Prada revenue up despite banning end-of-season sales August 1, 2019 Prada reported a slight increase in revenue today boosted by its wholesale business and full price sales after the luxury retailer banned end-of-season discounting. The designer brand posted net revenue of €1.57bn (£1.43bn), an increase of two per cent on last year, as full price sales growth offset the decision to stop seasonal markdowns. Read [...]
Laterooms collapses after failure to sell business August 1, 2019 Holiday bookings site Laterooms has collapsed into insolvency after its parent company Malvern Group ran out of cash before it could secure a sale. Last month Malvern appointed KPMG to undertake an accelerated sales process after Cox & Kings India, which owned a 49 per cent stake in Malvern, defaulted on loan repayments. The default [...]
Chinese army in Hong Kong releases anti-protest video August 1, 2019 China’s army in Hong Kong has released a video that shows its forces engaged in riot control, in what has been seen as a warning to protesters in Hong Kong. The video, which was released yesterday and is now circulating on social media, contains captions such as “All consequences are taken at your own risk” [...]
Capita return to growth ‘distinctly possible’ as turnaround starts to do the trick August 1, 2019 Capita’s market value shot up today as investors toasted the first fruits of a sweeping turnaround plan. The outsourcer’s share price jumped 17 per cent on the news margins had grown in four of its six main business divisions. Capita runs the Ministry of Defence’s recruitment programme for the British army. The figures Pre-tax profit [...]
Verizon beats profit estimates as it boosts phone subscribers August 1, 2019 Verizon has posted better than expected profit for the second quarter thanks to strong growth in phone subscribers. Read more: Buzzfeed and Verizon plan to slash hundreds of jobs in grim day for digital media The US telecoms provider said it added 245,000 phone subscribers over the quarter, compared to 199,000 in the same period [...]
BBC gets Ofcom approval to stream shows on iPlayer for a year August 1, 2019 BBC TV programmes will now be available on iPlayer for a year, after Ofcom approved proposals to expand the on-demand platform. The broadcaster submitted a request to extend the availability of catch-up series from 30 days after broadcast to 12 months, with some programmes available for even longer. Read more: Britbox: BBC and ITV strike [...]
Insurance M&A jumps to highest level in four years in first half of 2019 August 1, 2019 Insurance M&A rose to its highest level in four years in the first half of 2019 with 222 deals completed worldwide. This marked the biggest increase in the volume of transactions since the first half of 2015 and the fourth consecutive six-month period of growth. In the second half of 2018 there were 196 completed [...]
Watchdog fines Casio millions for blocking discounts August 1, 2019 The UK’s competition watchdog has fined Casio £3.7m after the electronics company admitted to illegally preventing online retailers from selling discounted musical instruments. Casio put pressure on retailers to sell digital pianos and keyboards online at or above a certain price, using new software to monitor online prices in real time. Read more: Competition regulator [...]
Qualcomm shares tank as China weakness chips away at revenue August 1, 2019 Qualcomm has warned of a sharp drop in revenue for the fourth quarter as it battles against a slowdown in the smartphone market and difficulties in China. The chipmaker warned of “continued weakness” in China demand, and blamed the growing market share of tech giant Huawei. Read more: EU fines Qualcomm €242m for ‘crushing’ 3G [...]
Rio Tinto announces $1bn special dividend as profits fall August 1, 2019 Rio Tinto has announced a bumper dividend of $1bn (£825m) after reporting a drop in first-half pre-tax profits, despite red-hot iron ore prices. The Anglo-Australian mining firm’s pre-tax profits for the first half of the year were almost $5.2bn, a 23 per cent drop from the same period in 2018. Iron ore prices have risen [...]