HMV has been bought out of administration by Canadian record chain Sunrise Records, thwarting owner Mike Ashley’s desire to add the entertainment chain to his retail empire. The deal, headed by entrepreneur Doug Putman, will rescue 100 HMV stores and save almost 1,500 jobs. His interest in the chain was first reported by The Telegraph on Sunday. However, 27 stores – including the flagship Oxford Street outlet – will close immediately due to high rental costs, resulting in 455 redundancies. KPMG, the administrator that oversaw the auction, has confirmed it will retain a further 122 employees at warehouse functions to assist in winding down operations.
Activist Edward Bramson targets seat on Barclays board. Activist investor Edward Bramson has submitted an application for a seat on the board of Barclays (BARC) in a bid to shake up the 300-year-old lender. Mr Bramson’s investment vehicle, Sherborne Investors, said in a brief statement on Tuesday that investors would consider the proposal at the bank’s annual general meeting (AGM) on May 2. The move ratchets up the pressure in an ongoing battle between the secretive investor and management at Barclays. Mr Bramson, who owns a 5% stake in the banking giant, has argued that the lender should turn its main focus to consumer banking instead of corporate and investment banking to increase returns for investors.
Estate agent LSL Property Services (LSL) is to close more than 100 branches and shed hundreds of jobs as the housing market grinds to a halt. The industry was seen to have bounced back from the financial crisis, having cashed in on a run of booming house prices. But the market in many places has now begun to turn. Combined with the rise of online agents and a number of unhelpful Government interventions, the tough conditions have proved to be a major drag on profits and forced firms to take drastic action to reshape their businesses.
Millions of British homes could soon be warmed by gas from Mozambique after the owner of British Gas clinched a $25bn (£19bn) deal to ship gas from a new project on the East African coast. Centrica (CNA) agreed to tap Mozambique’s giant gas reserves alongside Japan’s Tokyo Gas in a $25bn supply deal that will deliver gas to the UK, North America and the Far East. The pair will buy a total of 2.6m tonnes of super-cooled liquified natural gas (LNG) from Mozambique every year once US energy giant Anadarko begins production at Mozambique’s first gas export project. Iain Conn, Centrica’s chief executive, said the Mozambique deal would help it secure a a flexible LNG supply.
BP (BP.) stunned the market by more than doubling annual profits as the race to overhaul its global oil and gas portfolio begins to pay off. The oil major’s better than expected profits gushed to $12.7bn (£9.8bn) for 2018, up from $6.17bn the year before, in line with the steady upward march of global oil prices. The result was bolstered by a strong end to the year, despite oil market jitters, after BP clinched a $10.5bn deal to buy US shale fields from BHP Billiton. It was the eighth consecutive quarter in which BP flouted the expectations of market analysts by posting better than expected profits.
FirstGroup to jettison loss-making Manchester bus network. Transport giant FirstGroup (FGP) is selling one of its biggest regional bus divisions in a bid to stem mounting losses. The Manchester operations, once worth about £100m in annual turnover, are to be sold in a cut-price deal, The Telegraph understands. Hundreds of buses across three depots in Bury, Oldham and Bolton, will be sold to rival operators. Industry sources indicated FirstGroup may sell up in the north west for as little £20m. Each of the sites will be sold to separate bus companies, they added. Recent analysis suggests Manchester, FirstGroup’s fourth-biggest regional bus network by revenue, has veered sharply into the red and is now its worst performing UK network.
Ferrexpo charity probe sinks shares as auditors study payments. Ferrexpo (FXPO) my be forced to slap a health warning on its annual accounts after auditors opened an investigation into its payments to a charity. The FTSE 250 iron ore miner revealed Deloitte was scrutinising “unexplained discrepancies” in bank statements at Blooming Land, a Ukrainian charity set up by Ferrexpo in 2013 to further its corporate social responsibility goals. Ferrexpo’s most recent payment to Blooming Land was a donation of $9.5m (£7.3m) in the first half of last year. The miner said it still intended to announce its full-year results on March 20, but warned it “cannot guarantee that the review will be complete by then, or complete favourably”.
Morrisons raced ahead of its subdued blue-chip rivals on hopes that the “big four” grocer will scoop up around half of the stores ditched in the Sainsbury’s-Asda merger. The combined grocery giant is likely to be forced to sell swathes of stores by the competition watchdog in return for it giving the £12bn tie-up the go-ahead. Citigroup speculated yesterday that Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) will be able to buy between 48 and 108 of the 200 stores Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) and Asda will be required to sell for the deal to be nodded through. A swoop by the Bradford-based supermarket for 78 sites would represent 20% of its current store space and boost earnings per share by 30%, it told clients.
City watchdog tells asset managers to drop the jargon in package of new rules. The City watchdog has told fund managers to drop the jargon so that investors can better understand how their funds are doing. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been clamping down on asset managers in recent years amid fears ordinary investors are often confused about what they are charged or getting in return. An industry-wide probe found evidence of “weak price competition” and lower returns for savers and pensioners. In its latest package of rules for the sector, which three in four UK households rely on to manage their pensions, the FCA said fund managers must use “consumer-friendly” language when speaking to investors.
Food sales boost consumer spending after disappointing December. Strong food sales underpinned a rise in consumer spending last month following a disappointing December. Total sales increased by 2.2% in January – a seven-month high and more than the 1.4% rise in the same month last year. It also beat the 12-month average increase of 1.2%. Online shopping continued to grow more quickly than in-store purchases, with non-food purchases jumping 5.4%, above the three-month average of 4.8%, but below longer-term measures. Overall spending growth was driven by strong food sales.
Flybe Group (FLYB) investor scores win in battle to block sale to Virgin consortium. Flybe’s biggest shareholder has cleared a key hurdle in its bid to block the airline’s cut-price sale to a consortium led by Virgin Atlantic. The Exeter-based carrier has accepted a call by asset manager Hosking Partners for an extraordinary general meeting to oust chairman Simon Laffin and conduct a “forensic examination” of its sales process. A cut-price deal to sell Flybe’s main operations to Connect Airways, a new company owned by Virgin, Stobart and US investment Cyrus Capital Partners, was struck last month. Theoretically, the extraordinary meeting need not take place for about a month after the deal’s target completion date of Feb 22.
Questor: yes, Corbyn is a risk, but a well-supported 5pc yield makes Severn Trent (SVT) a hold. The company’s future looks more secure thanks to successful negotiation of the latest regulatory review
