Bottom Line: It’s crunch time for Clarke and Philips June 3, 2014 THE NUMBERS are dire. Despite splashing out more than £3bn over the past year, the UK’s three biggest listed firms – Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrisons – are all shedding market share, with the former showing its weakest growth in 11 years. Analysts are slashing the sector left, right and centre, and with Tesco expected to reveal another [...]
Tesco chooses two new execs June 2, 2014 TESCO appointed two new executives in creative roles yesterday, as it seeks new ways to improve sales. Jill Easterbrook has been appointed as chief customer officer. She has worked at Tesco for 13 years. Matt Atkinson has been picked as chief creative officer and will work on new products. “Both have played a big part [...]
Tesco seals deal to sell House of Fraser products June 2, 2014 TESCO has struck a deal with House of Fraser to sell the department store’s products on its website, the supermarket giant said yesterday, as it seeks to stem its declining sales. After trialling the offer earlier this month, Tesco said House of Fraser has agreed to sell 2,000 products from homeware brands including Linea and [...]
Transport for London looks for £3.5bn of commercial revenues June 2, 2014 TRANSPORT for London (TfL) has begun searching for a new sponsor of the city’s bicycle hire scheme, hoping to bring in more money and a long-term partner following Barclays’ departure. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has written to 200 of TfL’s biggest advertisers to gauge interest in sponsoring the bicycles, which were launched on [...]
London Report: UK data to show economy is on path to recovery June 2, 2014 ECONOMIC indicators out this week are expected to show the UK recovery continuing at a healthy pace. PMI survey data for services, manufacturing and construction are likely to show strong growth throughout May. Blerina Uruci, of Barclays, expects services PMI to hit 60 in May, up from 58.7 and well above the 50 figure which [...]
Tesco creates China’s largest food retailer with CRE venture May 29, 2014 TESCO has finalised a joint venture with the state-run China Resources Enterprise (CRE) to create China’s largest food retailer. The deal combines Tesco’s 134 Chinese outlets with CRE’s 2,986 stores, called Vanguard. CRE will own 80 per cent of the new chain and Tesco will have a 20 per cent stake. Tesco chief executive Philip [...]
Best of the Brokers for 30 May 2014 May 29, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com AMEC Berenberg has initiated on Amec with a “buy” recommendation and a target price of 1450p. The broker says the merger with Foster Wheeler will give Amec “transformative potential” through revenue synergies, with likely sustained strong earnings growth provided by its North Sea [...]
Supermarkets are getting a quiet boost as entertainment spend booms online May 29, 2014 In the UK, one third of our spend on entertainment – so on CDs, DVDs and games – is now done online. Data from Kantar Worldpanel, covering the first part of this year, show that one in every three pounds people spend on physical entertainment objects is online. Interestingly, 20 per cent of all online [...]
What you need to know before the open May 29, 2014 European markets are expected up this morning, with the focus on the latest first quarter GDP number from the US. Bond prices continued to rise yesterday – in peripheral as well as UK and German ones – with the market still firmly decoupled from equities. Data-wise, things are quiet in Europe, with the significant numbers [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 29 May 2014 May 28, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Performance comparison made easy Investors will find it easier to compare the performance of companies around the world following the culmination of a 12-year project to bring together US and international revenue reporting. Accounting regulators in the US and Europe on Wednesday published a joint standard on how companies report revenue from contracts [...]