Analyst Views | Was the statement from Morrisons as bad as expected? January 7, 2013 PHILIP DORGAN PANMURE GORDAN This trading statement is grim, but there is no direct profit warning, in part because consensus continues to fall. We see continued downside to consensus profits for 2014 and 2015, given the likely sales underperformance and the costs of entry into new channels. KATE CALVERT SEYMOUR PIERCE Despite soft comparables, Morrison [...]
House of Fraser Basks in bumper Christmas January 7, 2013 HOUSE OF FRASER has become the latest retailer to boast of a bumper Christmas, with like-for-like sales up 6.3 per cent in the period. Following hot on the heels of rival John Lewis, the department store group said in a trading statement yesterday that its stores performed well while online sales rose a record 48 [...]
Bad Christmas for retailers as sales stay flat January 7, 2013 BRITISH retailers failed to see a Christmas boom, with sales only edging up on the year and failing to beat inflation, according to industry data out today. Total sales rose just 1.5 per cent compared with December 2011, according to the British Retail Consortium. That compares with the latest inflation data showing prices rose by [...]
Mayor’s Fund backs healthy brekkie for kids January 7, 2013 The Capitalist is pleased to announce news of the Mayor’s Fund for London and Magic Breakfast’s campaign to provide 5,000 children with free healthy breakfasts. The Mayor’s Fund has teamed up with Cazenove Capital Management, Tropicana Orange Juice and Quaker Oats and is investing £660,000 to feed kids in schools all over London – including [...]
Christmas rush helps UK airlines end the year with rising traffic January 7, 2013 THE CHRISTMAS getaway has pushed up ticket sales at some of the country’s biggest airlines, according to figures out yesterday. EasyJet said traffic rose 4.9 per cent on a year ago to 4.34m in December. Its load factor – a measure of how much the firm fills its planes – rose 2.3 percentage points to [...]
FTSE mettle is tested by slump in commodities January 7, 2013 AS THE markets settled into the first full week of trading of the year, the FTSE had its 2013 bull run checked, dropping 17 points yesterday. The commodity and miner-heavy benchmark index had been pushed to multi-year highs by the effects of a global risk-off sentiment, with the FTSE breaking the psychologically significant 6,000 level [...]
Watch Ryder Cup stars go at Majors in 2013 January 7, 2013 WHAT an exciting year we have ahead of us, after perhaps the best ever 12 months for European golf in 2012, with Rory McIlroy confirming his status as the world’s best player and that magical Ryder Cup triumph. My money would be on McIlroy hanging onto his world No1 ranking for some time now, and [...]
Banks steal spotlight despite weakness in FTSE 100 January 7, 2013 The FTSE 100 stalled this morning after closing at its highest level since February on Friday, with miners dragging down the index. In early deals, it was down around 0.25 per cent. A relaxation in bank liquidity rules dominated the headlines this morning, as regulators said last night that banks will have longer to build [...]
Morrisons reveals worsening pre-Christmas sales January 7, 2013 Supermarket Morrisons posted declining sales in the run-up to Christmas this morning, as it admitted its sales were “disappointing”. Over the six weeks to 30 December, total sales excluding fuel were down by 0.5 per cent. Like for like sales suffered a larger drop, down by 2.5 per cent over the period, the retailer said [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 7, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Terra Firma plans to sell Odeon chain Terra Firma, the private equity fund founded by Guy Hands, is planning to sell assets this year that are likely to include Odeon & UCI group, the European cinema chain, which could raise more than £1bn. The plan is a bid to return cash to backers. [...]