Watchdog’s secret Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) meetings. Official met bank executive during inquiry into GRG scandal. A senior official at the Financial Conduct Authority held undisclosed meetings with a Royal Bank of Scotland executive while the lender was subject to a highly sensitive regulatory investigation into its scandal-hit restructuring unit, The Times can reveal. Simone Ferreira had “social drinks” on two occasions when she was the City regulator’s head of event supervision with Jon Pain, who was chief conduct and regulatory affairs officer of RBS. This was at a critical moment in the investigation into the bank’s global restructuring group, which mistreated thousands of small companies.
Aston Martin’s getaway stutters after shares fall on first day. Aston Martin Holdings (AML) skidded on its stock market debut yesterday, becoming the second high-profile flotation to get off to a shaky start in a matter of days. Shares in the luxury sports carmaker ended nearly 5% down on the first day of dealings after the price had been set initially at the lower end of the targeted range. The float marks the return to the London Stock Exchange of a listed carmaker for the first time since 1990, when Jaguar left after being taken over by the American giant Ford.
Red-letter day for hedge funds betting against Royal Mail. Hedge funds are sitting on a paper profit worth tens of millions of pounds after the sell-off in Royal Mail (RMG) shares this week. Six funds hold a combined 5.7% “short” position in Royal Mail, according to filings with the Financial Conduct Authority and aggregated by Castellain Capital. It is the biggest bet against Royal Mail’s share price since its float in 2013 and has risen steeply from 1.3% at the start of the year. The company is now among the top 30 most heavily shorted on the stock market.
Tesco shares tumble after Thai troubles knock profits. It may be “bang on track” in its recovery plan, but Britain’s biggest grocer paid the price yesterday for tripping up in Thailand and Poland. Shares in Tesco (TSCO) fell by more than 10% in early trading before ending the day 8.6% down, as investors reacted badly to news of an operating profit of £933 million, less than the £978 million that had been expected. Despite the downbeat reaction, Dave Lewis, chief executive of Tesco, said that he was more than happy with a first-half performance in which statutory pre-tax profits rose by 2 per cent to £564 million and overall operating profits were up by nearly 24%
Unilever (ULVR) facing growing opposition. A leading shareholder advisory group has recommended that investors oppose Unilever’s plans to relocate its headquarters to the Netherlands and adjust its share structure. Pensions & Investment Research Consultants, which advises investors with more than £1.5 trillion of assets, is the first of the big proxy groups to issue its report before this month’s vote on the consumer goods group’s proposals. It is following in the footsteps of several of the City’s biggest investors, which have raised their own concerns in recent weeks. Yesterday, Royal London Asset Management, which has a 0.72% stake in Unilever, said that it would vote against the plans to move the company’s headquarters to Rotterdam and to switch from two classes of shares to one.
Bumper year paves way for Topps Tiles (TPT). The bottom may be falling out of the market for many bricks-and-mortar retailers, but Topps Tiles said yesterday that it expected profits to be ahead of the City’s expectations. In a trading update yesterday, Britain’s biggest tile seller said that its fourth quarter trading had improved and that it expected adjusted revenues for the 52 weeks up to the end of September to be in the region of £215 million, compared with £211.8 million in 2017. Like-for-like sales rose by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, compared with a 3% drop in the same period last year.
Investors tuned in to ITV (ITV) after the commercial broadcaster said that it would not be making a bid for Endemol Shine, the production studios behind the Peaky Blinders and Masterchef television shows. Endemol was put up for sale by its owners, Apollo, the private equity firm, and 21st Century Fox, the American entertainment group. Analysts have put the value of the business at about £2 billion. However, investors have been wary about the costs and operating risks associated with Endemol, as ITV faces the arguably more pressing task of building a subscription streaming service to compete with Netflix. The shares reacted positively when ITV quashed talk about a potential bid via a stock exchange announcement.
The London-listed tobacco giants were lit up by the US Food and Drug Administration’s announcement on Tuesday evening that it had raided the offices of Juul Labs, a popular e-cigarette brand, to seize more than a thousand pages of documents related to the company’s sales and marketing practices. Juul has been stealing a march on the popular vaping market, taking market share away from the tobacco stalwarts. British American Tobacco (BATS) rose 13p to £35.70 and Imperial Brands (IMB) perked up 10½p to £26.91.
Computacenter (CCC) was among the biggest gainers on the FTSE 250 after UBS upgraded the IT services provider to “neutral” from “sell” on the back of its acquisition of Fusionstorm, an American industry peer, earlier in the week, a deal that opens up cross-selling opportunities.
Indivior (INDV), one of the worst- performing stocks in the FTSE 350 over the year so far, perked up a bit. The company is sitting on a drug with the potential to become a significant solution to the opioid addiction problem. However, it has faced delays to the roll-out of its new treatment, Sublocade. The outlook for the company started to brighten yesterday as dealers saw the chance to buy in at the lower price, sending it to the top of the mid-cap index.
ITE Group (ITE), the international exhibitions and conferences organiser, fell, closing down 2¼p at 73p, after announcing that currency market volatility was likely to hit its results next year.
Amerisur Resources (AMER), an oil and gas producer focused on South America, rose 1½p to close at 13p after announcing the flow of 590 barrels of oil per day at a discovery well in Colombia, increasing the company’s production. Amerisur said that the findings were ahead of its expectations.
Shares in the DIY group behind B&Q and Screwfix rose 3% after analysts revived speculation about a possible break-up of the company. Kingfisher (KGF) was among the top gainers in the FTSE 100 after Northern Trust Capital Markets issued a note suggesting that the group’s low valuation could catalyse its break-up.
Tempus – Aston Martin Holdings (AML): Avoid. Premium valuation for an ambitious business that is not without risks
