Melrose to shut Birmingham aerospace plant with loss of almost 200 jobs. Industrial giant Melrose Industries (MRO) has been accused of breaking promises made at the time of its £8bn hostile takeover of engineer GKN after revealing plans to close one of its aerospace plants with the loss of nearly 200 jobs. Staff at the site in King’s Norton, Birmingham were told the factory, which makes windows and canopies for military and civil aircraft, will be run down over the coming years and shut in 2021. Workers were told of the plan at a meeting with management on Thursday.
British Gas owner begins 2,000-strong jobs cull in Glasgow and Leeds. The owner of British Gas has made its first major cuts in a 2000-strong jobs cull planned for this year with the closure of two offices in Glasgow and Leeds that could claim up to 500 jobs. FTSE 100 energy giant Centrica (CNA) told 400 employees at its City Park call centre in Glasgow, and hundreds more at a training centre in Leeds, that it would try to redeploy the roles to other centres. However around 500 jobs are expected to be at risk following the consolidation of its offices as the embattled company struggles to reduce its costs in the face of mounting pressures on the energy industry.
Saga ‘vulnerable’ as shares crash by more than a third on major profit warning. Investors have warned Saga (SAGA) could be vulnerable to a takeover after plans for a dramatic overhaul of its insurance arm sparked a profit warning and sent its stock crashing. Shares in the over-50s insurance and travel company fell almost 40% on Thursday to a record low just under 70p, after it unveiled a “fundamental” change in strategy and an annual loss. Shareholders were warned that profits will slump this year as a result of the changes and that it would take a hefty cut to its dividend to pay for the strategy switch. “The share price collapse may well leave them vulnerable to a takeover,” one top-five shareholder said.
ITV plays catch up with launch of targeted ads on its Hub service. ITV (ITV) has launched a belated attempt to meet demand for advertising tailored to consumer interests, with an update to the systems behind its catch-up service. Since her appointment at the start of last year Dame Carolyn McCall, ITV’s chief executive, has sought to break into the market for so-called addressable advertising, which accounts for a growing share of television spending. Such technology allows brands to target viewers based on profiles of their interests, built up through online tracking, and has gained popularity as web advertising via Google and other has come to dominate marketing budgets.
JD Sports buys Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green out of administration. JD Sports Fashion (JD.) has snapped up Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green clothing brand out of administration but is closing the majority of stores and all House of Fraser concessions in a move that deals another blow to Sports Direct. The £4.8bn sporting giant has bought the Pretty Green brand as well as its wholesale operations and flagship store in Manchester, saving 67 jobs. However, the remaining 11 shops and 33 House of Fraser concessions will shut immediately, creating 97 redundancies. The fashion brand, which was founded by the former Oasis frontman a decade ago and named after a song by The Jam, collapsed at the start of the week after being rumoured to be on the edge for the past month.
Technology could kill more people on the roads, Aston Martin Holdings (AML) boss warns. Installing the latest technology in cars could end up injuring or killing more people on the roads, the boss of Aston Martin has warned. Andy Palmer, chief executive of the luxury car marker, said car makers needed to think carefully before fitting high-tech systems to their vehicles. “What’s the biggest cause of death on the roads today? Driver error and distracted driving,” Mr Palmer told an industry conference on self-driving cars. “We have to be careful that when applying new technology and information to the driver that we are not making that worse, rather than better. “My argument is that it needs to be done in a logical way … not just adding a USP that makes car seem sexy.”
UniCredit eyes Commerzbank bid as Deutsche merger talks falter. Italian banking giant UniCredit is plotting a counterbid to take control of Commerzbank as mega-merger talks between the German lender and rival Deutsche Bank begin to falter. UniCredit is waiting on the sidelines if their discussions to form a €24bn (£20.7bn) banking behemoth fail, the Financial Times reported. The Italian bank, which already owns HypoVereinsbank in Germany, has had its eye on Commerzbank for years and previously approached German officials about a merger with the Frankfurt-based bank in 2017. A bid from UniCredit would need approval from the German government, which became Commerzbank’s biggest shareholder after buying a 15% stake following its bail-out in the financial crisis.
Royal Navy carrier design could be sold to India. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers could licensed abroad after BAE Systems (BA.) offered the vessels’ design to India. The defence giant has confirmed it has held talks about selling the plans to the Royal Navy’s largest warships to country. BAE said it had hosted several Indian Navy delegations recently, including at least one visit to the Rosyth dockyard in Scotland where HMS Queen Elizabeth was assembled and the second ship in the class, HMS Prince of Wales, is currently under construction. The 65,000-tonne Royal Navy carriers – which were originally expected to cost half the project’s final £6.2bn bill – were built by an alliance of BAE, Babcock and Thales.
The wheels came off Stagecoach Group (SGC) shares after City scribblers cut short its post-results bounce by warning that its improving train business could be “approaching the end of the line”. The FTSE 250 company upgraded its profit guidance on Wednesday after its rail division beat expectations, driven by a 6.7% jump in revenue on its West Coast franchise. However, Stagecoach quickly gave back its share price gains after Liberum analyst Gerald Khoo told clients that “there are no long-term implications” from its stronger trading as its rail franchises enter what could be their final 12 months.
