Prime retail rents slip for embattled high street landlords April 28, 2019 Troubles for high street landlords deepened in the first three months of 2019, as tough trading conditions and store closures pushed down rents on prime retail properties. Read more: Laura Ashley shares hit all-time low as fashion retailer sounds alarm Rents at prime high street shops fell one per cent in the first quarter of [...]
Debenhams to close 22 stores in 2020 as lenders warn of 1,200 job losses April 26, 2019 Debenhams revealed its store closure plan this morning, with up to 22 stores expected to be shuttered in 2020. Around 1,200 jobs are at risk due to the two Company Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs), one for property and one for retail, the company said today. Read more: Debenhams owners to outline plans to shut 20 stores The [...]
Sainsbury’s: Buyers bet that shares have seen the low April 26, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. Trading within a whisker of a record low, a lot of bad news is already written into the share price. Yesterday’s humiliation of Sainsbury (J) (LSE:SBRY) and its boss Mike Coupe has not stopped investors from piling into the supermarket giant’s shares in the belief the chain can bounce [...]
Laura Ashley shares hit all-time low as fashion retailer sounds alarm April 25, 2019 Shares in fashion retailer Laura Ashley hit an all-time low today after it issued a warning over its full-year results amid difficult trading conditions. Read more: Laura Ashley issues profit warning as sales slide The struggling brand saw its share price fall over 20 per cent this morning to 2.21p. It has since rebounded somewhat [...]
Competition watchdog kills Sainsbury’s £7.3bn Asda merger: What went wrong? April 25, 2019 Almost a year to the day since Sainsbury’s first revealed that it was in merger talks with Asda, it has all come crashing down. In late April 2018 the two retail giants were losing market share to German discounters Aldi and Lidl, and the threat of Amazon moving into the grocery sector was very real. [...]
Unilever: Why there’s lots to like about this FTSE 100 star April 25, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. These first quarter numbers have been well received, and this market favourite still has lots to go for. Unilever (LSE:ULVR) shares surged to within a few pence of a record high last week as first-quarter trading figures heightened focus on whether this defensive and reliable dividend payer can offer [...]
Pure Gym eyes further expansion as growing membership boosts revenues April 25, 2019 Pure Gym has posted double-digit revenue growth for the full year as it eyes further expansion in 2019. The figures Revenue rose 15 per cent to £228.4m in the year to the end of December. Group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation jumped 14 per cent to £73.1m. Member numbers were up 16 per [...]
Carpetright shares soar as restructuring plan starts to pay off April 25, 2019 Shares in Carpetright soared almost 25 per cent this morning after it reported a “significant” improvement in sales as its restructuring plan begins to pay off. The London-listed carpet specialist said like-for-like sales were up in the fourth quarter in a sign of renewed customer confidence. Read more: Carpetright sales drop but pace of decline [...]
Competition regulator blocks Sainsbury’s-Asda merger April 25, 2019 A planned tie-up between supermarket giants Sainsbury’s and Asda suffered a final blow from the UK’s competition watchdog, which said this morning that "it has decided to prohibit the merger in its entirety". Read more: Watchdog may block Sainsbury's-Asda merger Sainsbury’s, Walmart and Asda revealed today that they have mutually agreed to terminate the merger plans [...]
A quarter of millennial festival-goers have fallen for ticket scams April 25, 2019 Tickets for some of the world’s most popular music festivals are so sought-after they sell out in minutes. Read more: MPs, stop trying to tout the demise of the secondary ticket market But new research has revealed ticket re-sales are a hotbed for opportunistic scammers, who are fleecing desperate music fans for hundreds of pounds. [...]