City pay revolts make a return: Investors are once again feeling uneasy about executive rewards May 6, 2015 Three years on from the so-called “shareholder spring” and listed hedge fund Man Group is again facing murmurs of discontent from investors over pay. The FTSE 250 group, led by chief executive Manny Roman, has put forward a plan to boost executive pay rewards and make it “competitive in the marketplace”. However influential advisory firm [...]
Standard Chartered warns compliance costs are mounting as it stays in the UK May 6, 2015 An increasing number of compliance staff are paid seven-figure salaries at Standard Chartered, the bank’s bosses told shareholders yesterday, as it battles to make sure it does not pay more mega-fines. The UK-based emerging markets specialist has been hit with fines for breaking US sanctions, and is increasingly beefing up its anti-money laundering teams. Chairman [...]
Sainsbury’s dividend hit as profits plunge: Supermarket joins “horror show of income slashers” May 6, 2015 Sainsbury’s became the latest supermarket to take the knife to its final dividend yesterday, joining banks and oil companies in what analysts called a “horror show of income slashers”. Sainsbury’s said it will pay a full-year dividend of 13.2p per share, down 23.7 per cent on last year, after changing its policy in November [...]
Record grocery deflation hurts sales at Tesco, Asda and Morrisons and Sainsbury’s May 6, 2015 All four of Britain’s major supermarkets saw sales fall over the last 12 weeks, while the discounters continued to slow, as grocery price deflation reached another record low, figures released yesterday show. Sainsbury’s was the strongest performer among the big four despite a 0.2 per cent fall in sales thanks to its increased focus on [...]
Boohoo puts last year’s troubles behind it as profits make a jump May 6, 2015 Boohoo said yesterday that it has put last autumn’s troubles behind it after reporting a 27 per cent jump in full-year sales. Boohoo’s share price plummeted by around 40 per cent in January after the e-tailer issued a shock profit warning, blaming heavy promotional activity on the UK high street following the warm autumn season. [...]
GKN share price climbs as growing auto demand boosts sales May 6, 2015 Shares in UK manufacturer GKN ticked up yesterday after the company announced it continued to outperform the market during the start of the year. The British company, which specialises in the manufacture of components for the aerospace and automotive sectors, received a boost from a growing car market and the strength of sterling. [...]
Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct HQ raided by police investigating former Rangers owners May 6, 2015 Scottish police have raided Mike Ashley's Sports Direct headquarters as part of a two-year investigation into two takeovers of Rangers football club. Mike Ashley owns an 8.6 per stake in Rangers, whose previous owners Craig Whyte and Charles Green are the subject of the investigation that led police to Sports Direct's Derbyshire base. In a statement [...]
Sainsbury’s share price falls after it posts first loss in a decade May 6, 2015 Nine years of uninterrupted sales growth came to a halt today as Sainsbury's reported a pre-tax loss of £72m. Investors were not impressed, and the grocer's shares were down 3.6 per cent to 264.8 pence this afternoon. The figures Sainsbury's said underlying profit before tax had fallen by 14.7 per cent to £681m in the year [...]
ViiV Healthcare: GSK share price rises as it scraps plans for £17bn HIV drugs spin-off which would have been one of the biggest IPOs this decade May 6, 2015 Pharma giant GSK (aka GlaxoSmithKline) has abandoned plans for an IPO of its HIV medicines division, it said today. In first quarter results published today, the company said its decision to hang on to ViiV Healthcare reflected an "updated strong positive outlook". Analysts at Jefferies have said ViiV could be valued at as much as [...]
How Sainsbury’s, Tesco and even discounters Aldi and Lidl reined in property expansion plans and ended the supermarket turf wars May 6, 2015 In the never-ending quest for growth, for decades supermarkets held a major arsenal in their weaponry – land. But not any more. Sainsbury's today revealed it took a £682m writedown on its property portfolio in another sign the decades-long land grab by supermarkets has failed to pay off. Tesco's property writedowns run into the billions [...]