Glass half empty? Wetherspoon shares fall as sales slow and net debt creeps up May 8, 2019 Wetherspoon insisted it is on track to hit full-year targets today despite net debt creeping up and sales growth slowing after a wage hike hurting profits in the first half of its financial year. Read more: Wetherspoons profits slide as cost increases kick in The pub chain did not mention profits in today’s trading update, [...]
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo to issue Huawei warning during UK visit May 8, 2019 US secretary of state Mike Pompeo is expected to warn Prime Minister Theresa May against allowing Huawei to build the UK’s 5G network during a meeting in London today. Pompeo is holding talks with May and foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt, and will make a speech on foreign policy ahead of US President Donald Trump’s state [...]
Commerzbank profits and revenues slump weeks after Deutsche Bank merger talks collapse May 8, 2019 Commerzbank has reported sliding revenue weeks after merger talks with rival Deutsche Bank fell apart. The figures Revenue fell 2.8 per cent year-on-year to €2.16bn in the first quarter of 2019, from €2.22bn in 2018, driven by exceptional items. Read more: Deutsche Bank slashes revenue target after Commerzbank talks collapse Profit before tax plummeted 25.3 [...]
Insurer Direct Line suffers as premiums drop in a competitive market May 8, 2019 Shares fell at Direct Line this morning as the insurer faced lower gross written premiums in the first quarter of the year. The measure fell 2.1 per cent to £753.9m, driven by a 4.2 per cent contraction in the UK’s largest motor insurance unit to £386.9m. Read more: FTSE 100 insurer Direct Line posts drop [...]
Grand designs: Travis Perkins overhaul yields first quarter sales growth May 8, 2019 Home improvement giant Travis Perkins’ shares rose this morning after it reported 5.4 per cent total first quarter sales growth. Read more: Travis Perkins' share price rallies despite moving into the red The FTSE 250 firm, which also owns Wickes and Toolstation, said the rise reflects a more “customer focused” approach after setting out a [...]
Vodafone Australia and TPG shares crash after regulator blocks merger in website blunder May 8, 2019 Australia’s competition regulator has blocked a proposed AU$15bn (£8.1bn) merger between TPG Telecom and Vodafone Australia after a botched announcement that sent shares crashing. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) last year launched a probe into the planned deal, warning it may harm competition in the country’s telecoms market, and was due to publish [...]
Labour’s renationalisation plan isn’t just illiterate, it’s immoral May 8, 2019 Want to buy something, but can’t quite afford it? Just use a simple trick from John McDonnell. Here’s how it works. You say: “We’ll pay a fraction of the actual price.” They say: “Sorry, you can’t do that.” You say: “Yes, we can. We’re the government.” That, in essence, is Labour’s plan to renationalise the [...]
Out for justice: Britain must fight for its status as a global legal hub May 8, 2019 The UK legal sector is in rude health. There are almost 10,000 private practice firms across the country, and over 200 foreign law firms with offices in London. Together, they support a total of 342,000 jobs and make a sizeable contribution to the UK’s trade surplus of around £4.4bn. But as we kick off London [...]
DEBATE: Was Gordon Brown right to sell off the government’s gold reserves 20 years ago? May 8, 2019 Was Gordon Brown right to sell off the government’s gold reserves 20 years ago? Tim Focas, director of financial services for Westminster think tank Parliament Street, says YES. While Gordon Brown could have sold at a better price, for the vast majority of governments across established economies, there is no real point to holding gold. [...]
It’s not cutting-edge AI we should feel anxious about, but mediocre automation May 8, 2019 If there were a betting market in future winners of the Nobel prize in economics, MIT’s Daniel Acemoglu would be at pretty short odds. His highly innovative work has already won him a string of prizes. So his research is always worth following – especially when he challenges the conventional wisdom, as in his paper [...]