Top shareholder Old Mutual backs Sainsbury’s bid for Home Retail Group February 3, 2016 One of Home Retail Group's top shareholders has publicly backed Sainsbury's £1.3bn cash and shares offer for the Argos-owner, despite previously calling for a bid of at least 200p per share. Old Mutual, which owns a 3.6 per cent stake in Home Retail, making it the retailer's third largest shareholder, said it regards the latest offer by Sainsbury's [...]
Poundland launches gardening range with celebrity TV presenter Charlie Dimmock February 3, 2016 Green-fingered shoppers and fans of a bargain rejoice. Poundland has joined forces with celebrity gardener and TV presenter Charlie Dimmock to create a new range of gardening tools, the retailer announced today. The Charlie Dimmock range, which launches on 29 February, will feature 130 lines of gardening essentials ranging from hand tools and heavy duty gloves to hanging bird feeders and [...]
Sainsbury’s set for £1.3bn Argos deal: Supermarket and Home Retail Group could announce agreement today February 1, 2016 Sainsbury's is close to clinching a £1.3bn deal to buy Home Retail Group after improving its offer ahead of today’s deadline. The supermarket chain made an initial bid of around £1bn for the Argos owner in November, saying a combination of the two businesses would create a retail empire to rival John Lewis and Amazon. [...]
UK weather: Storm Henry to continue the UK’s unsettled weather – but is it worse than usual, or are we just noticing it more because of the names? February 1, 2016 It maybe a new month but the stormy UK weather hasn’t changed its tune Scotland will take the brunt of Storm Henry as it sweeps in from the Atlantic through today and into Tuesday, with an amber warning having been issued for the whole of the country. The low pressure system is rapidly deepening and widespread [...]
Conviviality Retail’s share price climbs as it reveals boost to sales from Matthew Clark takeover as champagne and prosecco sales leap February 1, 2016 A strong Christmas has powered drinks company Conviviality Retail over the first half, with the Bargain Booze and Threshers group increasing its interim dividend. The figures The business, which completed its acquisition of wholesaler Matthew Clark in October, said group revenues jumped 38 per cent to £252m for the 27 weeks to 1 November. EBITDA was up 43 [...]
Morrisons adds fuel to the supermarket price war with another round of price cuts January 31, 2016 Morrisons has added fuel to the price war after announcing a further round of cuts in an effort to win back customers and revive sales. The Yorkshire-based supermarket said it will slash the price of 1,072 items, with an average price cut of 19 per cent on fruit and vegetables. The price of a kilo of Morrisons onions, for example, [...]
From Tesco and the death of the Defender to MBAs and Donald Trump: Here’s what got us talking this week January 29, 2016 HSBC celebrated the first pay day since Christmas by going offline (again). We learned that there are just 12 special words in every job interview. And everyone who wasn't 29 years old questioned this study. Here's what got us talking 1) You're not imagining it Yes, it's true: those commuting into London really do have it the [...]
HSBC down: Bank suffers online banking outage (again) after group targeted by cyber attackers January 29, 2016 Well this is embarrassing. HSBC's online banking services are suffering from yet another outage – and it looks like it's down to a cyber attack on the bank. Customers complained this morning that they could not access their accounts online, with many complaining that the outage came just as their first pay day since Christmas arrived. [...]
First-time housing market booming in the UK despite fall in purchases over the Christmas period January 29, 2016 THE NUMBER of first-time home buyers in the UK fell in December due to the traditional Christmas period slowdown, but showed healthy growth over the year, new data has shown today. First-time buyer numbers fell by 1,300 or 4.7 per cent month-on-month due to the “traditional winter cooling” period, according to the first-time buyer tracker [...]
Racing betting: No Planning required for in-form Sue Smith at Doncaster January 28, 2016 Regular readers of this column will know that we have had a cracking start to 2016 with three consecutive decent price winners all trained by women. Kerry Lee’s pair Mountainous (14/1) and Russe Blanc (20/1) were followed into the winners’ enclosure last week by Sue Smith’s Cloudy Too (7/1). And I’m sticking with another Smith-trained [...]