one-off property write-down, compared with £107m in the same period a year before. It also spent £25m in redundancy costs related to reorganising store management and closing an Argos delivery depot as the supermarket steps up integration with the catalogue shop it acquired in 2016. The write-down follows Sainsbury’s announcement two months ago that it would close up to 70 Argos stores and replace them with outlets inside its supermarkets. It is also closing a net five supermarkets and will shut 40 convenience stores, although it intends to open 100 new ones. |
 | Lex – /Galliford Try (GFRD): house party. The group will need to grow its enlarged partnerships business |
 | Persimmon (PSN) sales slip in drive for better homes. Volumes at UK’s second-largest housebuilder fall 6% in first half |
| hit by shareholder revolt over industry lobby groups. Investors urge miner to cut ties with bodies at odds with Paris climate change goals | |
| Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) woes intensify after engine setback. FTSE 100 group announces extra £800m hit to cash due to turbine blade snags |
| Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) chief warns of Brexit effect as profits plunge. Price cuts lure shoppers back to UK retailer but store closures prove costly |
| Aston Martin Holdings (AML) swings to loss on lower Vantage demand. Luxury carmaker has been cutting costs and closing some sites used to house parts and vehicles |
| Supermarkets are gearing up for a Christmas price war as the big four battle to fight off the German discounters. As Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) reported a 92% slump in profits, experts said shoppers look likely to benefit from competition among the country’s biggest grocers over the festive period. Sainsbury’s profits fell to just £9million in the six months to September 21, from £107million in the same period last year.The collapse came as the chain closed stores and slashed prices on more than 1,000 products. Operating profits, a measure of the underlying health of the business, fell 15% to £238million while store sales were down 1%. Margins fell to less than 3% as bosses admitted they kept a running list of items that are cheaper than Aldi and Lidl. Tesco (TSCO) said it was price-matching more than 400 products to the closest competitor, or the ‘cheaper of the two discounters’ Aldi and Lidl, helping to fuel the race to the bottom. During autumn the proportion of items on promotion increased for the first time in four and a half years, driven by Tesco’s ‘100 years of value’ campaign and Sainsbury’s ‘Price lockdown’, according to Kantar data. A Sainsbury’s insider said: ‘Pricing is a big part of the strategy. You can expect prices will be low at Christmas.’ And Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) yesterday said it had reduced prices on 2,000 products and that ‘becoming more competitive is one of our priorities’. The German supermarkets have captured 14.1% of the market, claiming to undercut the big players in the UK on price by as much as a quarter. The total market share of the big four has shrunk to 62.7% – the lowest since 2004. Aldi has overtaken the Co-op to become the UK’s fifth biggest supermarket, while Lidl is seventh. |
| ITV (ITV) has entered the video streaming wars by launching a UK rival to Netflix. Britbox, a service developed with the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5, is part of chief executive Carolyn McCall’s plans for reducing the broadcaster’s dependence on falling advertising revenues. It is being billed as the biggest collection of British shows ever assembled, featuring favourites such as Downton Abbey, Only Fools And Horses and Doctor Who starring Jodie Whittaker. The £5.99-a-month service was launched yesterday, just days before ITV updates investors on its third quarter trading. McCall is grappling with weak advertising revenues and growing competition from bigger American rivals, which are also launching their own streaming services. ITV and the BBC, which revealed yesterday that Channel 4 and Channel 5 are joining them, have admitted they cannot match the blockbuster budgets of rivals such as Amazon and Netflix. |
| Superdry (SDRY) founder Julian Dunkerton insisted his first six months back in charge of the business amounted to a ‘reset’ despite a fall in sales. The fashion company pulled in £368million of revenues in the six months to October 26 – 11.3% less than the year before. Dunkerton, who donated £1million to the People’s Vote campaign for a second Brexit referendum, has promised to restore the fashion retailer to its ‘former glory’ by returning to its ‘designled roots’. He partly blamed the drop in sales on removing ‘constant’ price promotions, and this had helped margins. The father-of-two said: ‘We are making good progress with the start to our turnaround plan.’ |
| Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) has cut its profit guidance for the year as it continued to be plagued by problems with its troubled Trent 1000 engines. The engineering giant said it expects operating profits for the full year to receive a £1.4billion hit due to the high costs associated with the engine’s faulty blades. In a trading update, it also pushed back its predicted final repair date for the engines to 2021 as it continues testing on the blades. The firm have announced it will spend an extra £400million on repair costs and make additional spending on spare engines and maintenance capacity. Norwegian Air, Singapore Airlines and British Airways are among the airlines that have grounded planes that contain the Trent 1000 engines. |
| Attempts by Persimmon (PSN) to improve the quality of its homes have eaten into sales. The housebuilder said sales fell by 6% in the first half of 2019. The company said it was expecting a similar drop in the second half. The update came as rival bought Galliford Try (GFRD) housing arm for £1.1billion. The deal will more than double the size of Bovis’ housing business, making it the UK’s fifth-largest builder at a stroke. Persimmon’s sales fall came as the company started putting up homes for sale at a later stage of the construction process so that customers who view them get a better idea of what the finished product will look like. |
| Store closures, bad weather and stagnant sales have seen Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) pre-tax profits drop by almost £100million in the six months to 21 September. The fall comes in spite of the supermarket cutting prices for its 1,000 best-selling groceries, and launching new ‘Value’ brands. Total retail sales during the period essentially remained flat at £15.1billion, with general merchandise division experiencing the largest fall in sales, dropping by 2.5% with the clothing division having the next largest drop, at 1.2%. Pre-tax profits fell to £9million in the six months to September 21 from £107million a year ago, though the company’s debts dropped considerably by £367million. The company said the large fall in pre-tax profit was mainly due to one-off £203million write-down in the value of its store estate that mainly reflected store closures. The supermarket giant is in the process of making around £500million in cost savings, which will partly come from closing Argos stores and moving them onto Sainsbury’s sites. |
| Aston Martin Holdings (AML) lost another £92.3m over summer as demand for its Vantage two-seater sport cars weakened. However, its third quarter figures could have been worse, had it not been for six sales of its most expensive car – the DB4 GT Zagato Continuation, which is part of an exclusive £7.2million pairing. The reborn version of Aston’s 1960s race car can only be bought alongside its new 200mph-plus DBS GT Zagato for £6million plus VAT – with just 19 being sold. In yet another disappointing update, James Bond’s favourite car brand said it continued to suffer ‘tough trading conditions’ in the UK and Europe, with sales of its Vantage slipping. The company made a pre-tax loss of £92.3million in the three months to the end of September, with total revenues down 7% to £657.2million for the year-to-date. | |
| has penned a more than £1billion deal for Galliford Try (GFRD) residential building business, it said this morning. The deal will bring together parts of two of Britain’s biggest builders, both listed on the FTSE 250, the UK’s second tier index. It was first floated as an idea by both boards in September as housebuilders faced increasing pressure in an uncertain market in the run-up to Brexit. Thursday’s announcement confirmed reports in the Sunday Times that Galliford chief executive Graham Prothero would join up with his old boss Greg Fitzgerald, the chief executive of Bovis who held the same role at Galliford until 2015. Mr Prothero will become chief operating officer, the companies confirmed. Mr Fitzgerald and finance director Earl Sibley will stay in their roles. |
| Shares in TheWorks.co.uk plc (WRKS) collapsed after it warned that profit will be much lower than expected. The cut-price books, games and jigsaw puzzles seller said it had been hit by a ‘difficult consumer backdrop’ amid a crisis on the High Street. The Works is confident going into Christmas trading with its slew of Disney film Frozen 2 merchandise and is using retail closures to its advantage by opening dozens of stores. | |
| Making an early push into the US gambling market is reaping rewards for Paddy Power and Betfair owner Flutter Entertainment (FLTR). Growth in the group’s business across the Atlantic surged by 67% in the third quarter to the end of September, driven by an ‘excellent’ demand for sports betting and online games. Revenues from the firm’s online casino games stateside, for example, rocketed 174%. Total revenue grew by 10% to £533 million when compared with the same three months of last year. The American gambling frontier is gradually opening up to companies such as Flutter as online betting is steadily being legalised state by state. And this is helping to offset falls in other areas – notably the UK retail market, where revenues from betting shops plunged 9% to £75 million following Government crackdowns on fixed-odd betting terminals, where punters can now only bet £2 at a time, down from £100 previously. | |
 | Tate & Lyle (TATE) beat analyst estimates to post a staggering 45% rise in pre-tax profits, to £164 million, between April and September. This was on a 6.7% rise in revenues to £1.48 billion and came as a cost-cutting drive by Nick Hampton got under way, saving around £25 million in the last year. |
 | Auto Trader Group (AUTO) made gains in early trading, but eventually closed down 1.8p, to 547p. Its first-half revenues grew 6% to £186.7 million, all the more impressive in the midst of a widespread downturn in the car market. Profit before tax rose 12% to £127.7 million as it managed to attract more car traders to sign up to be available on its website. |
 | Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) issued an update to the stock market in response to a sharp share price fall. The drop was prompted by some scathing broker notes which raised questions about how profitable it estimates its retail insurance arm will be over the next few years. Although those who do not follow the insurance market closely will be baffled as to why this was so important, rest assured it was. |
| The chief executive of Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) has called for a radical overhaul of planning rules as part of the scramble to revive Britain’s crisis-hit high streets. Mike Coupe railed against restrictions which make it hard to switch what empty stores can be used for – and said the next government must make reform a priority. It comes as droves of shoppers desert bricks and mortar stores to buy online from US titans such as Amazon instead. Around 70,000 retail jobs were lost last year. Speaking as Sainsbury’s unveiled a drop in sales, Mr Coupe said: “There are very tight restrictions on the type of retail you can do on high streets. “If they liberalise it, the market would very quickly respond to that” |
| One of Britain’s largest housebuilders is splashing out just over £1bn on a rival’s residential business – marking the biggest deal in the industry in more than a decade. is buying cash-strapped Galliford Try (GFRD) Linden Homes and Partnerships and Regeneration businesses, creating the nation’s fourth largest housebuilder which can build up to 12,000 homes a year. Bovis first made an approach in May, offering Galliford investors new shares. It was rebuffed, but Galliford has now accepted after the deal was sweetened with £300m in cash. This will help Galliford pay its debts of £186m. |
| The boss of Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) has blamed problems with its latest engine on “amazing coincidences” that have left it nursing a multi-billion pound hit. Warren East revealed an £800m increase to £2.4bn for the total bill to resolve issues with the Trent 1000 engine used by the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The higher costs also meant Rolls’ full-year operating profit forecast has been downgraded, with it now expected to come in at the “lower end” of the previously announced £600m to £800m range. Parts of Trent 1000s have been wearing out faster than expected, causing planes to be grounded and running up huge bills for the company as it fixes the 600-plus engines affected. |
| BAE Systems (BA.) has warned that a political upset in the December general election could hurt its prospects this year. The British defence giant said a promised increase in UK defence spending along with a growing military budget in the US meant it was on course to raise its underlying earnings per share from the previous level of 42.9p. However a Labour victory at the election could see this go awry, with the company admitting it was “subject to geopolitical uncertainties including the forthcoming general election”. It added that its guidance was based on “an assumption of average sterling exchange rate of $1.30”. |
| Struggling fashion chain Superdry (SDRY) said it will discount fewer clothes after another slump in sales as it tries to turn itself around under co-founder Julian Dunkerton. The retailer, which has almost 250 stores in 11 countries, saw its sales drop to £367.8m from £414.6m for the six months to the end of October. Mr Dunkerton narrowly emerged victorious in April from a bitter battle with the retailer’s previous management. He launched a campaign to be reinstated at the helm having left the business in March 2018 after disagreeing about the design of the clothes and how its wares were sold online and in stores. |
 | Questor: Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) future looks bleaker. We’re dismounting the black horse and selling. Questor Income Portfolio: profits may be about to peak and we fear the share price has already done so. We’ll limit our losses and seek dividend growth elsewhere |
| The City regulator has forced Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) to issue a clarification about its financial performance after a fall in the specialist insurer’s share price provoked concerns that a select group of analysts had been given price-sensitive information. The Financial Conduct Authority made a rare intervention into corporate reporting yesterday by instructing Hiscox to issue more details because of the danger of a false market. The company told the analysts that it would take longer to improve the retail division’s combined ratio — a key measure of performance — than it had expected. The tone of the meeting also seems to have been more bearish than the moderately upbeat trading statement released on Monday. After the FCA’s intervention Hiscox published a statement yesterday afternoon clarifying its estimates for the combined ratio. This showed an improvement from between 97% and 99% this year to between 90% and 95% in 2022. The company said it did not believe that its comments at the private briefing constituted “inside information” and that it had been “responding to questions requesting clarification over the meaning of medium term”. |
| The boss of Standard Chartered (STAN) has bowed to investor pressure and agreed to cut his pension in response to a shareholder revolt over his retirement benefits. It is understood that the bank will announce that Bill Winters, chief executive, will have his pension allowance reduced so that his retirement benefit as a percentage of his salary is in line with the rest of the company’s British workforce. The change could be announced as soon as today and will also apply to Andy Halford, the lender’s finance chief, according to City sources. |
| The problems facing Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) over its Trent 1000 engine have deepened after the company warned that the cost of replacing faulty turbine blades and compensating airlines has grown by 50% to £2.4 billion. The additional costs increase the pressure on Warren East, the aerospace engineer’s chief executive, over his handling of the issue. In a further setback for Rolls yesterday, it warned that falling sales of power generation systems for facilities such as data centres would lead to operating profits coming in at the lower end of a £600 million to £800 million range. |
| The head of Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) has urged the government to overhaul planning rules to help revive the high street as the grocer’s profits tumbled after a hefty writedown of its shop estate. Sainsbury’s has had a dramatic year after a transformative £10 billion merger with Asda was torpedoed by the competition regulator in April. Since then the supermarket group, which employs 128,000 people, has come under pressure from the City to find a “plan B” to restore growth. Mike Coupe, 59, chief executive, said in September that it would shut 125 shops, including 70 Argos outlets, as part of its bid to generate £500 million of cost savings over the next five years. Mr Coupe called for a “more liberal planning policy that allows the high street to regenerate more quickly, whether that’s for leisure businesses, more housing, maybe less retail”. “At the moment there are very tight restrictions on the type of retail you can do on high streets,” he said. “If they liberalise it, the market would very quickly respond [with] more regeneration.” |
| Cutting back on its addiction to discounting has heavily weakened Superdry (SDRY) sales. It is attempting a turnaround under the leadership of its founder Julian Dunkerton, who returned this year to an executive role. Mr Dunkerton secured his position as permanent chief executive of the fashion brand last month after a bitter campaign to be reinstated to the board. He wants to overhaul Superdry by returning to its “design-led roots” and claimed that it had lost its “cool” under Euan Sutherland, 50, its former boss. “We are moving the business away from a reliance on constant promotions, and while this focus on full price sales has affected revenue in the first half, this is being partially offset by a better gross margin performance”, Mr Dunkerton, 54, said. |
| TheWorks.co.uk plc (WRKS) issued its second profit warning in a year and partly blamed the Rugby World Cup final for disrupting its sales, sending shares down by more than 40%. The company said that it was suffering from tough comparisons against last year, when it had enjoyed a boom from “mega trend” squishy toys, and that sales had not improved as expected. It predicted that profits before tax would be “significantly below current market expectations”. Consensus had been for profits of £7.3 million. Like-for-like sales fell by 3.6% over the six months to October 27. The company claimed, though, that when excluding sales from squishy toys, like-for-like sales were down by 1.9%. | |
 | Shareholders in Halfords Group (HFD) are being asked to bet on the chief executive’s turnaround after the bicycle and car parts retailer cut its dividend and sealed two acquisitions to boost its services and repairs business. The group has been plagued by profit warnings recently as most of what it sells is highly vulnerable to the weather. It dodged another one yesterday, having lowered forecasts in September, as it announced a 2.5% dip in pre-tax profits to £27.5 million for the six months to September 27. Halfords’ final dividend has been reduced to 8p, giving a full-year payment of 14.2p compared with 18.6p last year. The retailer has said it will rebase its annual dividend to 12p a share from 2021. The City was braced for the cut while investors were relieved there was not another profit warning. |
| A bet on the US market by Flutter Entertainment (FLTR), the owner of Paddy Power and Betfair is paying dividends, offsetting the impact of responsible gambling measures on its big-spending customers. Flutter Entertainment reported a 10% increase in third-quarter revenues to £533 million after a 67% jump in US revenues. The group, which 18 months ago bought a controlling stake in Fanduel, the American fantasy sports business, said it was raising the guidance on its US business due to better revenue growth than expected. It now expected to report underlying losses of £40 million to £45 million, down from previous guidance of £55 million. | |
| has finalised the terms of its proposed £1.1 billion takeover of Galliford Try (GFRD) housebuilding divisions in which the chief executive of Galliford will switch sides to join his former boss. Graham Prothero, 58, will become chief operating officer of the merged group, reporting to Greg Fitzgerald, 55, who runs Bovis but was formerly chief executive of Galliford. Bovis will be able to increase its annual output to more than 10,000 homes, becoming Britain’s fourth biggest housebuilder, if shareholders approve the merger at the annual meeting on December 2. The deal does not include Galliford’s ailing construction business but it will give Galliford a 29% stake in the expanded Bovis group. Bill Hocking, 56, will become chief executive at Galliford, where he is currently construction chief. |
| Persimmon (PSN), Britain’s most profitable housebuilder, said the property market remains resilient as it blamed a dip in sales on its increased focus on improving customer satisfaction with its homes. Sales at Persimmon fell 6% to 7,584 in the first half of the year as it attempted to please customers by taking additional time to finish its properties before handing them over. The group has responded to fierce criticism of its build quality and a warning from the government in February that it should improve or it could lose the right to sell homes linked to Help to Buy. |
| Aston Martin Holdings (AML) has reported a deeper dive into the red because of a 16% plunge in sales. The sports car manufacturer admitted that trading conditions with its rich customers were tough and debts and interest charges were climbing. Sales this year are expected to be even lower than the 6,300 to 6,500 suggested in a previous downward revision. The shares initially rose as much as 9% as the company reassured the City that it would meet expectations for annual profits this year, but the stock later fell back to close up 7½p at 425p. In the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for nearly a quarter of its business and where the burgeoning super-rich were supposed to fire growth, Aston Martin admitted that in summer trading, its third quarter, sales had crashed by 34%. In its home market, which accounts for another quarter of its sales, deliveries were down by more than 20%. | |
 | Losses on large commercial policies have taken their toll on RSA Insurance Group (RSA), which suffered an £8 million hit for restructuring its British business. The insurer has reduced its presence in areas such as international shipping and other complex risks. That led to a 3% fall in UK premium income in the first nine months of the year. Stephen Hester, chief executive, said that the past three months had been significant in the context that “some of our London market competitors have had some disappointing results and our results were actually rather good”. |
 | Hotel Chocolat Group (HOTC) chief exec Angus Thirlwell, and Peter Harris, the development director, the two founders of the business in 2004, sold a chunk of shares in the chocolate maker. Each pocketed £5 million after selling a total of 2.4 million shares at 420p. Their fellow board member Sophie Tomkins also cashed in some of her stock, albeit just over £20,000 worth. Normally such sales are to cover tax bills or to buy a new house, but Hotel Chocolat was adamant that Messrs Thirlwell and Harris were selling in “response to investor demand”. The company was also at pains to point out that both men still own 63.2% of the business, which is worth about £320 million. |
 | Paul Daccus, a non-executive director at the sofa and carpets retailer SCS Group (SCS). Mr Daccus is managing director of Sun Capital Partners, the private equity group that bought SCS out of administration in 2008 and remains its largest shareholder. It was confirmed yesterday that Sun Capital’s affiliate Parlour Product Holdings had sold 6.25 million shares for 220p each, bringing in a total of £13.75 million. |
 | Haris Chaudhry, who until yesterday was the executive chairman of InnovaDerma (IDP), the company behind the popular Skinny Tan range of tanning lotions. Mr Chaudhry had owned almost a third of the business, but he sold nearly all of it after informing the board of his intention to step down with immediate effect. Innovaderma’s share price fell earlier in the week after a seemingly positive trading update ahead of the annual meeting. The shares were flat yesterday at 63½p, after a double-digit fall in the previous session. |
 | Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) shares slipped 83p to £19.42 as investors took profits after a storming run for the stock. The share price has more than doubled since Siggi Olafsson became chief executive in February, enough to propel it back into the FTSE 100 for the fourth time. |
 | IMI (IMI) was one of those pulling the index higher, despite the engineer reporting a drop in third-quarter revenues in two of its three divisions. Investors were enthusiastic about the plans laid out by its new chief executive, Roy Twite, as he looks to cut costs and boost profit margins |
 | BGEO Group (BGEO) found itself towards the top of the leaderboard as it rose 120p to £14.72 after underlying profit at the Tbilisi-based bank, which has invested heavily in its digital capabilities, jumped 30% to about £41.3 million. |
 | Announcing the departure of its chief financial officer Sound Energy (SOU) said it would not look for a replacement for JJ Traynor. Instead it will divide his duties and assign them to other employees. It put its assets in eastern Morocco up for sale this year after two new wells failed to reach commercial rates of gas production, and said on Wednesday that it had agreed a heads of terms deal with an unnamed UK group that would mean it gave up “a substantial proportion” of its interest in the region. Sound owns a majority stake in Sidi Mokhtar in the west of Morocco, where it is looking to make good on its promise of “delivering dreams in the desert”. Simon Davies, the chairman and a City veteran, was reappointed in May, after two stints in the same role from 2014 to 2016 and from 2005 to 2010. |
| Tempus – Auto Trader Group (AUTO): Hold. Autotrader is a well managed company with a dominant position. But its shares are richly valued |
 | Tempus – Wood Group (John) (WG.): Hold. Solid dividend and less reliance on oil and gas |
| Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) reported a fresh slump in clothing sales as poor levels of availability in its stores were compounded by an out-of-date supply chain. The chief executive, Steve Rowe, blamed the 5.5% decline in like-for-like clothing sales on buying errors that meant popular sizes sold out too quickly. A new design team was shedding its womenswear’s reputation for “frumpiness”, it said, but progress was undermined by the 135-year-old company’s slow and complicated logistics, which meant it could not move products around the country fast enough. This setup contributed to a dire performance from its website, where sales were flat. Rowe conceded the numbers for the first half of its financial year were “not pretty”. “Clothing is not where I wanted it to be,” he said. “We are about 18 months behind and racing to make up lost time. My No 1 priority is to get under the bonnet of the clothing business.” He pointed to the stronger performance delivered by M&S’s food halls, where the results of its “transformation” programme were “beginning to show”. The food business returned to growth over the period, with like-for-like sales up 0.9% in the six months to 28 September, thanks to a programme of price cuts and new ranges. |
 | Intu Properties (INTU), the company behind shopping centres such as Lakeside in Essex, has said a cash call could be on the cards after being engulfed by the high street crisis. The heavily indebted shopping centre operator said its like-for-like rental income had fallen by about 9% this year and would fall again next year owing to the tough retail climate. Intu blamed the declines in part on the company voluntary arrangements – an insolvency process used to reduce rent bills and close stores – used by Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia group and Monsoon. Shares in Intu fell on Wednesday by 17% to just 33p on the back of the gloomy update. Its chief executive, Matthew Roberts said options on the table also included selling some of the company’s assets in order to reduce its near-£5bn debt pile. |
 | The London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) is to consider lopping 90 minutes of the trading day in a bid to improve mental health and attract more women and working parents to a high-pressure environment known for gruelling hours. The LSE made the announcement after City lobby groups sent a letter to nine exchanges, including Germany’s Deutsche Boerse and the Amsterdam-headquartered Euronext, urging them to adopt the proposal. The Investment Association, which represents City firms that have £7.7tn in assets under management, and the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), said that the 81/2-hour European trading day was one of the longest in the world but did not deliver “material benefits to savers, investors or firms”. In Asia, the trading day is usually six hours, and in the US it is 6.5hrs. |
 | Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) investors should vote against the company’s annual report at its shareholder meeting because of the pub chain’s spending on pro-Brexit materials, according to an influential shareholder advisory group. Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC) said shareholders should oppose Wetherspoon’s annual report after the Guardian raised questions about the company’s spending of almost £95,000 during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign. Legal experts said the pub chain appeared to have broken company law by buying and distributing 1.9m beermats supporting Brexit. PIRC advised shareholders to vote in favour of Wetherspoon’s annual report in 2018, but has changed its recommendation this year because of the Brexit referendum spending and what it said were weak policies on sustainability. “Due to these sustainability concerns, and as a precautionary measure against potential political expenditure concerns, an oppose vote is recommended,” PIRC said in a note to investor clients. In response, Wetherspoon’s chairman Tim Martin told the Guardian by text message: “PIRC rhymes with berk.” He said he would not comment further on the matter until after the AGM on 21 November. |
  | Virgin Media has agreed a five-year mobile deal with Vodafone Group (VOD) after deciding not to renew its agreement with BT Group (BT.A). The deal, which will involve more than 3 million mobile customers, ends a 20-year relationship between Virgin Media and BT-owned EE. Virgin Mobile services will start to move across to the Vodafone network from late 2021 and its 5G products will be hosted on the latter in the near future, the company said. 5G is expected to bring radical change to the mobile sector when it is rolled out across the UK, with broadband-speed downloads promised. The third-party deal – called a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) venture – is a significant shift for Vodafone, which has so far resisted signing such agreements in the UK. |
 | Nichola Pease, a high-profile investment manager, has been appointed chair of a fund management company her husband’s hedge fund is betting against. Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) said Pease would replace Liz Airey from 2 March. Odey, a prominent Brexit supporter, runs a hedge fund called Odey Asset Management (OAM). According to daily filings at the Financial Conduct Authority, Odey holds a 0.66% short position on Jupiter, equivalent to a £10.8m bet that its shares will fall. OAM first notified the City watchdog of a short position on the FTSE 250 firm in February, equivalent to 0.97% of the stock. In mid-October it rose to 1% before it was gradually reduced. |
© Vox Markets 2024. All rights reserved.
Follow @VOXmarketsTerms and conditions | Community standards | Compliance | Privacy and cookie policy
Prices and trades are delayed by at least 15 minutes. Vox Markets takes no responsibility for the accuracy of the information within this site. All times quoted are based on the current time in London, UK.