Ineos snaps up Danish oil and gas fields for $150m March 18, 2021 Ineos today said that its energy subsidiary had snapped up Danish firm Hess’ oil and gas assets for $150m (£107m). The deal will see the conglomerate take control of the remaining 61.5 per cent stake in the Syne Ard oil field, as well as 4.8 per cent stake in the Solsort field. It is the [...]
Ministers slash electric car grant by £500 despite upcoming petrol ban March 18, 2021 The government has today cut the electric car grant from £3,000 to £2,500, prompting cries of disbelief from the auto and energy industries. From today, customers buying cars which cost less than £35,000 will be eligible for the grant. Those buying cars above this price will receive no subsidies. Ministers said that this was because [...]
‘Electric or bust’ for National Grid as it snaps up Western Power Distribution for £8bn March 18, 2021 National Grid shocked the system this morning when it announced it would buy Western Power Distribution (WPD), the holding company of Britain’s largest electricity distribution business, from US-based company PPL in a £7.8bn deal. Moreover, National Grid agreed to sell The Narragansett Electric Company (NECO) to PPL Energy Holdings, also a subsidiary of PPL, for an [...]
National Express careers to £380m loss as pandemic forces emergency stop March 18, 2021 Coach firm National Express this morning reported a £381.4m operating loss for 2020 as the pandemic drove its vehicles off the road for months at a time. The FTSE 250 company saw passenger numbers plunge 80 per cent when last year’s initial lockdowns struck, sending profit and revenue tumbling. For the full year, it swung [...]
Fever Tree maintains fizz as home sales bubble up March 18, 2021 A very strong performance from its off-trade division prevented mixer maker Fever Tree’s revenues going flat this year, the firm said this morning. With the collapse of its hospitality sales – or “on-trade” – division, which historically accounted for 45 per cent of the firm’s revenues, due to the pandemic, the company may have been [...]
Premier Oil swings to hefty loss in final results before Chrysaor merger March 18, 2021 Premier Oil swung to a $1.3bn pre-tax loss in its final set of results before its proposed merger with fellow North Sea firm Chrysaor completes. The FTSE 250 firm said that the loss was mostly driven by one-off charges, including $817m relating to the partial derecognition of Premier’s UK ring fence tax losses. It added [...]
Car dealer Lookers predicts small profit after 2020 turbulence March 18, 2021 Car dealership Lookers this morning said that it was expecting a full year profit of £10m for 2020, beating analyst expectations of a small loss. Shares in the firm rose 5.4 per cent as markets opened this morning. In an update, the FTSE 250 firm said it was still working on its full accounts for [...]
Ocado CEO Tim Steiner: M&S products are more popular than Waitrose March 18, 2021 Ocado’s M&S products are favoured over the former Waitrose partnership products with customers, as the company enjoys a doubling of new registrations, the company’s chief executive said this morning. “The M&S product is more popular with our customers than the Waitrose products were,” chief executive Tim Steiner said during an investor call earlier this morning. [...]
Consider ‘all the options’ to save Liberty Steel jobs, says Ed Miliband March 18, 2021 The government should look at “all the options” when it comes to saving jobs at Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel, shadow business secretary Ed Miliband has said. Speaking to the BBC, the former Labour leader said that the jobs under threat were “crucial for communities up and down the country”. About 5,000 jobs are understood to [...]
More than 2,000 TfL bus drivers have caught Covid-19 since October March 17, 2021 More than 2,000 Transport for London (TfL) bus drivers contracted Covid-19 in the four months between October and January, new data from the operator has shown. According to figures collected from the contractors which run the capital’s bus services, 2,017 of around 25,000 drivers caught the virus in that period. The operator only started collecting [...]
