Rolls-Royce continues disposal plan with €150m Bergen Engines sales February 4, 2021 Rolls–Royce has today announced that it will sell an engine units to Russian firm TMH for €150m (£132.5m). The sale of gas and diesel subsidiary Bergen Engines is the second disposal the FTSE 100 firm has made it as it seeks to raise £2bn to survive the pandemic. Chief exec Warren East said: “We believe [...]
Pandora heads for growth this year as online sales boom February 4, 2021 Jewellery maker Pandora anticipates its first sales growth in three years this year despite many high street shops enduring a harsh pandemic sales dip. 2021 looks to be a year of growth for Pandora, the company said this morning, with thanks to a boost in online sales pushing a strong final quarter in 2020. The [...]
Millions of NatWest customers to see Visa debit card switch to Mastercard February 4, 2021 Millions of NatWest customers will see their debit cards switch as the British bank plans to start using Mastercard over Visa, despite Mastercard’s plans to hike EU fees. NatWest has become the latest bank to adopt Mastercard, which has prior agreements with Santander UK, HSBC’s First Direct and Monzo. The move will divert around 16m [...]
Bumper bullish bonzana: Lummis goes long, PayPal goes parabolic, Musk goes mad, and alliteration goes too far February 4, 2021 Crypto at a Glance It’s all systems go at the moment. Ethereum is in uncharted territory and has entered price discovery mode, Bitcoin has decisively broken out of the $30-35k range and is charging back towards $40k, and Elon Musk is tweeting about Doge again so expect that to have another wild weekend. It’s now [...]
JD Sports raises £464m to fund future expansion plans February 4, 2021 Sportswear brand JD Sports this morning announced it had raised £464.2m which it will use to fund its expansion plans as it eyes acquisition opportunities in new markets. The retailer said that it had placed 58.4m new shares at 795 pence a share, representing about 6.0 per cent of its share capital. The successful raise [...]
Car sales sink 40 per cent as 2021 gets off to worst start since 1970 February 4, 2021 Just 90,000 new cars were sold in January, the worst start to a year since 1970 for the UK auto industry. According to new figures from the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), registrations dropped 39.5 per cent last month, with 90,249 cars sold in total. That’s nearly 60,000 fewer registrations than in January [...]
Barratt reports record new housing completions but profit hit by cladding costs February 4, 2021 UK housebuilder Barratt Developments announced it will resume dividend payments after posting record completions, but warned it will take a £56m hit on legacy properties, including issues related to cladding. The firm said it will pay an interim dividend of 7.5p per share on 10 May following a “rapid and robust recovery and a further [...]
London house prices drop near Tube stations as buyers shuffle priorities February 4, 2021 London house prices near Tube stations have dropped as buyers are less concerned about the length of their commute due to the shift to remote working during the coronavirus pandemic. Research published this morning showed that property prices close to a London Underground stop average £642,674, a drop of two per cent on the pre-pandemic [...]
Shell posts $21bn loss as coronavirus sends oil industry plunging into the red February 4, 2021 Shell this morning posted a $21.6bn (£15.9bn) full year loss as the full costs of the coronavirus were laid bare. The loss marked a massive swing to the red for the oil giant, which made a $15bn profit in 2019. However, speaking to reporters this morning chief executive Ben van Beurden promised a “much more [...]
UK PMIs: Construction activity contracts for the first time since May February 4, 2021 Construction output declined for the first time in eight months in January as lockdown measures and near-term economic concerns led to hesitancy among clients. The IHS Markit/Cips purchasing managers (PMI) index for construction scored 49.2 in January, with any score below the 50-mark indicating contraction. The reading was a sharp drop from December, when a score of [...]
