Primark in talks to buy £60m Birmingham shopping centre June 9, 2014 DISCOUNT fashion retailer Primark is close to sealing a deal to a buy an entire shopping centre in Birmingham for around £60m. The company is in advanced talks to buy the 250,000 square feet Pavilions shopping centre from UBS’s Triton Property Fund, with a deal expected to be confirmed as soon as this week. It [...]
After share price crash Asos warns on profits and investors slam Morrisons June 5, 2014 SOME of Britain’s biggest retailers were left reeling yesterday after a profits warning from Asos spooked investors and supermarket bosses came under a fierce verbal attack from angry shareholders. Asos shares crashed 31 per cent, wiping £1.2bn off its market value, after the online fashion retailer warned that a strong pound and a rise in [...]
M&S’s Swannell to help the state sell off assets May 27, 2014 ROBERT Swannell, the chairman of Marks & Spencer, is to become the chair of the Shareholder Executive as the government body gears up for more privatisations and restructuring this year. Swannell, who joined the Shareholder Executive as a non-exec in January, will take over from Patrick O’Sullivan, who is leaving after two and a half [...]
Student loans, uranium, and six other things on the Shareholder Executive’s to-do list May 27, 2014 The government’s Shareholder Executive announced today that it has picked Robert Swannell as its new chair. Swannell, who is also chairman of Marks & Spencer, has been on the board of the group since January, giving him some experience of the group's various portfolio companies. Here are some of the projects that are [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 23 May 2014 May 22, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Corrupt companies face higher fines British companies that bribe foreign officials to win contracts, commit fraud, or launder money, face fines of up to 400 per cent of their illicit profits, under new penalty guidelines. In the most serious cases companies will pay fines comparable with those meted out in the US, where [...]
Best of the Brokers for 23 May 2014 May 22, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com MARKS & SPENCER UBS has kept its “neutral” rating for the high street shop, but cut its target from 475p to 465p after this week’s results, which were slightly better than expected. The broker thinks M&S’s three-year recovery plan has been disappointing so far, [...]
M&S warns new website will hit clothing sales May 20, 2014 MARKS & Spencer warned yesterday that the launch of its new website will deliver a further blow to its already fragile general merchandise sales, as the high street retailer reported a third year of falling profits. Chief executive Marc Bolland admitted the website “will take four to six months to be at full strength” as [...]
Bottom Line: Bolland has until the autumn to do better May 20, 2014 RELAUNCHING a retail website is not easy. Behind the flashy new design and faux editorial content that draws shoppers towards key products is layer upon layer of complex infrastructure – payment systems and forms and code and algorithms. Somewhere in that complex maze of programming, Marks & Spencer tripped up. Before its new site went live [...]
Greencore splashes out on new factory to fuel growth in the US May 20, 2014 GREENCORE, the food group that supplies retailers with everything from sandwiches to Yorkshire puddings, announced plans to step up its expansion in the US as it reported an eight per cent rise in half-year revenues yesterday. The London-listed group, whose biggest clients in the US include Starbucks and 7-Eleven, said it will spend £20m on [...]
London Report: Vodafone and Marks weigh down on FTSE May 20, 2014 SELL-OFFS in mobile operator Vodafone and retailer Marks & Spencer dragged down Britain’s blue-chip equity index yesterday, after disappointing forecasts from both companies. The benchmark FTSE 100 index closed down by 0.6 per cent, or 42.55 points, at 6,802.00 points. Vodafone took the most points off the FTSE as it fell by 5.5 per cent [...]