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. [...]
Online retailers prepare for busiest day ever December 2, 2012 HIGH street shops and online retailers will face one of their fiercest battles yet for customers this Christmas, with today set to mark the busiest internet shopping day of the year. UK online sales will peak today – dubbed Mega Monday by City analysts – with Visa Europe expecting 6.8m transactions worth £320m to be [...]
Mothercare hires Argos finance boss to help with turnaround November 21, 2012 MOTHERCARE has hired the finance director of Argos to help the struggling retailer with its transformation plans. Matt Smith, a former KPMG director who has spent 10 years at Argos parent firm Home Retail Group, will join the firm at a date yet to be announced. Mothercare has stepped up its fight to halt declining [...]
City Views | How often do you go to the cinema? November 13, 2012 LIZ RATCLIFFE ACCENTURE I probably go every other week to the cinema and I am going to see Argo on Friday. We try to go to smaller cinemas like the Ritzy in Brixton or the Curzon in Mayfair rather than the Odeon or Cineworld cinemas. DANNY JONES MOTT MACDONALD I have been to the cinema [...]
Hedge funds forced to reveal most shorted stocks by FSA November 6, 2012 HEDGE funds have had their short selling activities made public for the first time, as regulations enacted this week expose some of the massive bets made by firms involved in the secretive industry. The Financial Services Authority will now force all funds to declare any short position that represents more than 0.5 per cent of [...]
Comet’s passing brings a brief celebration for rivals’ shares but the challenges they face haven’t gone away November 1, 2012 COMETS are said to burn across the sky on the death of a prince. The passing of this Comet was marked instead by the rise of its rivals’ share prices, with Dixons Retail Group doing especially well on the assumption that its chains will pick up business. But no one can pretend that kind of [...]
Argos catalogue to make way for new online era October 24, 2012 ARGOS yesterday unveiled a five-year turnaround plan that will see it distance itself from its trademark printed catalogue business and become a “digital-led” retail chain. John Walden, Argos’ new managing director, said it will cut the circulation of its 40 year-old bi-annual catalogue and eventually replace laminated versions in store with web-based browsers. It also [...]
Higher spenders would be better than a new strategy October 24, 2012 WHAT does the future of retail look like? Clicks-and-mortar is the buzzword of the moment (Tesco calls its version Clicks and Bricks), a Frankenstein-like stitching together of physical retail locations with online, anytime ordering. When Home Retail Group (HRG) announced its strategy to turn around Argos yesterday that’s very much what it had in mind, [...]
Improved Chinese manufacturing doesn’t steady FTSE 100 October 24, 2012 The blue chip index fell beneath 5,800 this morning, despite signs from China that a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy was gathering pace. Energy and engineering firms shouldered the brunt of the losses. Ophir Energy fell 5.68 per cent in early deals, while FTSE 250 oil and gas group Salamander dropped 5.37 per cent. [...]