Analyst Views | What do you think of home retail’s results? January 17, 2013 KEITH BOWMAN HARGREAVES LANSDOWNE For now, management appears to have moved some way in convincing investors that the company can prosper in the internet age…In all, analyst opinion has thawed from a ‘sell’ to a weak ‘hold’, with the group becoming a surprise Christmas winner. PHILIP DORGAN PANMURE GORDON This is a much better than [...]
Rio Tinto drags FTSE 100 down January 17, 2013 Mining giant Rio Tinto weighed heavily on the FTSE 100 this morning, trading down around 3.5 per cent. This morning it said chief executive Tom Albanese would step down following a $14bn impairment charge relating to several acquisitions. Charles Gibson, head of mining at Edison Investment Research, said this morning: “When a company writes off [...]
Home Retail ups profit guidance on strong Argos sales January 17, 2013 Household goods retailer Home Retail Group this morning raised its profit forecast, on the back of strong sales from Argos. The group, which also includes the Homebase brand, said it now expects pre-tax profit for the financial year to come in at £10m ahead of the current £73m forecast. In October, Home Retail unveiled a [...]
Online shopping is masking the birth of hybrid retailers January 15, 2013 THE fall of yet another iconic British retailer, HMV, does little to assuage fears that the high street in its current form is in terminal decline. The statistics are bleak. According to a survey by PwC and the Local Data Company, 32 stores closed each day in July and August 2012. Over one gloomy five [...]
Retail shares hammered by short sellers January 14, 2013 LEADING hedge funds are making enormous bets against the health of the UK high street, according to figures supplied to City A.M. by data provider Markit. Home Retail Group, the parent company of Argos and Homebase, has more than one in five of its shares out on loan ahead of Thursday’s interim management statement. Short sellers borrow shares [...]
Property firm Hammerson hires Sainsbury’s head as chairman January 14, 2013 DAVID Tyler, the chairman of Sainsbury’s, is to take on another FTSE 100 role, after it was announced yesterday he will replace John Nelson as chairman of property giant Hammerson. Tyler, who has also been a non-executive director at luxury group Burberry for more than a decade, will join the board with immediate effect on [...]
Rapid responses December 17, 2012 Banking union [Re: European banking union will be no friend of vibrant financial services, Thursday] If Europe’s banks are going to be regulated under one umbrella, the financial sectors of smaller countries will likely find themselves stifled. The inclination for a European regulator will be to impose the level of regulation that is already in [...]
Home Retail bolsters board with IT veteran December 5, 2012 HOME RETAIL Group has appointed IT veteran Jacqueline de Rojas to its board after the owner of Argos stepped up its efforts to shift the retailer away from its trademark printed catalogue business and become a “digital-led” chain. De Rojas, who heads up technology and software firm CA Technologies’ UK business, joined Home Retail’s board [...]
Best of the brokers December 5, 2012 WILLIAM HILL Nomura rates the bookie “reduce” with a target price of 260p. The broker thinks the firm’s exit from Greece will cost one per cent of 2013 earnings, and believes a deal to buy Sportingbet would be “excellent”. HOME RETAIL Morgan Stanley has an “overweight” rating on the Argos owner and a price target [...]
Every little helps as Tesco boosts FTSE December 5, 2012 Tesco proved that every little helps by assisting the FTSE to a healthy rise in early trading. The supermarket group admitted last night that it is considering giving up on its struggling US venture, exciting investors who have grown exasperated with the company’s inability to transfer its success to the other side of the Atlantic. [...]