Online sales drive another tasty six months for Hotel Chocolat March 2, 2021 Revenue and profit before tax were up at Hotel Chocolat in the six months ended 27 December, with online growth offsetting the physical reduction in retail caused by the Covid-19 restrictions. Revenue at the chocolate retailer was up 11 per cent to £101.9m and profit before tax stood at £15.5m, an increase of three per [...]
May the forest be with you! Putting a price on nature March 2, 2021 Natural resources are often seen as free inputs that any company may use to produce an output. The exploitation cost alone is how firms assess a natural asset’s monetary value. In this way, natural resources tend to be seen as infinite: there is no clear sense of how overexploitation can destroy surrounding ecosystems. Today, many [...]
House prices rebound unexpectedly in February on hopes of stamp duty extension March 2, 2021 House price growth beat expectations last month rising 0.7 per cent month-on-month, according to Nationwide’s latest figures. It brings year-on-year growth to 6.9 per cent from 6.4 per cent in January, beating the consensus 5.5 per cent. It more than offsets the 0.2 per cent monthly decline recorded at the start of the year. No [...]
Gambling giant Flutter sees strong start to 2021 despite massive profit drop March 2, 2021 Flutter Entertainment said this morning that pre-tax profits fell sharply in 2020 but the company has started the new year with strong momentum. The Paddy Power owners saw group revenue soar to £4.3bn in 2020, compared to £2.1bn the previous year. Profit before tax dropped to £1m compared to £136m in 2019, a 99 per [...]
Takeover target Signature Aviation swings to $24m loss March 2, 2021 Takeover target Signature Aviation today hailed its “resilient performance” in 2020 as the private jet firm swung to a $24m (£17.3m) loss before tax. After the worst year in history for aviation, the company said that its flight activity was down just 17 per cent in February, compared to 77 per cent last April. It [...]
Foxtons buys West London rival Douglas & Gordon for £14.25m March 2, 2021 London-listed estate agent Foxtons has confirmed it has acquired West London-based firm Douglas & Gordon for £14.25m. It comes just a week after the FTSE firm confirmed it was in discussions to “reflect the company’s stated ambition to acquire high quality businesses with strong lettings books.” Douglas and Gordon, which is run by former Foxtons [...]
UK performance drags on Robert Walters full-year profit March 2, 2021 Recruitment firm Robert Walters has reported a 25 per cent drop in gross profit for the full year as fee income slipped. It came as group net fee income fell 26 per cent to £302.4m for the year ended 31 December. “The sequential quarter-on-quarter improvement in net fee income from quarter two onwards, combined with [...]
Hong Kong explores allowing SPAC listings March 2, 2021 Hong Kong is considering allowing SPAC listings as the popularity of blank-cheque vehicles starts to pick up outside the US. Special-acquisition companies (SPACS) are vehicles that raise capital through a public listing with the purpose of acquiring an existing company. They offer private companies a faster and more predictable way to go public and have [...]
Budget 2021: Sunak to announce £520m scheme to provide training for SMEs March 2, 2021 Rishi Sunak will announce a £520m scheme in Wednesday’s Budget to help provide MBA-style management training to up to 130,0000 British small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The new Help to Grow scheme will see the government pay UK business schools to provide 50 hours of free tuition to SMEs over twelve weeks, with with [...]
Unlocking the UK could trigger 6 years of economic growth in just 10 months March 2, 2021 Can you remember what you were doing on the eve of the pandemic? It should be easy to recall. But what were you doing in early 2014? Why do I ask? Well, in a few weeks’ time, as lockdown ends, the economy is likely to be to back to where it was in the first [...]
