Greggs (GRG) sales hit £1 billion in 2018 in a record-breaking year for the British bakery chain, as it hailed the success of its vegan sausage roll. Sales rose 7.2% in the year to December 31, while sales in stores open for more than one year grew 2.9% to £876m. Pre-tax profits shot up 14% to £83m. Roger Whiteside, chief executive, told BBC’s Today programme that the company had spent “millions of pounds” to transform itself. “We want people to reappraise us and understand we’ve moved on from being a pure bakery business to offering people food on the go,” he said.
Shares in Quiz (QUIZ) plunged on Thursday after the fast fashion retailer revealed a “significant shortfall in sales”. The London-listed company has been forced to apply sweeping discounts in a bid to offload stock. The warning sent shares tumbling to 15p as boss Tarak Ramzan said executives “will be reviewing all aspects of the business over the coming months”. Quiz was worth £250m last July, but is now valued at less than £19m. The company employs more than 1,500 people across 71 stores and 169 concessions in the UK. While online sales continued to grow – revenue was up 16.2% in the first two months of this year – Quiz’s high street performance has collapsed by 11.1%.
Aviva’s new chief executive has pledged to leave “no stone unturned” as he seeks to appease impatient investors after years of slow growth. Maurice Tulloch, an Aviva (AV.) lifer who took over the business earlier this week, said after its full-year results were published on Thursday that the group is “far too complex and this is holding us back”. The former international head warned of a “lack of clear accountability,” echoing comments he made last time he worked at Aviva in the UK when he said there were “too many layers of management” and little clarity. Mr Tulloch did not comment on whether he planned to review certain divisions, including operations overseas.
The boss of lender Funding Circle (FCH), Samir Desai, said he has “no regrets” about taking the company public when he did, despite the 25% share price slide the day of the IPO, saying the business was still the fastest growing company on the FTSE 250 “by some distance”. In its maiden annual results since its official market debut in October, Funding Circle said it was expecting revenue to come in at more than £200m this year, a 40% year-on-year rise, and for its earnings margins to double. It confirmed figures from its trading update in January, that revenue had risen 55% last year to £142m, ahead of the 50% growth it was initially expecting.
House prices jumped 2.8% in the three months to February compared with the same period a year ago, according to the latest figures from Halifax. However, the strong rise was in stark contrast to figures from rival lender Nationwide last week, which showed prices were just 0.4% higher in February than the same month last year. Halifax’s house price index is based on homes bought with mortgages, excluding council house sales, shared ownership and help-to-buy schemes, while Nationwide’s is based on owner-occupier house purchase transactions involving a mortgage. Buy-to-let and cash deals are not counted. Halifax’s index has tended to be more volatile than other measures of house prices of late. Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: “We have little confidence in Halifax’s index as a reliable indicator of the housing market. Its extreme volatility – February’s gigantic increase follows a 3pc month-to-month decline in January – undermines its validity.”
Slash tariffs to boost economy and flip pressure back on to the EU, top German economists tell Britain. Embracing free trade would limit the damage caused by a “no deal” Brexit, give a bounty of cheaper imports to consumers and strengthen Britain’s hand in EU negotiations, according to top German economists. Slashing all import tariffs after Brexit would cut costs for households and businesses, giving the economy a boost, the Ifo Institute said in a new report, calling this model a “hard but smart” Brexit. At the same time it would rebalance the power around the negotiating table, which is currently based on a “no deal” Brexit harming the UK because it would involve Britain imposing WTO taxes on its own consumers.
Three Barclays directors to depart following calls for new blood. Barclays (BARC) has shaken up its board just weeks after major shareholders pushed incoming chairman Nigel Higgins to bring in new blood. The bank said that Mike Turner, the former boss of BAE Systems and until recently the chairman of Babcock, will step down from the board along with former Goldman Sachs banker Reuben Jeffery and economist Dambisa Moyo. The move comes weeks after Rothschild veteran Mr Higgins, who replaces John McFarlane in May, began discussions with the bank’s top investors to rally support just as activist investor Edward Bramson seeks backing for a board seat.
Just Eat interim chief withdraws from race for top job. The interim boss of Just Eat (JE.) has ruled out throwing his hat in the ring for the permanent position leading the delivery giant. Peter Duffy, who was parachuted in following the sudden departure of his under-fire predecessor Peter Plumb, had been linked to the job in the long term. “I am not even a candidate,” Mr Duffy said in response to whether he was interested in staying on. “I’d love to do this job but for personal reasons it isn’t right at the moment.” Just Eat has been subjected to a barrage of criticism from US activist investor Cat Rock, which wants the company to be more profitable, sell off some of its divisions and consider a merger with one of its rivals. The shareholder claimed victory as Mr Plumb stepped down after just 16 months at the helm. Cat Rock said: “We respect and appreciate Peter Duffy’s decision to withdraw from the CEO search process.”
Legal & General becomes UK’s first £1 trillion investment house. Legal & General Group (LGEN) has become the UK’s first £1 trillion investment manager, beating rivals to a position boss Nigel Wilson admited would not have been predicted a decade ago. The company attracted £42.6bn worth of new money in 2018 despite rocky market conditions battering some of its rivals. Mr Wilson said the company had “rapidly evolved” in recent years, expanding internationally and placing a greater emphasis on individual savings. He said that a decade ago “I suspect you wouldn’t put money” on L&G becoming the first reach the £1 trillion milestone.
US watchdog chief’s exit lights up British American Tobacco (BATS). Battered Big Tobacco stocks were fired up by hopes of their products escaping an aggressive clampdown in the US after the departure of the head of its drugs watchdog. Investors cheered the resignation of US Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who had promised regulatory crackdowns on menthol cigarettes and the “epidemic” of teen vaping. In his two years heading the regulator, Mr Gottlieb had sent Big Tobacco shares up in smoke with British American Tobacco halving in value in 2018. The FTSE 100 giant has been deemed highly exposed to harsher regulation by the FDA, owning top US menthol brand Newport and generating around 40pc of its sales in the States.
Offshore wind turbines to power past fossil fuels by 2030. A new Government deal is set to call time on the dominance of fossil fuels in Britain’s power system by the end of the next decade in favour of giant spinning wind turbines. By 2030 the number of mega offshore wind farms in British waters is expected to double under a multi-billion pound Government-industry partnership to be announced today. The vote of confidence is expected to unlock an infrastructure investment surge of at least £40bn into offshore wind farms, which are set to mushroom from 13GW to 30GW in a little over a decade.
UK’s largest solar fund eyes first subsidy-free investment. One of the UK’s largest listed solar power funds is set to make its first investment in a zero-subsidy renewables project within the next year. Foresight Solar Fund Limited (FSFL) will pay its shareholders a record dividend of 6.58 pence a share from its stable of predictable subsidy-driven solar investments. But the fund’s solar boss, Ricardo Pineiro, said improvements in solar technologies meant Foresight could soon make investments in unsubsidised solar projects as well. “The most important thing is achieving predictable returns for our shareholders, and we see solar as a low-risk option,” he said.
Morroco’s anti-business boycotts dent maiden results for Vivo Energy (VVO). A social media rebellion against big business in Morocco has managed to puncture the maiden financial results of one of the UK’s biggest market listings of recent years. The anti-business consumer boycott last Spring took aim at major suppliers of milk, bottled water and petrol, leaving pan-African petrol station operator Vivo Energy as collateral damage. The uprising against ‘unfair’ prices in Morocco, a major market for Vivo, flared up just weeks after its £2bn market debut, which was one of the largest African-focused listings in a decade. The FTSE 250 company is now worth around £1.6bn on the London Stock Exchange.
