 | Thomas Cook Group (TCG) chances of survival are in the balance as it struggles to meet a demand from Royal Bank of Scotland and its other banks for an extra £200 million of funding. The travel company risks going bust if it cannot secure the funds, which would force the government to launch the biggest peacetime repatriation of British citizens at an estimated cost of £600 million. It is understood Thomas Cook has held talks with ministers about contingency measures. A collapse would hit an estimated 150,000 UK holidaymakers as well as more than 500,000 customers in overseas source markets, mostly Germany and Scandinavia. One airline captain suggested that preparations were already being made for repatriations: “The jungle drums are beating about lots of unusual handling requests for early morning arrivals on October 1 at Gatwick.” |
 | Microsoft has nominated Emma Walmsley, the chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), to its board of directors. In an announcement last night, the Seattle-based software giant described Ms Walmsley, 50, as a “valuable addition to the board,” while also reporting the planned departure of two of its longest serving board members. Ms Walmsley became Glaxo’s first female chief executive in 2016, when she took over from Sir Andrew Witty, who had run the company for eight years. Prior to that she was head of Glaxo’s consumer healthcare division, one of the world’s largest consumer health companies which was established in 2015 after Glaxo’s $20 billion asset swap with Novartis. |
 | Selling its competitors’ clothes online has helped Next (NXT) to report another boost in profits. The fashion retailer yesterday posted a 4% increase in pre-tax profits to £327.4 million for the six months to the end of July while total sales rose by 2.7% to £2 billion. Shares in Next had risen 45% this year as it weathered the high street slump better than its struggling rivals by negotiating shorter, cheaper leases with landlords and capitalising on the boom of online shopping. Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise, chief executive, said that the “explosion” of internet shopping meant that “in every corner of the country [consumers] can now access a choice of goods, breadth of sizes and selection of brands that no single high street could ever contain”. |
 | Nearly half of Ryanair Holdings (RYA) investors have rejected a pay deal for Michael O’Leary that could hand him €99 million. Shareholders voted in unprecedented numbers against Ryanair’s remuneration report at the company’s annual meeting near Dublin yesterday. They were concerned that the targets for Mr O’Leary to win the payoff are not stretching enough. Just 50.5% of votes at the meeting were in favour. Having lost his billionaire status because of Ryanair’s falling share price — his fortune, much of it tied up in Irish racehorses, is reckoned to have shrunk to about €770 million — it was announced this year that Mr O’Leary, 58, had signed a new five-year contract. |
| Staff at wealth manager Smith & Williamson will share more than £200 million after it was bought by larger rival Tilney for £625 million. The deal will trigger six-figure payouts for some of its staff. S&W’s shareholders will pocket about half of the proceeds in cash, and get stock in the enlarged company. About 1,200 current and retired employees own 70 per cent, putting them in line for share of more than £200 million. AGF, a Canadian mutual fund provider, owns 30% of S&W. The takeover will create an asset management and advisory group with £45 billion of funds and an enterprise value of £1.8 billion. It will unite two of the oldest names in wealth management. | |
 | The outgoing chief executive of Saga (SAGA) has said it is too early to consider a break-up of the travel-to-insurance group amid pressure from a US activist investor. Lance Batchelor announced plans in June to step down next year a few months after Saga halved its dividend, warned on profits and revamped its struggling insurance business. The upheaval was followed by a shareholder revolt over executive pay at its annual meeting that month and the emergence in July of Elliott Capital Advisors, the activist shareholder, with a 5.1% position, triggering speculation Saga would come under pressure to break itself up. In its first-half results yesterday, Mr Batchelor, 55, updated investors on the revival, saying the board was “open-minded about the optimal structure of Saga” and there had been “constructive conversations” with Elliott. “We are not religiously wedded to one particular structure. What we want do is create shareholder value.” |
| A review by the City watchdog that found “limited evidence” that new European rules on investment research had harmed the coverage of smaller companies has been greeted with incredulity by stockbrokers. The Financial Conduct Authority said yesterday that it had examined the impact of the introduction in January 2018 of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid) II regulations and that it had found that most asset managers “can still access the research they need”. “We found no evidence of a material reduction in research coverage, including for listed small and medium enterprises (SMEs),” the regulator said. But the findings were questioned by veterans at stockbroking firms that produce research whose results are sold to fund managers. One head of research at a broking firm said the FCA’s survey results were “bullshit”. | |
  | JD Sports Fashion (JD.) takeover of smaller rival Footasylum (FOOT) could lead to higher prices and less choice for shoppers, the UK’s competition watchdog has said. Unless JD Sports can address these concerns, the Competition and Markets Authority said it would carry out an in-depth investigation into the £90 million deal. Shares in the retailer fell 20½p to 692p. Colin Raftery, senior director at the CMA, said: “JD Sports and Footasylum have been competing strongly across the UK, with a sports fashion offering that few other retailers are able to match.” Mr Raftery added: “JD Sports is already by far the largest player in the growing sports fashion sector so any deal that results in it buying up one of its closest competitors could clearly give cause for concern.” |
 | Royal Mail (RMG) has been found guilty of price-fixing in the parcels market in what the regulator Ofcom described as a serious breach of competition law. The company’s Parcelforce division co-operated with a Nottinghamshire-based business trading as Despatch Bay to share out customers and agree not to undercut each other. Ofcom said Royal Mail had acted illegally. Most of the collusion occurred after it was sold off by the Conservative-led government and floated on the stock market in 2013. The company was caught price-fixing before. In 2016 Royal Mail’s European operation GLS was fined €40 million for collusion across the industry in France. In 2018, GLS was found to have been part of a similar cartel in Spain. |
 | Kier Group (KIE) stumbled to a £245 million pre-tax loss as the struggling construction company counted the cost of restructuring its bloated middle management and contracts that went wrong. The company’s annual results yesterday included a £56 million bill from a restructuring that will lead to 1,200 job cuts as well as a £44 million charge because of problems building the new Broadmoor hospital in Berkshire and a £27 million hit from terminating a contract to empty the bins in Cheshire. Kier has been billed as the construction business most likely to follow rivals Carillion and Interserve into financial difficulty. Its borrowings in the year to June 30 averaged £422 million, up by 12% for a company whose market value is now only £215 million. |
 | Volatile stock markets have boosted trading at IG Group Holdings (IGG) as it shows signs of recovering from a clampdown on betting on financial markets. IG reported revenue of £129.1 million in the three months to the end of August, its first quarter, which was flat compared with the same period last year when it was partly affected by a month of stricter European regulation. The company said it had benefited from an increase in the number of active clients and from more client trading activity as a result of the “favourable market conditions” in August. Stock markets were choppy last month, buffeted by an escalation in US-China trade tensions and the bond markets indicating a risk of recession. |
 | The world’s largest spirits maker hailed a positive start to the year yesterday, although it cautioned that it would “not be immune from significant changes to global trade policy”. Diageo (DGE) said it expected organic net sales growth for the year “toward the mid-point” of the target range of 4% to 6%, with operating profit growing by about 6%. |
 | The market warmed to Centrica (CNA) after it was described by analysts as “the value wild card” among UK utilities stocks. Analysts at Jefferies are fans of the turnaround plan and believe Centrica is worth a punt. “We see Centrica’s new strategy delivering stable earnings and a more resilient dividend and balance sheet,” they said in a research note to clients. “Clearly, there are execution risks relating to cost-cutting measures and disposals, but with the stock trading at a 50 per cent discount to the utility sector (at historical lows of 8x forward price-to-earnings) and offering a 6.7 per cent cash yield, we see the risk-reward as attractive.” |
 | International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) continued its recent ascent as Morgan Stanley threw its support behind the airlines group, for which it has an “overweight” rating — a “buy” in old money. The chin-strokers highlighted a host of risks for the company, including Brexit, its well-documented IT issues, and the need to invest heavily if it wants to maintain market share in its premium — and most profitable — cabins. There is also the strike action, which Morgan Stanley believes could cost it up to £130 million this year. So why are the analysts still bullish? “While we acknowledge there are risks to the investment story, these are more than priced in and we think IAG’s premium returns are not appreciated by investors.” |
 | BT Group (BT.A) shares rallyied 3½p to 177¼p. The rise came amid signs of progress on government and industry attempts to lay the ground to hit the government’s target of universal full-fibre broadband across Britain by 2025. Nicky Morgan hosted her first meeting yesterday as the new culture secretary with the bosses of the telecoms infrastructure providers including Openreach, BT’s networks arm, and Talktalk. Charles Taylor, which among other things helps insurers handle complex claims, surged after agreeing to be taken private in a £261 million deal. The company received a 315p-a-share offer from the private equity house Lovell Minnick, which its board urged shareholders to accept. Investors seem to be banking on a better offer coming forward. |
 | Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) has scrapped the exit fee it charges customers moving to another provider and called on rivals to do the same as it tries to get back on the front foot after being tarnished by the Neil Woodford fund controversy. As part of an overhaul in which it dropped nine charges, the stockbroker and investment manager abandoned its practice of hitting departees with a fee of £25 plus VAT plus £25 for each fund or share they held. It means the FTSE 100 group will levy just two fees, one for managing investments and another for dealing shares. Its move follows a lead set by Interactive Investor and Fidelity and puts pressure on rivals to do the same. Customers will save £3 million in charges. |
| Tempus – AJ Bell (AJB): Buy. High-quality growth business that should generate plentiful rewards for investors over time | |
| Tempus – Vivo Energy (VVO): Hold. Exposed to growth and uncertainty of African markets |
 | Lombard – Challenger Metro Bank (MTRO) may be challenged on capital. Regulator is extending the scope of its investigation into accounting error |
 | Why Cobham (COB) takeover may prompt national security concerns. UK company pioneered air refuelling technology and has trained Britain’s military pilots |
| Lex – Cobham (COB)/Advent: royal air farce. Assessment of threats to competition and UK defence industry only occurs when there is a takeover |
| Metro Bank (MTRO) staff grilled over misreporting scandal. FCA widens investigation into miscategorised loan risk-weightings to include managers |
| UK government intervenes in Cobham (COB) £4bn takeover. Competition and Markets Authority to review offer from US private equity firm |
 | Kingfisher (KGF) profits hit by weakness in France and UK B&Q stores. DIY merchant sees ‘mixed’ outlook by geography with ‘continued uncertainty’ in UK |
 | City of London stockbroker Cenkos Securities (CNKS) reshuffles board. Founder shareholder with close links to Neil Woodford among two to leave the board |
 | Pendragon (PDG) says Brexit uncertainty to exacerbate full-year loss. Britain’s largest car dealership swings to first-half loss amid overstocking debacle |
 | The former boss of Stobart Group, Andrew Tinkler, is preparing a bid for the separate troubled lorry firm Eddie Stobart Logistics (ESL). Tinkler, 56, has joined private equity firm Dbay in expressing an interest for the haulage firm, which is floundering in the wake of accounting errors. He has met City investors to seek backing for a bid, but is not thought to have secured substantial funding. A cut-price sale of Eddie Stobart would be a blow for under-fire fund manager Neil Woodford, the largest shareholder with a 23% stake. |
| Boris Johnson’s Government faces a crucial test of its attitude towards foreign takeovers following a dramatic intervention in the £4billion battle for British defence firm Cobham (COB). Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom yesterday ordered an investigation into the deal, to determine whether it poses a threat to national security. If the Government decides it does, it has the power to block the sale to US private equity group Advent International. When Theresa May became prime minister three years ago, she said protecting British companies from foreign predators was one of her ambitions. However, no deal has ever been blocked on national security grounds by the Government. |
 | Shares in Sirius Minerals (SXX) fell another 5% yesterday as plans to dig a giant potash mine under the North York Moors hang by a thread. The sell-off began on Monday and accelerated on Tuesday when it said it was struggling to raise enough money to keep the project afloat. Following the Government’s refusal to risk taxpayers’ money to guarantee loans of up to £804million, the future of the Woodsmith mine is looking even more precarious. Around 85,000 retail investors, including many families in villages around the moors, are now facing huge losses. Some have ploughed much of their life savings into the mine in the hope of making a handsome profit while helping to boost the local economy and create jobs. |
| Pendragon (PDG) is closing nearly two-thirds of its Car Store sites, leaving 300 staff out of a job. The group, which owns a string of brands including Car Store, Evans Halshaw and Stratstone, is closing 22 of its 34 Car Store sites across the country by the end of the year. The group has not revealed the locations of the sites being shut. Pendragon, which has issued a number of profit warnings, said Brexit was hampering consumer confidence and the car market remained ‘challenging.’ A strategic review by the group found 22 of its Car Stores sites were loss-making and unlikely to return to profit, and it said it was now taking ‘immediate action’ through the planned closures. The firm also revealed last month it had continued the sell-off of its US showrooms with the sale of its Chevrolet dealership in Puente Hills, California. |
| Cenkos Securities (CNKS) has kicked off its board a founding shareholder with close ties to the embattled fund manager Neil Woodford. Paul Hodges, head of the equity capital markets team, will remain on the executive committee but stand down as a board director with immediate effect. Cenkos said that a smaller board would bring it ‘into line with current regulatory and good corporate governance practices’. Brokers have come under increasing pressure in recent years, amid tightening regulation, increased investor uncertainty squeezing trading profits and fewer companies deciding to pursue floats on the stock market. Cenkos has also been pulled under the spotlight for its close ties with Woodford – whose flagship Equity Income fund has been shuttered since June – who has invested in a number of Cenkos clients, such as the AA and Eddie Stobart. |
| Kingfisher (KGF) has come clean on falling sales and profits just days before outgoing boss Veronique Laury hands over the reins. Profits in the first half of the year tumbled 12.5% to £245million as the firm ploughed ahead with a radical five-year transformation plan – One Kingfisher – which entails overhauling IT and buying systems. Without one-off costs, profits rose 3.7% to £337million. Kingfisher said the ongoing implementation of the plan has led to some disruption at B&Q stores, taking a chunk out of sales and driving some customers to defect to its rivals Homebase and Wickes as B&Q swaps out old ranges and upgrades displays. It added that its performance in the UK was ‘disappointing’ as the enduring Brexit uncertainty chips away at consumer confidence and put the stoppers on the housing market in some areas. |
 | N4 Pharma (N4P) gained ground despite reporting its first-half loss had widened slightly. It is developing new vaccine and cancer treatments which work by sending DNA into cells to stimulate an immune response to fight back. A loss before tax of £552,160 in the six months to June 30 was up from a £526,221 loss in the same period last year. Administration costs rose by more than a third to £433,000, and it made £27,693 from the sale of an investment. |
| Metro Bank (MTRO) shares fell as much as 6.5% after it said in a company document – specifically, a bond prospectus – that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is probing senior managers for their role in a misreporting scandal that hammered its stock in January. In addition to the FCA widening its investigation, Metro Bank warned it could cost a ‘significant expense’ to resolve investigations into the £900million accounting error. The challenger bank has struggled to rebuild investor confidence after it revealed it had under-reported the risk of its loan book, forcing it to raise £375million from shareholders in May. |
 | Games Workshop Group (GAW) rose 142p, to 4816p on the back of a short but sweet upbeat trading update – and a shareholder protest against its chairman. Almost 27% of investors voted against Nick Donaldson’s re-election. The firm said it was probably down to worries that his time is stretched too thinly, as he is on the board of several other firms, such as Franco Manca owner The Fulham Shore, but added that it has full confidence in him and will talk to disgruntled investors. |
 | Weir Group (WEIR) shed 51.5p, to 1508p after brokers at JP Morgan cut the stock from ‘overweight’ to ‘neutral’ and trimmed its target price from 1650p to 1500p. JP Morgan said it sees challenging times ahead for Weir’s oil and gas division, and that the group will gain only a limited boost from a short-term spike in the oil price. |
 | Yu Group (YU.) slumped 27.5p, to 120p after it booked a deeper first-half loss of £3.3million, more than triple the £895,000 of the year before. Costs soared and it was forced to ‘reset’ in the first six months of the year following the discovery of an accounting error in October which cost it £10million. |
 | Warpaint London (W7L) fell 1p, to 50.5p after revealing a half-year loss of £210,000 – down from pre-tax profit of £1.3million the year before – as its expenses rose. Sales increased 2.9% to £18.9million between January and June, but it has warned that the High Street slowdown and Brexit anxiety mean that trading conditions are still challenging. |
 | Pan African Resources (PAF) swung back into profit in the year to June and has restarted its dividend payments at 0.13p per share. Helped by a surge in the price of gold ,which has rallied on the back of US-China trade tensions and worries that another global recession is on the way, revenue jumped 49% to £174million. It posted a pre-tax profit of £30million, compared with a loss of £99million last year. |
 | Hong Kong is under growing pressure to sweeten the terms of its £32bn offer for the London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) as a takeover battle for the British bourse intensifies. Executives from Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) have launched a charm offensive with top LSE investors after its shock approach last week was snubbed by the group’s board. Without a higher price, shareholders are thought to be reluctant to seriously consider a deal. Top LSE shareholders told The Telegraph they will only entertain the move if they can be convinced that the LSE’s planned £22bn takeover of data provider Refinitiv is “absolute rubbish”, that regulators will approve the deal and that the bid is sweetened. One top shareholder said the bid “needs more of a cash element” to be taken seriously. |
| Britain’s biggest car dealership Pendragon (PDG) have crashed another 10% to new lows of less than 10p. The company hit the skids in June after new boss Mark Herbert lasted a paltry three months in the post. Chairman Chris Chambers had called Herbert “the ideal person to lead Pendragon through the next phase” after the departure of long-serving chief executive Trevor Finn, who had run the business since the 1980s. Now, after swinging to a big loss, Chambers is heading out the door too. That leaves Bill Berman, currently a non-executive director, trying to stop the whole thing careering off the road, as interim executive chairman. He has a hell of a job on his hands, and may find himself in the hotseat longer than hoped. Finding someone brave enough to sort out the mess will be no easy task. |
| A government-ordered investigation on national security grounds into the £4bn takeover of Cobham (COB) by a US private equity group is not expected to derail the deal. Analysts at Berenberg described Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom’s instruction that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) examine the takeover of the defence and aerospace company on public interest grounds as “being emotionally led”. They said that with 8% of Cobham’s work being for the UK military and only 15% of its staff based in Britain, they did “not believe that a UK national interest review will jeopardise the closing of this transaction”. The Government has the power to block the deal if it is found to put UK national security at risk or harm the country’s industrial footprint. Cobham, a specialist in air-to-air refuelling, has a swathe of contracts with the British military, including helping train RAF pilots, and the CMA probe is on security grounds. |
 | The boss of Tesco (TSCO) has ruled out the sale of chlorine-washed chicken if the UK strikes new trade deals with the US after Brexit. Dave Lewis, who has been striving to turn the grocer’s fortunes around since joining in 2014, said: “There’s no US sourcing of chicken on my mind. Whatever the trade deals are … what we won’t do is give up our standards as we look at those opportunities. The feedback that comes back from the UK customer is ‘I prefer not to have it’. By and large, UK customers reject that idea.” Speaking at the FT Retail Summit in London on Wednesday, he added: “I’m not going to try to predict what [trade deals] are going to look like post-Brexit, when and how it happens. What I can say, the food standards around food safety, food security [in the UK] are among some of the best in the world.” |
| Pendragon (PDG) has plunged into the red and is cutting 300 jobs, blaming its troubles on “heightened political and Brexit uncertainty” for deterring buyers. Its troubles were compounded by the resignation of chairman Chris Chambers, which follows the shock departure in June of chief executive Mark Herbert just a few months into his tenure. Mr Herbert is understood to have left after a disagreement with the board over Pendragon’s strategy to concentrate on its used car business. Pendragon, which owns the Evans Halshaw and Stratstone dealer brands, posted a £32.2m pre-tax loss for the half year, reversing a £28.4m profit a year ago. Revenues dipped 0.8% to £2.47bn. The loss was blamed on an excess of second-hand cars, which forced the company to slash prices or sell at auction. |
| Shares in Sirius Minerals (SXX) tumbled another 5% on Wednesday as investors continued to absorb the news its $3bn (£2.4bn) funding plan for a fertiliser mine in Yorkshire had fallen through. The company lost half its value on Tuesday after it admitted it had failed to sell the junk bonds it needed to unlock its financing, and revealed it only had cash to last another six months. It is now seeking alternative funds or a partner to save the project. House broker Liberum said it remained a “firm believer” in the project but cut its target price for the shares to 9p. City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority declined to comment on whether it was looking into a sharp share price move on Monday. |
| Games Workshop Group (GAW) put in a strong performance, rising 142p, to £48.16. The company, which is best known for its Warhammer tabletop games, announced it will pay a dividend of 35p per share after saying trading is on track to hit predictions in an update ahead of its annual general meeting yesterday. Peel Hunt analysts said: “There is a lot of positive momentum in the business, with increases in the number of trade accounts and hobby stores, new product launches and developments in live action and animation.” However, over a quarter of investors voted against the reappointment of chairman Nick Donaldson during its AGM, following what the company described as concerns over his “multiple board commitments”. |
| The new boss of B&Q’s owner could break up the company, its chairman said, as the retailer posted a slump in profits on Wednesday. “Thierry [Garnier] arrives with absolutely no handcuffs, we’ve asked him to come in and use his knowledge and experience to look at everything. He has complete freedom to decide what he brings to the board. I’m ruling nothing in or out at this point,” said Kingfisher (KGF) chairman Andy Cosslett when was asked if a break-up of the business might be on the cards. Mr Cosslett added: “He is being employed to come and help us understand how we make the most of the business and the assets we have. From now on, how we move forward and get some returns is very important because our investors have been very patient with us.” |
| Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) has removed nine investor charges including controversial exit fees as it seeks to repair its reputation following its involvement in the Neil Woodford debacle, Telegraph Money can reveal. In the wake of the freezing of Mr Woodford’s giant Equity Income fund this newspaper called on the stockbroker – Britain’s largest – to let affected customers switch providers free of charge. It refused, but now in a u-turn it has decided that all investors will not be charged fees normally levied ostensibly to cover the cost of administrative tasks, including selling lines of stock or funds when moving money elsewhere. The move will save customers around £3m a year based on the rate of switches in the past. However, this number may be higher if investors who were previously financially deterred from leaving now choose to move. |
 | Questor: a 5.7%pc government-backed yield – ‘We can’t make sense of the pricing anomaly’. Questor investment trust bargain: Triple Point Social Housing Reit (SOHO) – this social housing trust earns index-linked rents backed by the state, yet the shares have recently been pushed to a double-digit discount. Buy |
| The main trade union at Royal Mail (RMG) has served notice for a strike ballot among 110,000 workers. The Communication Workers Union is in dispute with the postal delivery company over issues including threats to the universal service obligation, which means that post is delivered at uniform prices across Britain six days a week, and claims that the “four pillars agreement” reached between the union and Royal Mail last year has been breached. The agreement includes pay rises, new pension proposals and a pledge to reduce weekly working hours from 39 to 35 by 2022, dependent on productivity improvements. Royal Mail workers last took part in national strikes ten years ago, when it was state-owned. The company employs 143,000 people in Britain. |
| The government has intervened in the £4 billion takeover of Cobham (COB) by ordering an investigation into the implications for national security. Andrea Leadsom said yesterday that the Competition and Markets Authority would carry out a review of the takeover of the aerospace and defence group by Advent, the American private equity firm, and would report back by October 29. “The government’s goals are to support private sector innovation while safeguarding the public interest,” the business secretary said. It marks a fresh twist in what has become a controversial takeover attempt. Cobham, which is led by David Lockwood, 57, its chief executive, is one of Britain’s biggest defence and aerospace businesses, employing about 10,000 staff globally, including almost 1,800 in the UK. |
| The sell-off in Sirius Minerals (SXX) shares continued yesterday as investors reeled from its admission that the funding plan for its $5 billion fertiliser mine had failed. Analysts at Liberum, one of the company’s house brokers, cut their price target to 9p from 40p amid uncertainty over alternative funding models and their potential impact on investors. Sirius has been seeking to raise $3.8 billion to fund the development of its Woodsmith mine beneath the North York Moors National Park near Whitby. It wants to extract polyhalite, a type of potash fertiliser. On Tuesday it abandoned a $500 million junk bond issue that was a crucial part in its plan, blaming market conditions and Brexit. |
| Metro Bank (MTRO) has warned it could face a “significant” bill after regulators widened their investigations into a £900 million accounting scandal. A bond prospectus from the bank has revealed that risks associated with possible action from the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority may lead to “criminal and/or civil liability for the bank” or suspension of its regulatory permissions. It warned that “making redress and the cost of any regulatory sanctions may involve significant expense” and that the FCA’s investigation had been broadened to include “certain senior members of management”. |
| The new chief executive of Kingfisher (KGF) will be given the freedom to consider a possible break-up of the DIY group after its chairman promised that he would not be “handcuffed” on strategy. Andy Cosslett said that although he believed Kingfisher had “the right building blocks” in place, Thierry Garnier, 53, the Carrefour veteran who takes over from Véronique Laury as chief executive next week, could form his own view. Mr Cosslett, 64, was speaking after the release of first-half results showing that wary British consumers and a poor performance in France had hit sales and profits at the B&Q and Screwfix owner. |
| Andrew Tinkler, the controversial architect of the Eddie Stobart brand, could return to running the company. Eddie Stobart Logistics (ESL) has confirmed that it has had a “highly preliminary expression of interest” from Mr Tinkler, 56, to buy the business. It is the second offer for the trucking company this month and since its shares were suspended during an unfolding accounting scandal and the departure of its chief executive. If Mr Tinkler is serious, it will pitch him against DBay, the private equity firm formerly known as Laxey Partners, to which he sold 51 per cent of Eddie Stobart Logistics for £195 million in 2014, money that Mr Tinkler used to expand Stobart Group, the parent company of which he was chief executive and which he left last year after a high-profile multimillion-pound High Court battle. |
| A panel of bankers will rule today whether some investors in Thomas Cook’s credit are due a payout, which could ease a rescue of the travel company. Thomas Cook Group (TCG) filed for bankruptcy in the United States on Tuesday, which protects it from legal action by American creditors during restructuring. Its debts have left it vulnerable to the weather and to political and economic turmoil, forcing it to accept a rescue deal led by Fosun Tourism Group, of China, last month. If the panel decides that a bankruptcy credit event has occurred, it is likely to remove the risk of a rejection of its restructuring plan next week. However, if the creditors reject the plan, Thomas Cook would be left scrambling to secure its future by early next month, when cash reserves are low because of the off-peak travel season. |
| International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) flew yesterday after British Airways’ pilots called off next week’s planned strike action, potentially saving its parent company tens of millions of pounds. Members of the British Airline Pilots’ Association walked out for two days last week in a row over pay, forcing BA to cancel almost all of its flights. Some had pegged the cost to the carrier at as much as £40 million a day. However, the union, which is organising the strikes, has cancelled another day of industrial action planned for next Friday, saying that last week’s walkouts had demonstrated the “anger and resolve” of the pilots and that it was now time for “a period of reflection before the dispute escalates further and irreparable damage is done to the brand”. |
 | Burberry Group (BRBY) slipped 55p to £21.20 after analysts at UBS took a fresh look at the expensive trench coat maker. In a trading update in July, Burberry reported a 4% rise in first-quarter, like-for-like sales, which sent the shares soaring amid expectations that it might be the next turnaround story in the luxury goods sector. However, having analysed thousands of social media posts and Google searches, UBS reckons that its brand momentum is “stable” rather than accelerating and that prices haven’t increased, either. “It may be too early to expect Burberry to deliver high-single-digit growth already next year, especially in an increasingly uncertain economic environment,” the analysts, who are “neutral” on the stock, said. |
| Cenkos Securities (CNKS) reshuffled its board with one of its founders and another director stepping aside. The City broker has come under fire from Crystal Amber, an activist investor that has been critical of the present management. The board changes came as the broker swung to a £200,000 loss in the first half amid a dearth of initial public offerings on Aim at the beginning of the year. Its bosses said that the second half had started better, but warned that the “weak” opening six months could lead to a drop in full-year revenues. |
 | The boss of Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) has taken advantage of the veterinary product maker’s booming share price to cash in almost £6 million of his stock. Ian Page, 58, who has been chief executive since 2001, sold 200,000 shares at about £29.17, while Tony Rice, 67, the chairman, offloaded 20,000 shares. The FTSE 250 company said that they had cut their holdings to “satisfy long-term personal financial planning considerations and [to] widen their investment portfolios”. |
| Tempus – Pendragon (PDG): Avoid. This is a company stuck in a bad place and which has managed to reverse itself into a wall |
 | Tempus – Springfield Properties (SPR): Buy. Focused, knows its market well and unfazed by whatever Brexit may bring |
   | Britain’s biggest housebuilders have handed executives £136million in pay after their profits were boosted by the taxpayer-funded Help To Buy scheme. The astonishing bonanza at , Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG), Persimmon (PSN) and Taylor Wimpey (TW.) was shared between just 18 people, their annual reports reveal. It came after the FTSE 100 firms raked in profits of £3.6bn last year. Housebuilders have been accused of cashing in on the Government’s Help To Buy scheme, which loans families money to buy new-build homes, even as the industry reels from scandals over shoddy work and toxic leasehold contracts. At Persimmon, which paid former boss Jeff Fairburn £39m last year, Help To Buy was used in half of all sales in 2018. Yesterday, Barratt released its annual report, showing it paid three executives £7.7m overall in the year to June 30. This included £3.6m handed to boss David Thomas and £2.9m to finance chief Steven Boyes. Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Centre, said: ‘It seems obvious that executives shouldn’t be raking in hundreds of millions of pounds in the midst of a housing crisis. ‘It shouldn’t need saying. Big business has completely divorced itself from any sense of proportionality or social responsibility. The boards are either frighteningly negligent or utterly venal.’ The latest figures have emerged just days after MPs and ministers launched a scathing attack on the industry during a parliamentary debate. |
| Hedge funds banked millions of pounds yesterday as shares in the company trying to build a fertiliser mine under the North York Moors nosedived. Sirius Minerals (SXX) stock crashed by as much as 79% after it was forced to abandon a £403million fundraising and revealed it has enough cash to survive for only six months. The miner also asked the Government for support by guaranteeing loans of up to £804million but this was turned down, leaving it struggling to stay afloat and putting 1,200 jobs at risk. More than 6% of its stock was on loan to short-selling hedge funds, which bet on its troubles increasing and the value of its shares falling. Last night they closed down 5.33p, at 4.67p, which meant short-sellers could have pocketed as much as £20million. |
| Trackwise Designs Plc (TWD) plunged after warning full-year turnover and profits will slump amid a ‘challenging’ market. The Gloucestershire company makes printed circuit boards for clients such as GKN Aerospace. Losses widened to £87,000 between January and June, from £71,000 in the same period of 2018, and it said there will be a ‘material’ fall in its full-year figures. | |
| plunged 35p, to 119p last night after it warned of lower than expected profits for the second time in four months.It made a first-half loss of £7.7million in the six months to June 30, compared with profits of £10.5million in the same period of last year. In addition to the usual Brexit challenges, it admitted a delay to publishing its 2018 results created uncertainty among customers. The delay came after auditor PwC received an anonymous email raising concern about accounting practices the day before the release was scheduled. Staffline, which will be hoping the only way is up from here, put aside £15million in the results to cover for historical breaches of minimum wage legislation. PwC later resigned as its bean-counter. | |
 | Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou was unable to resist the opportunity to crow at the investment firms which mounted a £139million offer for easyHotel (EZH). The bidders, Icamap and Ivanhoe Cambridge, revealed that they had bagged 68% of shares in Easyhotel. Although this is above the 50% they needed to take control of the company, it fell short of the 75% needed to take it private. Haji-Ioannou, who has built his stake through Easygroup to 28% in an attempt to block the deal, said: ‘This exercise was an object lesson in pointlessness. ‘[They] have achieved little other than to enrich lawyers and bankers. What a colossal waste of money.’ |
  | Ocado Group (OCDO) grocery delivery division enjoyed a bump in order numbers in the past three months as it joined forces with Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) and shrugged off the impact of a huge warehouse fire earlier this year. Ocado Retail – the division formed as part of a new £750million joint venture with M&S – said weekly orders rose by more than 12% during the period, thanks in part to increased delivery slots. In the division’s debut set of results, it said sales were strong, rising by 11.4% and putting the company in line with its guidance for the rest of the year. M&S products will be available through Ocado from September 2020 once the company’s 20-year partnership with upmarket rival Waitrose comes to an end. Melanie Smith, M&S’s former strategy director who took the reins at the joint venture last month, said the results highlighted Ocado’s ‘resilience’ following the fire at its Andover facility, ‘and the momentum the business has now’. |
| Thousands of retail investors risk losing their money in Sirius Minerals (SXX) after it admitted its plan to build a fertiliser mine in Yorkshire was on the brink of collapse and the Government appeared to rule out a rescue. The company warned that it had been unable to sell a $500m (£400m) junk bond it needed to unlock $2.5bn in debt financing from JPMorgan, throwing the future of its ambitious scheme to mine under the North York Moors into doubt. Up to 1,200 jobs are at risk as Sirius has only enough cash to last six months. It will wind down construction work at its site near Whitby as it desperately seeks alternative financing or a partner to save the mine. Sirius lost more than half its market value after the update, with £460m wiped off the shares to close at 4.67p. The collapse left the company worth just £326m, down from a peak of more than £1.5bn a year ago. |
| Thomas Cook Group (TCG) is seeking to break the deadlock in a stand-off with creditors over its £1.1bn rescue plan by declaring itself bankrupt in US – a move that would become a test case for the global $10 trillion credit default swaps market. The embattled travel agent filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in New York on Tuesday, a move that could trigger an event of default that allows derivatives held by hedge funds to pay out. The 178-year-old company needs to get the approval from the hedge funds to complete a debt-for-equity rescue led by Fosun. The hedge funds have refused to back the restructuring owing to a technicality in it that means the credit default swaps (CDS) will not pay out and would be rendered worthless. |
 | Struggling fashion chain French Connection Group (FCCN) admitted it has had no luck in finding a buyer as sales fell again. The retailer reported a 12% slide in revenues to £51m for the first half of the year, while losses narrowed by £200,000 to £5.3m. The sales fall came after it shut nine sites this year. It has also opened one new store in central London after it had to shut its Oxford Street shop. It has 90 outlets in total, including concessions and three YMC stores. Its like-for-like sales, which strip out sales from new stores, rose 1.4%, thanks to US shoppers. |
| Ocado Group (OCDO) could start selling Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) products on its website ahead of its September deadline next year, if its current partner Waitrose agrees. Duncan Tatton-Brown, the online grocer’s finance chief, said: “There is a chance it may come forward but we have a contractual arrangement with Waitrose, so that would require all three parties to agree to that. “That’s not something in our gift to make happen on our own, but there is of course a chance that we might bring it forward or at least partially bring forward that transition date.” Last week Waitrose revealed it had severed ties with tech start-up Today Development Partners (TDP) two months after it was announced with great fanfare in May. |
 | Barratt Developments (BDEV) chief executive received an £893,000 pay bump this year, taking his total annual remuneration at Britain’s biggest housebuilder to £3.6m. David Thomas’s salary and benefits edged up £27,000 to £949,000, while his bonus and incentives jumped £866,000 to £2.66m, Barratt’s annual report revealed. The increases came despite annual revenues dipping 2.3% to £4.8bn. However, the revenue decline was offset by higher profit margins, with pre-tax profits rising 8.9% to £910m. Executive pay at UK housebuilders has come under fire recently, with accusations that profits are being driven by the taxpayer-funded Help to Buy scheme rather than chief executives’ leadership. |
 | Barclays (BARC) fell 4.3p to 149.2p after a critical note by Independent Research analyst Pierre Drach, who downgraded his recommendation on the stock from “hold” to “sell”. |
 | Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) was forced to slash the valuation of its holding in Benevolent AI last week, after a $90m injection from Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek cut the value of the artificial intelligence company in half. Benevolent AI was estimated to be worth close to $2bn in April 2018, with around a fifth of the shares held across Mr Woodford’s now-suspended flagship equity income fund and the Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) by September last year. Last week WPCT said it had slashed the valuation of one of its holdings on the advice of fund supervisor Link but stopped short of revealing the name of the company. At the time, the Patient Capital board said the markdown would knock around 4p off the group’s net asset value, which analysis by Citywire showed would take more than £42m off total gross assets. |
| Tens of thousands of retail shareholders in a North Yorkshire fertiliser mine face losing their money and 1,200 jobs are at risk after the company developing the $5 billion project said that its funding plan had failed. MPs and unions called on the government to rescue Sirius Minerals’ Woodsmith mine project after it was forced to abandon a crucial $500 million bond sale, blaming market conditions and Brexit uncertainty. Shares in Sirius Minerals (SXX) more than halved to only 4.67p yesterday as Sirius pulled the bond issue and revealed that the government had rejected a last-ditch request last month to offer it $1 billion of loan guarantees. |
| The boss of the world’s largest mining company has had his pay cut by almost a quarter after an unexplained death at its Queensland mine and a runaway iron ore train. Andrew Mackenzie, 62, chief executive of since 2013, had his short-term bonus reduced by more than $1 million from 2018 to $1.3 million. His base salary was kept at $1.7 million, taking his total earnings, including other benefits, to $3.5 million, from $4.6 million the previous year. BHP’s 2019 annual report attributed the decision mainly to the death of a 49-year-old worker at its Saraji coalmine on New Year’s Eve last year, the cause of which it was unable to determine. It was the first death that the company had been unable to explain in more than 15 years. The mining group employs about 72,000 people, producing iron ore, coal, copper and oil, primarily in Australia and the Americas. It is dual-listed in Australia and Britain. | |
| Thomas Cook Group (TCG) cleared another hurdle on the way to a £1.1 billion rescue deal last night by filing for Chapter 15 court protection in the United States. It ensures that €1.15 billion of bonds issued under US jurisdiction can form part of the proposed debt restructuring on which the 178-year-old travel group’s survival depends. Any challenges must now be dealt with under British law. The embattled company confirmed yesterday that it had filed court papers in the federal Southern District of New York. It was represented by Latham & Watkins, the law firm. |
| The founder of French Connection Group (FCCN) is struggling to find a buyer for the chain. The company said yesterday that it was extending the process until the end of January and was in “active ongoing discussions” about a deal. Stephen Marks, 73, founderd the fashion chain almost 50 years ago. At one time Mr Marks was worth £250 million and the shares were valued at 485p apiece. Since then changing shopping habits have resulted in five straight years of losses and its shares closed last night down 5p at 33p, valuing the company at £32 million. |
| Ocado Group (OCDO) has claimed that it could start delivering Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) groceries earlier than its original schedule of next September. The online grocer signed a £750 million joint venture in February that will end its long-term partnership with Waitrose. The upmarket food retailer has supplied groceries to Ocado since it was founded in 2000. Duncan Tatton-Brown, 54, Ocado’s finance chief, said there “is a chance we might bring forward, at least partially bring forward, that transition date . . . It may well be in the interests of Waitrose, some of Waitrose’s suppliers and ourselves and M&S for that transition to be slightly more spread out.” However, it is understood that Waitrose disagrees and is in no rush to sever ties with Ocado prematurely, particularly as last week it revealed that it had abruptly ended talks with a start-up to rival the service provided by Ocado. |
 | Staffline Group (STAF) reported a £7.7 million pre-tax loss for the six months to the end of June, in contrast with a £10.5 million profit in the same period last year. It reported a loss for both its recruitment and its adult skills and training businesses and said that it expected to deliver a full-year adjusted operating profit of about £20 million. That is significantly less than its annual profit guidance of between £23 million and £28 million that was given in June and sent its shares down by a fifth. PWC resigned as the company’s auditor in August after the annual report warned of “material uncertainty” about the group’s ability to continue as a going concern. The Aim-listed shares were suspended between January and March after PWC delayed the annual results and began to investigate allegations of a failure to comply with national minimum wage rules. The review found that Staffline had underpaid workers at several food production facilities because the time they had spent putting on work clothes had been excluded from their wages. The Nottingham-based company has yet to appoint a new auditor. |
 | Neil Woodford the under-fire fund manager had slashed his stake in Circassia Pharmaceuticals (CIR) from almost 20% to “less than 5%”, his fund has revealed. The 59-year-old has backed Circassia for more than a decade, having bought into the company during his days at Invesco Perpetual. He has been forced to cash in on some of his investments to repay investors who want out of his UK Equity Income Fund. Richard Griffiths, who worked on a farm in Wales before setting up Evolution Securities, a City brokerage, has taken on most of Mr Woodford’s holding and is now Circassia’s biggest investor, with a 28.5 per cent stake worth about £20 million. Circassia shares have lost more than 90% of their value since a failed late-stage trial in 2016, when a cat allergy vaccine proved no more effective than a placebo. |
 | Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) fell 5¾p to 202¾p after industry data from Nielsen for August indicated that it had delivered the weakest sales of Britain’s biggest supermarket operators. Analysts at HSBC said that Brexit stockpiling could boost grocers’ figures in the coming months, but “the same old problem remains for the Big Four — the discounters continue to eat most of the growth in the industry”. |
 | Sales at Eagle Eye Solutions Group (EYE) rose by almost a quarter to 16.9 million in the year to the end of June after it won a contract with Waitrose. The company announced £700,000 in earnings before interest, tax and other charges, compared with a loss of £2 million in 2018. It narrowed pre-tax losses from £5.1 million to £2.8 million. Mr Mason, 62, said: “Our customers see the Eagle Eye AIR platform as key to competing in today’s digital retail environment.” Malcolm Wall, 63, the company’s chairman, said it was “fortunate that the implications for our business are less than those of a physical goods company”. |
| Tempus – Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG): Buy. Resilient high-end housebuilder with an eye for timing and a generous dividend payer |
 | Tempus – Chemring Group (CHG): Hold. Beginning to generate solid growth in UK and US |
| Lombard – Cobham (COB) takeover shows money trumps sovereignty. For investors, Advent’s deal captures a recovery potential that the market price may never |
 | Shaky gems market hits Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL). Miner loses lustre as industry faces toughest market conditions since financial crisis |
| Cobham (COB) chief’s future in doubt as takeover approved. Advent offer backed by 93% of investor votes despite founding family’s opposition |
 | Lex – Man Group (EMG): Cryan’s tech game. Incoming chairman faces a different challenge in his new role: computers |
| Bondholders may struggle to check out of Thomas Cook Group (TCG). Restructuring of UK-based tour operator is complicated by debt derivatives |
| Eddie Stobart Logistics (ESL) warns on profits as it confirms talks with lenders. Group says preparations for new contracts placed ‘substantial demands on working capital’ |
| Shareholders in Cobham (COB) have overwhelmingly backed a £4billion takeover by US private equity firm Advent International. More than 93% of participating shareholders voted in favour of the controversial deal at a meeting in London today – surpassing the 75% threshold needed to pass the move. The takeover has stoked opposition, including from the family of the group’s founder Michael Cobham. Opponents of the takeover have urged the Government to intervene and slammed MPs for ignoring national security concerns and ‘trading away Britain’s future prosperity’. They argued that the takeover is being waved through at a time when the Government is distracted by Brexit. Although the deal has now been rubber stamped by investors, business secretary Andrea Leadsom still has the power to open an investigation or even halt the proposed transaction because of Cobham’s extensive military contracts. |
| Eddie Stobart Logistics (ESL) has issued a profit warning and said it could tap investors for more cash as its debts spiral. The haulage firm said full year profits will be ‘significantly below’ expectations. It claimed that delays on major projects, an ambitious budget and an overall ‘adverse performance’ hit earnings in the first half of the year. The profit warning comes just days after the company confirmed it has been approached about a takeover by private equity firm DBAY Advisors. It also follows the emergence of a multi-million pound black hole in its accounts, which forced the company to suspend its shares last month and prompted boss Alex Laffey to step down. Eddie Stobart said net debt at the end of May was higher than hoped as falling profits hit its balance sheet. |
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