 | Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) failed to pass on wills of 9,000 deceased customers. Hundreds of families distributed assets to the wrong people as a result |
 | PwC poised to take over as auditor for M&C Saatchi (SAA). Big Four firm brushes off fresh accusations of conflict of interest |
  | Shareholders will this week see the impact of five months of political protest in Hong Kong on HSBC Holdings (HSBA) and its fellow London-listed international bank, Standard Chartered (STAN), when they report third-quarter figures. The pair are highly vulnerable to the turmoil as each derives a high proportion of their profits from Hong Kong. It may be too soon for the full effect of the protests to have made themselves felt on the bottom line but, if they continue, serious damage seems inevitable. The turmoil has led to businesses closing and has hurt retail sales. There has been a drop in visitors from mainland China and elsewhere. HSBC and Standard Chartered are putting in place support for small and medium businesses to help them get through the protests, alongside the government. They have also been carrying out ‘stress-testing’ on some clients to assess their resilience. To make matters worse, the protests are taking place against a troubled global economic backdrop. China is locked in a corrosive trade war with the US and the world is facing what the International Monetary Fund calls a ‘synchronised slowdown’. |
 | The founding family of Cobham (COB) may demand that a judge reviews the £4 billion takeover of the British defence firm if it is waved through by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) tomorrow. Lady Cobham has been a vociferous opponent of the sale to US private equity firm Advent International.The family, which has a 1.5% stake, had pushed the Government to refer the deal to the CMA after raising concerns that it posed ‘grave risks’ to national security and understated Cobham’s importance to the UK defence industry. They said they would consider a judicial review if the CMA backs the deal when it publishes its findings. |
 | Mothercare (MTC) has brought in restructuring experts from accountancy giant KPMG, raising concerns for the future of its 79 stores and 2,500 staff. The struggling High Street retailer, which fell to a £36.3m loss and shut 55 stores last year under a controversial company voluntary arrangement (CVA), has been trying to sell its UK arm. The company is now considering closing more stores or asking landlords for rent cuts, but a sale is believed to be preferred, The Sunday Times reported. Mothercare boss Mark Newton-Jones wants its UK stores to become franchises, to mirror its profitable international business – effectively turning the retailer into a branding and product supplier. |
 | Amazon is recruiting a small army of delivery drivers in a direct challenge to Royal Mail (RMG). The internet shopping giant is urging entrepreneurs across the UK to set up businesses for as little as £10,000 as part of a major scheme to bring more of its operations in-house. And as ‘delivery service partners’, Amazon will guarantee them work from its vast network. Amazon’s logistics arm handles around 260m packages a year, but uses Royal Mail and its rivals to complete the final part of the journey to a customer’s front door. Royal Mail is already under enormous pressure from low-cost rivals and years of rows with unions over pay and conditions. The listed company has seen £4.2 billion wiped off its value in the past 18 months – or two-thirds – as its share price plunged. As part of Amazon’s scheme, drivers wear branded uniforms and their vans are emblazoned with the company’s logos, but the businesses are owned by the entrepreneurs, with Amazon contracting them to carry out deliveries. |
| billionaire Mike Ashley has become embroiled in a bitter legal row over his ambitious plan to take a slice of the lucrative United States sportswear market. The row centres on Sports Direct’s $100million (£78million) acquisition of 50 shops to ‘provide a footprint in US retail and a platform from which to grow US online sales’. But the complex deal to seize the Eastern Outfitters retail group, in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the time, has turned sour after Sports Direct was accused of short-changing one of the company’s lenders. | |
 | Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) is preparing to announce a profits slump after a slide at its clothing business, according to analysts. Tony Shiret at stockbroker Whitman Howard has forecast that profit before exceptional costs fell to £185million in the six months to the end of September, from £224million the year before. He said sales at its general merchandise division, which mainly sells clothing, may have fallen by as much as 4%, offsetting improved food sales, based on like-for-like figures. Analysts also expect the half-yearly figures, due to be published on November 6, to be further affected by exceptional costs. These include falling property values for its estate. |
 | ASOS (ASC) has primed its warehouses for a Black Friday sale blitz that could be a major blow to high street retailers. The company is understood to have built up fashion stocks by a third compared with the same time last year, when it failed to capitalise on the event. Stockbroker Peel Hunt said Asos is preparing to ‘go hard’ at the event and planning ‘a big peak season’. News of the Asos plan will not be welcomed by high street shops which have desperately tried to row back from Black Friday discounting. The end of November is regarded by high street fashion shop operators as the worst time to cut prices heavily as shoppers go hunting for Christmas party outfits. |
| Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) will this week reveal its profits were practically wiped out by a flood of claims for missold payment protection insurance (PPI) ahead of the deadline for customers seeking redress. The bank is expected to reveal a £1.7billion hit from missold PPI – eliminating most of the £2billion it made in profits. Analysts fear the figure could be even higher after RBS last week swung to a loss in the third quarter, having set aside £900million for redress. Barclays set aside an extra £1.4billion. |
 | Residents near the former Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London are putting pressure on the Saudi Arabian ambassador over a £2.3billion deal that would see the Gulf state and British property tycoon Nick Candy join forces to build on the site. It emerged last week that the $320billion Saudi sovereign wealth fund and Candy were in talks over a takeover deal for Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC). Local residents want reassurances from the potential new owners after a decade-long battle with Capital & Counties over threats to demolish their homes in the redevelopment. Andy Slaughter, MP for Hammersmith, last week wrote to Prince Khaled bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, the Saudi ambassador to the UK, to explain that a delegation from the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates planned to visit the embassy to deliver letters about their concerns. Sources said the ambassador has told Mr Slaughter he would be ‘happy to meet’ him to discuss the matter. |
 | MIDAS SHARE TIPS: With all eyes on Japan, don’t miss top performer Fidelity Japanese Values (FJV). Midas verdict. The Japanese stock market has a reputation for poor performance, with its principal index, the Nikkei slumping from 26,000 in 1991 to below 8,000 in 2009. Since then, however, prices have picked up and the index is now flirting with 23,000. Fidelity Japan Trust aims to use its expertise to beat that index, beat competitors and deliver consistent growth for shareholders. On the ground, the trust is making good progress but the shares are lagging. That should change. At £1.55, the shares are a buy. |
 | Metro Bank (MTRO) has been left more than £2m out of pocket after the collapse of Orla Kiely, the fashion brand favoured by the Duchess of Cambridge and model Alexa Chung. “It is not anticipated that the secured creditors [Metro] will be paid in full,” administrators from Quantuma have said. They added that having spoken to other creditors, Orla Kiely’s administration has now been extended and is expected to end in September 2020. It collapsed in September last year. Some cash is trickling in as royalties from one of its subsidiaries, Killoyn Stem, which is responsible for the brand’s licence agreements with factories, according to a Companies House report. |
 | Banks should face a regulatory crackdown and higher industry levies to tackle an “unacceptable” surge in IT failures that have caused chaos for millions of online banking customers, MPs said on Monday. The Treasury Select Committee’s call follows high-profile disruption at a string of players including Barclays (BARC), Visa Europe and – most notoriously – challenger bank TSB – amid increasing dependence on online banking. Almost three-quarters of UK adults now use online banking, while the number of bank branches has halved to about 11,000 since the mid-1980s. |
 | Questor: back the self‑help strategy of the new chief executive and take a stake in Rotork (ROR). Questor share tip: the control systems company hopes to recapture its glory days when margins peaked at 26%, says James Ashton |
| Retail investors may be separated from institutional funds to protect individuals better in the wake of the collapse of Neil Woodford’s business, the head of the City regulator has said. The disintegration of the Woodford Equity Income Fund poses questions about whether large and small investors should be mixed, Andrew Bailey said in an interview with The Times. In June Mr Woodford stopped investors from withdrawing money from his formerly hugely popular £3.7 billion fund after Kent county council tried to take out its £263 million of pension investments. Kent was the last in a string of large investors to request redemptions from the fund, which at its peak was worth £10.2 billion. Kent’s request was “the very proximate cause” of the freezing of the fund, Mr Bailey said. “That’s why I raise the question of mixing retail and non-retail. That was a relatively big part of the residual fund. Even if technically you could have liquidated holdings to meet that order, you are not satisfying the collective investment test,” Mr Bailey, 60, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, said. | |
| The number of junior companies listed in London has almost halved over the past 12 years, leading to speculation that the death of the Alternative Investment Market might be around the corner. Aim was set up in 1995 as a venue for smaller companies to raise capital to fund expansion plans. When it began, it was home to only ten companies, before spiralling to a peak of 1,694 in 2007. There was a small rise in 2014, but the numbers have dropped in every year since then. At the end of September there were 882 companies listed on Aim, a fall of 41 this year. Shore Capital, the stockbroker and corporate adviser, whose business relies on selling the idea of an Aim listing to its clients, is set to drop out soon. Not only are there fewer companies on London’s junior market, but there are fewer initial public offerings, too, while the amount of money being raised has also dipped considerably since its pre-crisis glory days. | |
 | Barclays (BARC), HSBC Holdings (HSBA), Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) – Banks should be made to pay larger levies to regulators so that they can tackle the “unacceptable” number of IT failures in the financial services sector, MPs have claimed. The Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority must use their enforcement powers to crack down on offending banks, the Treasury select committee has concluded after an investigation into a series of IT failures. Regulators also should be allowed to charge higher fees to the organisations they review so that they can hire staff with the expertise and experience required to improve operational resilience in the sector, the committee says in its report. “For too long, financial institutions issue hollow words after their systems have failed, which is of no help to customers left cashless and cut off,” Steve Baker, who led the Treasury committee inquiry, said. |
| The founding family of Cobham (COB) may demand a judicial review in an attempt to block a takeover of the company. The company is being bought by American private equity fund Advent International in a controversial £4bn deal that has attracted stiff opposition from the Cobham family. Interventions by Lady (Nadine) Cobham, whose late husband, Sir Michael, was the son of founder Sir Alan Cobham and ran the group, helped persuade the government to refer the takeover to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The CMA’s ruling, due on Tuesday, is widely expected to approve the deal in return for promises from Advent not to cut jobs or move Cobham’s air-to-air refuelling technology out of the UK. |
| Mothercare (MTC) has drafted in restructuring experts to assess options for its troubled UK business, raising concern for the future of 2,500 employees in 79 stores. The listed retailer, run by Mark Newton-Jones, has hired KPMG amid harsh trading conditions on the high street. Mothercare has been trying to sell its UK business — which lost £36.3m before tax last year as like-for-like sales fell by 8.9% — but has so far failed to find a buyer. Newton-Jones wants to convert the UK operation into a franchise, replicating the structure of Mothercare’s profitable international operations and transforming the retailer into a branding and product supplier. |
| Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) will unveil its weakest quarterly results for four years this week, with a fresh hit of up to £1.8bn expected from the PPI scandal. The avalanche of mis-selling claims ahead of the August 29 compensation deadline may even be enough to tip the bank into its first quarterly loss since 2015, one City expert suggested. The consensus view among analysts is that Lloyds will turn a modest profit of £163m for the third quarter. The bank said it could be “misleading and unfair” to highlight one analyst’s work. Thursday’s results are set to be the weakest since the final three months of 2015, when the 254-year-old institution racked up a £507m loss. Ian Gordon, an analyst at Investec, said that until now he had been “bullish” on Lloyds and that it had “outperformed” Britain’s other banks so far this year. However, he has downgraded the shares from “buy” to “hold” and expects Lloyds to report a pre-tax loss of £24m for the three months to the end of September, compared with a £1.8bn profit this time last year. |
 | BP (BP.) made a rare venture-capital investment in Palantir, the CIA-funded data analytics group co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, The Sunday Times can reveal. The oil giant bought shares in the private company in 2014, not long after it began working with the California-based venture on digitising its operations, marking an unlikely marriage of Big Oil and Big Data. Palantir is arguably the most controversial company in Silicon Valley — after Facebook — for its work with America’s immigration authorities, as well as its contracts with the Pentagon and the CIA. The company’s software brings together mountains of data and provides intelligence to government agencies and corporations. Alex Karp, 52, Palantir’s chief executive, admitted this year that the company was “highly controversial and unpopular” in liberal Silicon Valley. Palantir renewed its contract with America’s immigration authorities this year. Its software is used to track migrants at the border. BP and Palantir kept the partnership under wraps until recently. |
 | Naspers, the South African interloper hoping to gatecrash the merger of Just Eat (JE.) and a Dutch rival has said its bid for the delivery company is a “full and fair price”, despite demands from investors for a higher offer. Bob van Dijk, chief executive of technology conglomerate Naspers, said the 710p-a-share offer by its Dutch division Prosus, which values Just Eat at £4.9bn, reflected the “investment that is needed” in the group. Prosus has sought to muscle in. Just Eat said last week that it had rebuffed previous offers of 670p and 700p a share before its unwanted suitor unveiled the hostile £4.9bn offer. “We believe a cash offer at a 20% premium is better than an all-share offer,” van Dijk said. “It provides certainty to shareholders and shields them from operational execution risk.” Despite his confidence, shareholders in Just Eat have called for a higher offer. Aberdeen Standard Investments, which has a 5.4% stake, insisted last week that neither Prosus’s bid nor the merger with Takeaway was acceptable. |
  | BT Group (BT.A) bosses face scrutiny over their turnaround plans this week as the broadcaster prepares to bid again for its Champions League TV rights. In 2017, the telecoms giant paid £1.2bn for exclusive rights to televise the tournament and the Europa League for three years. Bids need to be submitted to Uefa by November 11 to air the matches between 2021 and 2024. ITV (ITV) and Sky are both expected to try to snatch the rights from BT Sport. Speculation in recent months about a cut to BT’s dividend has increased the pressure on it to bid prudently. BT has also made a bold — and expensive — pledge to accelerate its fibre broadband roll-out. It now aims to reach at least 15m homes by the mid 2020s — up from the 10m premises initially planned. |
 | Shadowfall Capital published its thesis that Kerry Group ‘A’ Shares (KYGA) might be inflating its profits. The activist questioned how they could have more than doubled in the past decade when Kerry’s growth had been propelled by acquiring businesses that, Shadowfall contended, were loss-making or barely profitable. Kerry dismissed the report as “fundamentally inaccurate and misinformed” and its share price has continued marching upwards. Analysts believe the company has the requisite expertise to capitalise on the tectonic shifts in the industry. Analysts at Barclays reckon that the shift to plant-based diets will boost Kerry’s margins over time. The company has spent more than £2bn on deals in the past decade and plans to make bolt-on acquisitions to fill remaining gaps in expertise or products. However, acquisition accounting is notoriously opaque and Kerry often fails to disclose the multiples it pays. That helps keep rivals in the dark, but makes it harder for investors to ascertain whether they are getting the right bang for their buck. Shadowfall’s research may not have meaningfully dimmed investor appetite for Kerry, but it has raised some pertinent questions. With the shares now trading at almost 35 times earnings, investors should rein in their appetite. |
| Just Eat (JE.) has accepted that its multibillion-pound merger with Takeaway.com is dead in its present form, putting pressure on the Dutch suitor to sweeten the terms of its proposal. The group is at the centre of a bidding war after Naspers gatecrashed the tie-up with Takeaway.com on Tuesday, tabling a 710p-a-share cash offer worth £4.9 billion. The Just Eat board, backed by three of its biggest shareholders, rejected the hostile bid from Prosus, a Naspers subsidiary, saying that its merger with Takeaway.com “provides Just Eat shareholders with greater value creation”. However, The Times understands that Just Eat and its City advisers believe that the deal it agreed with Takeaway.com in July is no longer viable after the sharp fall in the value of the Dutch group’s shares. The all-paper offer, under which Just Eat shareholders would receive 0.09744 new Takeaway.com shares for each Just Eat share they own, was worth 731p a share at the time it was struck, but that had fallen to 594p on Monday. |
 | Contracts with new clients offered evidence that a turnaround programme at WPP (WPP) is bearing fruit as it announced its first growth in underlying quarterly revenues in more than a year. Mark Read, its chief executive, said: “It’s one quarter, we’re not declaring victory at this point — but we are saying that there is an impact beginning to come through of some of the changes that we’ve made.” |
| Robust results at its investment bank have given Barclays (BARC) a timely boost in its long-running battle with an activist investor. The division’s profits rose by 77% to £882 million in the three months to September 30, on income up 18% to £2.6 billion. Jes Staley, 62, Barclays’ chief executive, said yesterday that fee income at the division had been at a record level in the third quarter and that its performance showed that it could compete with its rivals on Wall Street. |
 | Hastings Group Holdings (HSTG) warned that it could miss forecasts this year and that its annual loss ratio — a measure of claims paid as a proportion of its premium income — might be worse than expected and could exceed 79%. The cost of the parts and labour required to fix cars has increased as vehicles have become more high-tech. Although Hastings expects claims inflation of about 5% over the medium to long term, the figure was between 6% and 7% in the first half of the year and rose again in the third quarter to a range of 7% to 8%. Several injury claims also contributed to the increase and poor weather this winter could lift the pressure still further. |
| Barclays (BARC) has bowed to public pressure and scrapped a decision to stop its customers from withdrawing cash at post offices following a barrage of criticism. The bank’s U-turn came after it emerged that Barclays bosses would be questioned about the decision by a committee of MPs who had labelled it “a petty, penny-pinching move” and were hours away from publishing a highly critical report on the controversy. Barclays said it had been “persuaded to rethink” its decision, and would now keep the cash withdrawal facility after all. |
| Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) has swung to a quarterly loss after being forced to put aside an extra £900m to cover a surge in payment protection insurance complaints before the claims deadline. The extra charge means RBS slid to an operating loss of £8m for the three months to September, compared with a profit of £961m in the same quarter last year. PPI has become by far the banking industry’s biggest mis-selling scandal and this latest charge for RBS is at the top end of its estimates in September, after the August claims deadline. The bank had forecast a third-quarter provision of between £600m to £900m. |
| RSM puts its head above the parapet with . Auditor gambles on a contract that the Big Four have all turned down | |
| Barclays (BARC) U-turn on Post Office cash withdrawals. Bank bows to pressure over decision to stop customers using Post Office branches |
| Lombard – Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) investment bank and loan worries are back. PPI claims may soon be terminated but new boss cannot underestimate other challenges |
 | AstraZeneca (AZN) lifts sales outlook on boost from new drugs. Drugmaker posts fifth successive quarter of revenue growth but warns China is set to slow |
| Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) slumps to loss on weak investment banking and £900m PPI hit. UK bank forced to set aside £900m to deal with last-minute compensation demands |
  | Schroders (SDR) to take reins of Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT). Shares in investment vehicle soar as UK asset manager agrees to take over |
| AJ Bell (AJB) has pulled in 34,154 customers over the last year as it steps up its battle with Hargreaves Lansdown. The investment platform, which is run by founder Andy Bell, bumped up its customer numbers by 17% in the year to September 30. The amount of money it looks after for savers climbed by 13% to £52.3billion as investors piled £5.4billion into AJ Bell’s platform to buy funds and shares. The increase came as AJ Bell’s biggest rival, Hargreaves Lansdown, was caught up in the scandal engulfing Neil Woodford after years of backing the troubled stock picker’s funds. | |
| AstraZeneca (AZN) has hiked its sales forecasts for the second time this year amid booming demand for its new medicines. The pharmaceuticals group said a surge in third quarter revenues was down to the success of its cancer drugs and a strong performance in China. It said revenues rose to £5billion in the three months to September, up from £4.2billion the previous year and higher than the £4.6billion predicted by analysts. Astra credited its performance to new medicines such as cancer treatments Tagrisso and Lynparza, with sales jumping by 62% to £2.1billion overall. |
| Shares in Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) rocketed as new managers were revealed after the fallen fund manager stood down. After months of uncertainty amid the scandal affecting frozen Neil Woodford’s flagship Equity Income Fund, the board of the £275million Woodford Patient Capital Trust has announced Schroders (SDR) will take over as manager by the end of the year. Woodford’s name will be removed from his trust, which was launched to much fanfare, and it will be rebranded as the Schroder UK Public Private Trust. |
 | Petro Matad Ltd. (MATD) soared after tests at one of its wells showed there was more oil there than expected. The results from Heron-1 mean the Mongolia-focused group can move from being an oil explorer to a producer. AIM-listed Petro Matad will study the test data and prepare an application to the Mongolian government for a licence to produce oil. If it is successful, Petro Matad can start bringing in revenue for the first time. |
| Natwest-owner Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) slumped to a third-quarter loss of £8million in the three months to September after it was forced to put aside a further £900million to compensate customers who were stung by mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) on loans and credit cards. The bank made a profit of £961million in the same period of last year. Making matters worse, its investment banking arm, Natwest Markets, posted a loss of £193million in a set of figures Jefferies analysts labelled ‘deplorable’. The results, which were considerably poorer than the City had expected, are the last to be overseen by New Zealander Ross McEwan, who has been chief executive for six years and will make way next month for career-RBS staffer Alison Rose. Rose ‘must be wondering what has just hit her’, Investec’s Ian Gordon mused. |
| Metro Bank (MTRO) rose as rumours gained traction that it could be a takeover target. In dire figures released after the market closed on Wednesday, it slipped to a loss of £3.3million in the first nine months of this year, while founder Vernon Hill finally stepped aside as chairman into an ’emeritus chairman’ role. But chief executive Craig Donaldson refused to rule out a takeover when asked if Metro had received any approaches. On the City rumour mill, Lloyds Bank’s name has been added to a list that also includes RBS and HSBC as potential buyers. |
 | Shoe Zone (SHOE) rallied after revenues rose almost 1% to £162million during the year to October 5 and it kept its full-year profit forecast, saying it was ‘encouraged’ by recent sales. Although modest, the update is a sign the troubled retailer is stabilising following a profit warning and the departure in August of then chief executive Nick Davis. |
| The stricken investment trust formerly run by Neil Woodford faces a backlash after appointing blue-blooded fund firm Schroders (SDR) as its new manager on fees of £3.5m a year. Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) will be renamed as Schroder UK Public Private Trust, with investors facing a new annual management fee equal to 1pc of their holding from next year onwards. Based on the current £349m market value of the trust, it means Schroders will earn about £3.5m, or almost £10,000 a day. Schroders will also get 15% of any value created if the price of assets in which the trust is invested rises above 77p per share. This net asset value per share was 63.2p on Tuesday, the latest available figure. |
| Britain is an increasingly attractive place to do business, with few regulatory delays and relatively little red tape, according to the World Bank. The UK climbed to eighth place in the annual rankings, up from ninth a year ago and overtaking Norway to reinforce its credentials as an attractive location for businesses and entrepreneurs. Top of the annual rankings are New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong. Denmark, South Korea, the US and Georgia are also ahead of Britain in the assessment of 190 countries. The report tracks regulations, administration and barriers to establishing and running businesses, urging Governments to cut red tape to boost enterprise, employment and living standards. | |
| Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) was hit by almost 9,000 PPI mis-selling complaints a day amid a last-ditch scramble for compensation, pushing the lender into a loss as it warned there could be more pain still to come. RBS slumped £8m into the red for the third quarter of 2019, down from a £961m profit in the same period last year. It piles pressure on new chief executive Alison Rose, who will take over next month. The loss was largely caused by a late rush for payment protection insurance compensation ahead of a deadline for claims in August, and a tough three months at its investment bank. |
| Barclays (BARC) has reversed its decision to stop customers withdrawing cash from Post Offices after a political storm that saw one of Britain’s biggest banks rounded on by politicians, the banking industry and media. Earlier this month Barclays said it would stop offering Post Office banking users access to physical cash from January 2020, and would instead invest in cashback and ATMs. More than 100 MPs wrote to the bank urging it to reverse the decision. Today the bank announced a u-turn and promised to keep the cash withdrawal service for at least three years. |
 | Next (NXT) shoppers will be able to buy a mobile phone or renew their O2 contracts while shopping for clothes and homeware. The high street bellwether, which has around 500 stores, has opened two O2 stores on Friday in Next shops in Warrington and Southampton, with two more to follow next month in Swindon and Nottingham. The tie-up with the network provider comes as a string of retailers strive to find the best use for their space and attract more shoppers to their sites. Next already has similar tie-ups with coffee chains Costa and Cafe Nero, stationery firm Paperchase, travel agents Virgin Holidays and Tui, furniture maker Hammonds, make up seller Inglot and pasta bar Gino D’Acampo. |
| Barclays (BARC) has scrapped controversial plans to prevent customers withdrawing cash from post offices after an outcry by MPs and consumer groups. The reversal comes after Barclays was ordered to appear before a Commons committee to explain its earlier decision and after the intervention of John Glen, economic secretary to the Treasury. The high street lender said that it had been “persuaded to rethink” a plan to discontinue services at post offices from January. It has now committed with 27 other lenders to a three-year agreement giving its customers access to cash via the Post Office network. |
| Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) cast uncertainty over the banking sector yesterday by swinging to a loss and reporting higher-than-expected bad debts. The bank took a £900 million charge for mis-selling payment protection insurance, at the higher end of a range it gave last month, raising fears that other banks’ provisions could be heavy. RBS’s pared-down investment bank also dragged down the group, posting a loss of £193 million after core income fell by 44%. Overall the bank made a pre-tax loss of £8 million in the three months to September 30, compared with a pre-tax profit of £961 million in the same period last year. It posted £213 million of impairments, which was above expectations. Barclays (BARC) reports its quarterly results today, with all eyes on the performance of its investment bank after Jes Staley, its chief executive, took direct control of the division in March. HSBC Holdings (HSBA), run by interim chief executive Noel Quinn, reports on Monday and Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) on Thursday next week. |
| The board of Neil Woodford’s troubled investment trust plans to replace the fund manager with Schroders (SDR) in an effort to revive its fortunes. A team from the listed investment group is expected to take over as the portfolio manager of the Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) by the end of the year. Mr Woodford’s name will be dropped and it will be called the Schroder UK Public Private Trust. The trust’s board said that Schroders “intends to manage the portfolio in line with the company’s existing investment objective and policy”. |
| Britain has retained its place in the world’s top ten markets to do business as the government prepares companies at home and abroad for Brexit. The World Bank highlighted improving corporate environments in Saudi Arabia, China and India as it published its annual rankings, which put New Zealand in pole position. Somalia was bottom of the 190 economies in which it analysed barriers to business. Britain edged one position higher in the overall rankings, from ninth to eighth, overtaking Norway. The country did well in measures relating to the protection of minority investors, in which it was ranked seventh, and access to electricity, in which it came eighth. Its weakest performance was in the property registration category, where it was ranked 41st. | |
| AstraZeneca (AZN) has raised its annual sales guidance for the second consecutive quarter after a strong performance in its new medicines but warned of slower growth next year in its important Chinese market. The pharmaceuticals group posted its fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth, with product sales up 18% to $6.1 billion in the third quarter at constant exchange rates. The growth was driven by sales of new medicines, which rose 64% to $2.7 billion, and oncology treatments, up 48% to $2.3 billion. Sales in emerging markets, Astrazeneca’s largest region, increased by 29% to $2.1 billion, led by China, where sales were up 40% to $1.3 billion. |
| AJ Bell (AJB) reported a 17% increase in customer numbers to 232,066 for the 12 months to the end of September and a 13% rise in its assets under administration to £52.3 billion. Andy Bell, its chief executive and co-founder, said the trading update “demonstrates the resilience of our business model” and investors sent its shares up 4p to 375p, a 134% increase on their 160p float price. | |
 | The competition watchdog has launched an inquiry into Ovo Energy’s £500 million acquisition of the domestic supply arm of SSE (SSE). Ovo would take on SSE’s 3.5 million household customers in addition to the 1.5 million it already supplies. The Bristol-based company, which employs about 2,000 people, would also take on 8,000 SSE staff. The inquiry, will consider whether the deal is likely to result in a substantial lessening of competition within any market in the UK. If it finds that this is a risk, it could then launch an in-depth inquiry, with the potential to delay or even derail the deal. |
 | Fortress Investment Group is understood to be the frontrunner to acquire a package of about 150 leased and tenanted pubs from Marston’s (MARS) for an estimated £45 million. Marston’s put the bottom-end pubs up for sale through Christie & Co as part of a debt reduction strategy. In January it outlined a plan to cut its £1.4 billion of net debt by £200 million by 2023, partly through “disposal of £80-£90 million of certain non-core assets”. In a recent year-end trading update, Ralph Findlay, the chief executive, said Marston’s was increasing its disposals guidance for the current financial year from £40 million to £70 million. |
| BP (BP.) has developed a new technology to recycle plastics such as black food trays and coloured bottles that typically end up in landfill or incinerator. BP said it would build a $25 million plant in Illinois, which it hopes will prove the method is commercially viable. If deployed at scale, it could “offer potential to divert billions of coloured polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and food trays from landfill and incineration”. |
 | Analysts at JP Morgan Cazenove cut their price target on Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) from 600p to 500p, adding that the future prospects of Britain’s biggest aircraft engine maker, whose market capitalisation is £13.6 billion, could benefit from the equity to help it “make better decisions on the health of the company”. Rolls-Royce has suffered from persistent problems with its Trent 1000 engine, which the analysts expect to cost more than £650 million in compensation to airlines, building spare engines and fixing a design flaw on the newest model. |
 | RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI) (RHIM) issued a profit warning for the year to December, blaming a weakened global steel market, only a week after its peer Vesuvius issued a profit warning. |
 | Capita (CPI) extended its contract with the National Trust to provide customer experience services, including support for the holiday, fundraising, donation and event management teams, for another five years, in a transaction worth £46 million. |
 | Braemar Shipping Services (BMS) fell 9p to 221p after the broker reported a 14% fall in underlying pre-tax profit for the half-year to the end of August to £3 million, compared with £3.5 million a year ago. |
 | Caroline Connellan, the chief executive of Brooks Macdonald Group (BRK), said that the uncertain macroeconomic climate had continued to weaken client sentiment for the investment manager. Net outflows hit £28 million in the three months to September, holding back asset growth to only 1%. Analysts at Peel Hunt said: “Brooks remains well placed to return to growth when market conditions improve, with recent cost-efficiency plans underpinning future operational leverage.” |
 | GB Group (GBG) climbed 75p to 602p after it said it expected its half-year revenue to jump 64% to £93.7 million. Analysts at Jefferies said the group can continue to expand its revenues organically at 12% a year for the foreseeable future, while Numis said that “the group’s core global lines of business — identity, fraud and location — enhanced by recent acquisitions, are resonating well in a market seeing positive demand drivers”. |
| Shoe Zone (SHOE) whose chief executive Nick Davies, resigned in August, has made no secret of its difficulties but it reported revenue of £161.9 million for the year to this month, compared with £160.6 million last year. |
 | Shares in Nuformix (NFX) gave up recent gains yesterday to trade 5% lower and close at 8¼p. Chatter that Nuformix is close to securing a licensing deal with Kissei Pharmaceutical, one of Japan’s largest drug companies, has sent shares in the minnow higher in recent days. Market gossip suggests that Kissei is in talks to license Nuformix’s lead fibrosis treatment alongside its unique oral delivery system. The proprietary delivery mechanism resolves a number of efficacy problems that have plagued Kissei for years, they claim. The partnership could enable Kissei to treat other conditions. The reports suggest that the deal being discussed involves an upfront milestone payment of £15 million and annual royalty payments worth more than £200 million. If a deal is struck and structured on those terms, Nuformix would generate revenues well in excess of its current £40 million market value. |
 | Tempus – Energean Oil and Gas (ENOG): Hold. Quality gas-focused producer with eye for smart and cost-effective acquisitions |
| Retailers have axed 85,000 jobs in the past year as weak consumer demand, rising costs and the switch to online shopping, exacerbated by Brexit uncertainty, have put businesses under increasing pressure. The job losses in the UK’s biggest private employment sector – with particular importance for women – are the latest sign of a crisis on the high street that has seen the closure of thousands of shops and the collapse of some well-known retail names. Bonmarché, the fashion chain for over-50s, went into administration last week, putting nearly 3,000 jobs at risk, just weeks after hundreds of jobs were lost at Karen Millen and Coast, which closed all their stores after falling into administration. Other retailers including Mothercare, New Look and Marks & Spencer and House of Fraser have also been closing stores, while Debenhams is set to close more than 20 in January. | |
 | Heathrow has accused British Airways of acting against “the consumer and national interest” by attempting to slow down expansion of the airport and depriving passengers of lower fares. BA’s parent company, International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG), has complained to the regulator about the approximately £3.3bn Heathrow will spend on preparations for the third runway, accusing the airport of covering up costs that will affect airlines. The airport’s chief executive hit back at IAG for keeping fares high and attempting to stave off competition. John Holland-Kaye said: “The affordability debate has been around the wrong thing, landing charges of £20 per passenger, rather than competition on fares. “We’re getting on with building the third runway. What IAG would prefer to do is not spend money until after we’ve got planning permission, and delay by two or three years. That’s not in the consumer interest or national interest. In two years’ time Charles de Gaulle [in Paris] will overtake Heathrow as the biggest airport in Europe.” |
| has appointed advisory group RSM as its auditor, more than a month after an acrimonious split with the accounting firm Grant Thornton. RSM is the UK’s seventh biggest audit firm and Sports Direct will be its biggest client. The advisory group has no other audit clients among the top 350 companies on the London Stock Exchange. According to ARL, a service that monitors corporate advisers and their clients, RSM signs off the accounts of Aim-listed firms including Quiz, Fulham Shore and Cake Box. Sports Direct is a FTSE250 firm with a valuation of almost £1.7bn. Shares in Sports Direct tumbled to their lowest level since 2011 in August after its then auditor, Grant Thornton, quit. Grant Thornton had monitored Sport Direct’s accounts since the retailers floatation in 2007. | |
| Metro Bank (MTRO) founder has resigned as chairman with immediate effect weeks before he was expected to step down, leaving his successor to handle a regulatory investigation into an accounting error. The high street challenger said Vernon Hill, who founded the bank in 2010, would stay on as a non-executive director until 31 December. He has been granted the honorary position of emeritus chairman in recognition of his “extraordinary contribution to Metro Bank”, the lender said in a regulatory announcement. Sir Michael Snyder, a member of the board, will serve as interim chairman until a replacement is found. Hill will continue receiving his full chairman’s pay over the next two months, despite his scaled-down role, including a £10,000 monthly travel allowance. |
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