Shares plunge as Asos ramps up investment March 18, 2014 ASOS shares plunged eight per cent yesterday after the online fashion retailer said it will ramp up spending on warehouses to meet growing demand at the expense of short term profits. Chief executive Nick Robertson said it will lift capital expenditure this year to £68m from the £55m previously forecast as it accelerates its investment [...]
Top investment bankers paid most at Barclays March 18, 2014 SENIOR executives at Barclays saw their share awards drop by around 20 per cent for 2013, the bank’s figures showed yesterday. The drop for the top 12 staff comes after a poor year for the bank – adjusted profits fell 32 per cent compared with 2012, and executives are under pressure from shareholders and politicians to [...]
Best of the Brokers for 19 March 2014 March 18, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com CARNIVAL UBS keeps its “buy” rating on the cruise operator and raises its target from £25 to £26. The broker expects Carnival to post a $0.09 loss per share in its quarterly results next week, but believes the firm’s Costa ships will ride [...]
Asos’ profits warning is crushing online retailers March 18, 2014 This morning, Asos chief Nick Robertson delivered the surprise warning that the company’s earnings margin will decline this year to around 6.5 per cent. Shares crashed over 20 per cent on the news. The reason given is that the store’s upping its investment in warehouses in Europe, along with its new venture in China, and [...]
Any Other Business – 18/03 March 18, 2014 Forget the huge salaries and enormous bonuses – it seems one of the banking giants’ biggest perks may be the boardroom banquet. While many of us mere mortals are nipping out for a sandwich, a new wave of the UK’s finest chefs are apparently honing their skills to feed the upper echelons of finance. Proof [...]
Row as retail investors denied chance to buy shares in Just-Eat March 17, 2014 BANKERS to Just-Eat, the London-based online food takeaway business, yesterday announced plans to float on the stock market in a deal that will exclude retail investors. The company has chosen to list in London in a confidence boost for the London Stock Exchange but its decision to exclude private investors was met with dismay by [...]
Barclays bosses’ bonuses slashed after revenues fall in tough 2013 March 17, 2014 BARCLAYS will today announce smaller share awards for top executives despite the bank increasing its overall bonus pool, as the bank’s profits fell in 2013. The bank’s adjusted profits fell by 32 per cent last year, but the bonus pool increased by 10 per cent to £2.4bn. Chief executive Antony Jenkins defended the move, arguing [...]
Best of the Brokers for 18 March 2014 March 17, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com MICRO FOCUS Barclays upgraded Micro Focus from “equal weight” to “overweight” yesterday with a raised target price of 900p (from 800p). The broker expects that Micro Focus is soon to return to organic growth of up to five per cent now that its [...]
Rethinking the safe haven: What’s fuelling gold’s rise March 17, 2014 Simple assumptions about the yellow metal could result in traders getting burnt. Treasury yields could be a better metric for gauging where it may go next To many, gold’s sharp rise in recent months, widely attributed to increasing geopolitical tension in Ukraine and fears of a Chinese economic slowdown, has underscored its role as the [...]
Just-Eat float will have no retail component March 17, 2014 City AM has learned that the float of fast food website Just-Eat will have no retail component. Retail investors will be able to go through brokers who've put in an institutional bid, but there'll be no direct access to the initial public offering (IPO). This mirrors Poundland's recent IPO, which also lacked a retail component. [...]