Jubilee gives grocers £200m turnover boost June 19, 2012 BRITAIN’S grocery market grew 3.2 per cent in the 12 weeks to 10 June, boosted by an 11.3 per cent leap in the run-up to the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee celebrations, industry data revealed yesterday. Market researcher Kantar WorldPanel said supermarkets took an extra £213m in the tills in the week ending 3 June. “The [...]
Home Retail is lifted by Argos despite a slump at Homebase June 19, 2012 HOME RETAIL GROUP shares soared 23 per cent yesterday after the company surprised the City with better-than-expected sales at its embattled catalogue chain Argos. Like-for-like sales at Argos fell 0.2 per cent to £819m in the quarter to 2 June, after improved sales of laptops, tablets and ebook readers offset declines in TVs, audio and [...]
HOME RETAIL GROUP’S RESULTS SHOW SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT? June 19, 2012 PHILIP DORGAN PANMURE GORDON A better-than-feared trading statement, although cash gross profits are still down for both businesses. We remain negative, as we believe that Argos has too many stores, too high a fixed cost base and is close to making losses. SIMON IRWIN LIBERUM CAPITAL Like-for-like sales are notably better than our forecasts…Our preference [...]
Hammerson to sell its offices to Brookfield June 19, 2012 HAMMERSON, the Anglo-French property developer, announced yesterday it is selling the bulk of its London office portfolio to Canada’s Brookfield Office Properties for £518m. The deal comes after chief executive David Atkins put the offices up for sale in February to focus on retail property in the UK and France. The FTSE 100 firm’s retail [...]
ADVISERS June 19, 2012 DAVID PATERSON HERBERT SMITH David Paterson, a partner and head of corporate at law firm Herbert Smith, was the lead legal adviser acting for Hammerson on the sale of its London portfolio. Paterson, who joined the firm in 1986, is longstanding adviser to Hammerson, acting on its £584m rights issue and on its conversion to [...]
Universal’s effort to buy EMI is knocked by competition probe June 19, 2012 THE £1.2bn takeover of debt-ridden record label EMI is still just out of Universal Music Group’s reach after the European Commission yesterday issued the music giant with an official statement of objections. Universal declined to give details of the EC’s protestations, saying in a statement: “We are preparing a detailed response to the Commission’s statement [...]
Danone shares tumble as profit suffers from low Spain revenue June 19, 2012 SHARES in French food group Danone fell yesterday after it warned of a hit to profits as Spanish consumers switched to cheaper yoghurts and milk prices rose, causing growth at the Actimel maker to stall. The world’s largest yoghurt maker said demand had fallen sharply in Spain and southern Europe as the Eurozone debt crisis [...]
Airbnb doubles bookings June 19, 2012 US home rental site Airbnb said yesterday it had seen a dramatic rise in bookings in the last five months. The number of nights booked on its site has doubled to 10m as the number of properties listed also doubled to 200,000. Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s chief executive, has highlighted international expansion as the reason for [...]
Sports Direct hires Oriel June 19, 2012 Sports Direct International has hired Oriel Securities as its joint corporate broker. The FTSE 250-listed British sports retailer said yesterday that Oriel will now work alongside Bank of America Merrill Lynch with immediate effect.
Weir Group reaffirms target June 19, 2012 Shares in engineering giant Weir Group rallied 4.6 per cent yesterday after it reconfirmed its full year guidance. Stock prices have dropped since February after warnings of decreased orders in its oil and gas news that the firm was back on track, and an 18 per cent yearly increase in its minerals division, boosted investor [...]
