Bottom Line: Everyone loves a sale – and Asos shares are in middle of a big one June 5, 2014 ALMOST every other day, Asos customers are sent promo emails alerting them to the latest offer on the retailer’s vast fashion website: 25 per cent off dresses; save on festival fashion; free delivery on men’s hats. Yesterday, the tables were turned. Investors hit the sell button on Asos shares, sending them into freefall to end [...]
Best of the Brokers for 06 June 2014 June 5, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com POUNDLAND JP Morgan, which last month won the joint broking mandate for Poundland, has upgraded the retailer from “neutral” to “overweight” with an unchanged price target of 377p. The broker thinks the effects on Poundland of Tesco’s pound aisle trial are likely to [...]
Tesco chief Philip Clarke says he has no plans to step down June 4, 2014 TESCO boss Philip Clarke yesterday reiterated that he had no plans to step down despite admitting that the supermarket chain had suffered its worst quarterly sales performance in his forty years at the company. Clarke said a dramatic slowdown in the grocery market and deliberate efforts to win back shoppers by slashing prices were partly [...]
Bottom Line: Chop harder or prepare to face a descending axe June 4, 2014 HOW quickly a giant can start to resemble a dinosaur. Tesco’s likefor-like sales in the first quarter fell by a shocking 4 per cent if you exclude VAT, petrol and vouchers, its worst drop in years. Embattled chief executive Philip Clarke says he’s determined to cling to his position, but it looks less and less [...]
Inside Track: Tesco’s boss is out on a limb with a limp recovery plan June 4, 2014 PHILIP Clarke is beginning to sound like the corporate equivalent of Alastair Cook at the end of England’s disastrous Ashes defence. On yesterday’s conference call to discuss Tesco’s worst like-for-like sales performance in roughly 20 years, his insistence that his strategy is working sounded faintly ridiculous. “We are more competitive now than we have been [...]
Tesco loses finance director to New Look June 4, 2014 TESCO has lost a second senior director from its finance division after fashion retailer New Look said yesterday that it has hired Mike Iddon as its chief financial officer. Iddon, Tesco’s group finance director for planning, treasury and tax, will replace New Look’s interim chief financial officer Richard Collyer in the coming months. His departure [...]
London Report: FTSE weighed down by poor Tesco numbers June 4, 2014 THE UK’S top equity index fell yesterday weighed down by Tesco after the supermarket retailer posted its biggest quarterly UK sales drop in 40 years. The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed down by 0.3 per cent, or 17.67 points, at 6,818.63 points. Tesco’s 1.4 per cent fall was one of the biggest setbacks for the FTSE, [...]
Tesco share price is falling after sales plummeted again June 4, 2014 Another set of falling sales figures from Tesco this morning. The UK supermarket giant has reported a 3.7 per cent drop in like-for-like sales – 3.8 per cent when including petrol. That does mark the store’s third drop in a row but is, however, better than the four per cent decline analysts were expecting. Revenues [...]
What you need to know before the open June 4, 2014 European markets are expected lower this morning, as stock futures were seen falling. Nervousness is building ahead of the European Central Bank’s anticipated measures, which’ll be revealed tomorrow. Regulator Ofcom has announced further imposed cuts to the cost of mobile phone calls, with a new charge control that’ll see calls to different networks fall to [...]
Tesco market share sinks to a 20-year low June 3, 2014 TESCO boss Philip Clarke is under renewed pressure after figures out yesterday showed that customers abandoning its stores have caused the chain to suffer its worst loss in market share in 20 years. Analysts lashed out as data from Kantar WorldPanel revealed that Tesco’s sales slipped by 3.1 per cent year-on-year in the 12 weeks [...]