Taylor Wimpey on track to meet guidance, unscathed by supply chain concerns November 11, 2021 British housebuilder Taylor Wimpey this morning said it was on track to deliver full year results in line with previous guidance, after strong housing demand helped it offset supply chain pressures. Although the country’s third-largest housbuilder said it had experienced industry-wide pressures on the cost and availability of certain materials and a shortage of drivers [...]
Auto Trader reports highest-ever sales as digital efforts pay off November 11, 2021 Car marketplace Auto Trader has reported its highest-ever six months of sales and profits, as demand for cars from its platform surged to record levels and the company’s focus on its digital offering in the pandemic paid off. Revenue jumped 82 per cent to £215.4m , up from £118.2m a year earlier. This was up [...]
London grocery delivery app Dija snapped up by rival GoPuff November 10, 2021 London-based grocery app Dija has reportedly been sold to larger rival GoPuff amid fierce competition in the UK’s nascent rapid delivery market. The startup is set to announce the sale tomorrow, just five months after it launched, Sky News reported. While details of the deal will not be disclosed, the takeover will reportedly value Dija [...]
Old school db pension schemes face £450bn liabilities shortfall November 10, 2021 UK defined benefit pension schemes are facing an estimated £450bn hole in their balance sheets due to a shortage of long-dated inflation-linked gilts, according to a new analysis. Up to £450bn worth of inflation-linked liabilities are in jeopardy because the government hasn’t issued enough index-linked debt for pension schemes to match them, according to an [...]
Activist fund Gatemore buys stake in DFS and warns of buyout vulnerability November 10, 2021 Gatemore Capital management has bought a stake in DFS and told its fund investors that the sofa chain is undervalued by public markets and thus ripe for a private equity bid. Adding to its roster of listed British retailers, which includes Moss Bros, French Connection and Superdry, the activist fund told investors last month that [...]
Keep off the grass: UK wildflowers at risk of extinction November 10, 2021 Research from British conservation charity Plantlife and Renault has revealed that in the UK one in five wildflowers is at a risk of extinction due to pollution. According to the data, since the 1930s 97 per cent of the country’s grasslands and meadows have disappeared, while floral diversity plummeted on road verges, usually home to [...]
Klarna challenger Zilch becomes fastest-ever British unicorn November 10, 2021 London-based fintech Zilch has today closed a mammoth $110m Series C funding round and become the UK’s latest billion dollar company in record-breaking time. The round brings Zilch, whose product capitalises on the lucrative Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) sector but in many ways resembles a credit card, to a $2bn valuation – four times [...]
Software group Aveva’s losses deepen November 10, 2021 British industrial software group Aveva said this morning its operational losses had widened to £73.4m in the first half of the year, more than triple the £20.3m it reported a year earlier. Much of this was down to gradually writing off the costs of its intangible assets, the company said, following the completion of its [...]
City Moves: Who’s switching jobs in the Square Mile today? November 10, 2021 Deloitte Deloitte has posted a new partner to its financial advisory practice, who is set to head real estate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for the sector. Bringing 17 years experience in M&A and principal investments to the position, Abhishek Jaiswal joins the Big Four firm from Bank of America where he was a lead real [...]
Oxford Nanopore shares jump after university spinout lifts life sciences revenue forecast November 9, 2021 Shares in Oxford Nanopore surged almost 6 per cent this morning after the recently-listed biotech upped the 2022 and 2023 sales forecast for its life sciences unit, bolstered by a multimillion dollar long-term contract win in the UAE. The genomics group forecast revenue for the core unit will hit between £170m and £190m in 2023, [...]