Analyst Views: What was your reaction to Boohoo’s trading update? January 7, 2015 ALISTAIR DAVIES | INVESTEC Boohoo’s statement highlighted a competitive and challenging UK market, resulting in slower-than-anticipated sales growth. International saw an encouraging rebound in ROW, reflecting benefits from price reinvestment, with Europe delivering mixed results. Lower sales growth… led us to cut our forecasts materially. MATTHEW MCEACHRAN | N+1 SINGER Boohoo has delivered 25 per [...]
Retail collapses decline despite Bank’s woes January 7, 2015 THE NUMBER of retailers that collapsed into administration fell by more than a third last year as the high street benefited from improving consumer confidence, according to Deloitte. Some 119 retailers fell into administration, down 35 per cent on 2013, when 183 high street names were forced to close their doors, the professional services firm [...]
Durex owner Reckitt Benckiser’s KY bid for lubricant-maker slips on antitrust probe January 7, 2015 Reckitt Benckiser’s bid for personal lubricant-maker KY came unstuck yesterday as regulators ordered a full competition investigation. The combined group owns the Durex and KY brands worldwide, but is awaiting regulatory approval in the UK. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) worries it will gain it an unduely dominant position in the market by owning [...]
My nine key predictions for the City over the 12 months ahead January 7, 2015 It's with some trepidation that I set out my predictions for the year ahead in corporate Britain, not least because the first of them might appear misguided even by the time you read this. ONE Tesco, which today updates the City on Christmas trading, will be the winner among the food retailing establishment’s “big four” [...]
Fitbug starts to flex its muscles January 7, 2015 The founder of the British fitness tracking group tells Oliver Smith in Las Vegas that he is already thinking about the next big thing PAUL Landau has had an interesting six months. In July he was the founder of a wearable fitness tracker firm whose share price had hovered around 1p for over two years, [...]
Virtual reality headset expected to hit the shops later this year January 7, 2015 While Facebook isn’t at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, the virtual reality headset startup Oculus that it acquired last year for $2bn (£1.32bn) is very much present – and its booth drew some of the longest lines of the show. Oculus remained coy at CES yesterday about the release date for its headset, [...]
Gross’ giggles have faded to black in 2015 January 7, 2015 The prize for doom-monger of the week goes to Janus Capital’s “king of bonds” Bill Gross – who seems to have lost his mad-as-a-march-hare sense of humour in 2015 and replaced it with gloomy prophecies. For those of you who have come to look forward to the Pimco-founder’s monthly musings on Janus Capital’s blog, as [...]
Fawning over Canary Wharf’s light show January 7, 2015 Is that Harry Potter’s patronus? No, nor is it someone’s leftover Christmas decorations. It’s art and it’s in the Wharf. Canary Wharf has welcomed in the last of the dark winter nights with a delightfully luminous exhibition. Arriving and leaving work in the dark ain’t so bad for Wharfers this January. The exhibit lasts until [...]
Falling inflation set to prevent rate hike today January 7, 2015 CITY A.M.’s panel of economists have voted in favour of keeping interest rates at record lows of 0.5 per cent. Bank of England (BoE) officials will announce their latest decision at 12 noon today. The main concerns among our shadow monetary policy committee were inflation, growth and uncertainty. Inflation dropped to one per cent in November [...]
Robert Walters recruitment firm boosted by job market strength January 7, 2015 Robert Walters, founder of the eponymous recruitment firm, yesterday played down fears that the UK’s economic growth may be slowing. The company saw UK net fee income surge by 27 per cent year-on-year in the final three months of the year as the labour market continued to strengthen. Walters also advised workers in the professional [...]
