Metro Bank signals lending progress after slow start to the year April 28, 2021 Metro Bank said it is starting to see growth in consumer lending again, after a lockdown-led sluggish start to the year. Metro Bank saw a 17 per cent plunge in lending for the first quarter, with the company’s total net loans falling to £12.05bn for the first three months of 2020, versus £14.51bn a year earlier. [...]
Business rates relief snub costs Sainsbury’s £400m as profit slumps despite lockdown sales boost April 28, 2021 The last year saw most Brits spend up large at the supermarket, but despite a sales boom Sainsbury’s first quarter profit has slumped because it chose to say no to business rates relief. Sainsbury’s, the UK’s second largest grocer after Tesco , said it made an underlying pretax profit of £356m in the year to [...]
Driverless cars set for UK roads by the end of the year April 28, 2021 Britain’s roads could see their first driverless cars by the end of the year after the Department for Transport gave an autonomous driving system the green light today. Officials said that the technology could improve road safety by reducing human error, which contributes to over 85 per cent of accidents. In a statement this morning, [...]
Persimmon builds up sales to pre-Covid levels April 28, 2021 Sales at housebuilder Persimmon for 2021 so far are 23 per cent ahead of last year, meanwhile, it has set aside £75m to address the issue of flammable high-rise cladding. With the average price for homes sold to private owners at around £252,000, the group enjoyed £3bn in sales in the first quarter of 2021, [...]
Antonio Horta-Osorio signs off at Lloyds with a £1.4bn post-tax profit April 28, 2021 Lloyds bank posted a £1.4bn after tax profit for the first quarter, up nearly 200 per cent on the same time last year, in boss Antonio Horta-Osorio’s final results at the helm. The banking giant’s statutory profit after tax for the three months to 31 March 2021 was £1.39bn compared to £480m this time last [...]
Shakespeare: Primark at the heart of the reopening fun April 28, 2021 The easing of lockdown restrictions on April 12 allowed non-essential retail stores to reopen nationwide – and data from YouGov BrandIndex UK suggests that Primark has been a particular beneficiary. The budget fashion chain recently returned £121m to the Treasury, following record sales in the week after the lockdown restrictions were relaxed. In the days [...]
French Connection revenue plummets as Covid closures hit high street sales April 28, 2021 High street retailer French Connection saw group revenue fall by more than 40 per cent for the year ended 31 January as store closures battered trading. The firm reported an underlying loss of £11.7m, compared to a £2.9m loss in 2020, driven by a significant decline in sales. Retail revenues fell by more than 51 [...]
NHS app to be used as vaccine passport for travel, says Shapps April 28, 2021 Brits will use the existing NHS Covid-19 app to show their vaccine status if they wish to travel abroad, transport secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed this morning. The app will be retooled to function as a vaccine passport, Shapps said, or to show a negative test result. “It will be the NHS app that is [...]
Spotify earnings: Is the music streaming giant facing a subscriber lag? April 28, 2021 Spotify will be in the spotlight this afternoon as it reports its first-quarter figures, with all eyes on the streaming giant’s subscriber numbers. The Swedish music platform enjoyed a bumper year in 2020, with paid subscribers hitting 155m thanks to higher demand for music and podcasts during the pandemic. But Spotify warned that pace of [...]
Gambling firm 888 Holdings continues momentum as revenue soars April 28, 2021 888 Holdings saw revenue rise by 56 per cent year-on-year during the first quarter of 2021 as the gambling firm continued to grow its casino and sports betting markets. Revenue shot up to $272.5m during the first quarter compared to $164.6m throughout the same period in 2020, outperforming board expectations. The rise was led by [...]
