Police cordon off road around London’s iconic Blue Fin Building over “loose facade” October 15, 2014 It's home to Time Inc UK and a host of other companies, but today London's iconic Blue Fin Building became a health and safety hazard. According to people working in the Southwark-based Blue Fin – so called because of 2,000 blue aluminium fins that cover the facade and shade the interior – the authorities [...]
Elliott Advisors exec in £38m pay bonanza October 12, 2014 ONE OF the top directors at Elliott Advisors took home £38m last year, one of the highest single pay packets for an executive during the period. Elliott, a US hedge fund with a substantial operation in the UK around St James’s, disclosed the windfall in an annual accounts filing at Companies House during the past [...]
Tesco suspends Kevin Grace: Fifth executive leaves over £250m profit miss October 7, 2014 Tesco has suspended a fifth director over a shock discovery last month of an error in its accounts which meant first half profits were overstated by £250m. Kevin Grace, Tesco’s group commercial director, was asked on Monday to step aside as Deloitte and Freshfields carry out their investigation into what went wrong in Tesco’s accounts. [...]
Store wars: Lidl attacks Morrisons with combative ad campaign October 4, 2014 Lidl have launched a new ad campaign, ridiculing Morrisons's attempts to match their prices. This may sound like dry advertising rivalry, but the gauntlet has been well and truly thrown down. Great advertisement from @LidlUK – very clever response to @Morrisons price pledge. pic.twitter.com/zUwrEKms6c — Steve Myall (@stevemyalleats) October 4, 2014 The advert lists the steps [...]
UK supermarkets vs German discounters: Morrisons gets tough as Buffett attacks Tesco October 2, 2014 Britain’s embattled supermarkets have finally begun their fight back against German discounters Aldi and Lidl who have been eating their lunch in recent months with double-digit growth in the sector. Morrison, the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket, will launch its first customer loyalty card today, along with a price-matching scheme that its chief executive has labelled [...]
Best of the Brokers for 03 October 2014 October 2, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com SAINSBURY Nomura has maintained its “neutral” rating, but cut the target price to 270p from 305p. Nomura remains of the theory that Sainsbury is seeing some relative slowdown, and may now be an underperformer compared to sector rivals, as Asda strengthens and Morrison [...]
Sainsbury’s new boss Mike Coupe blames “perfect storm” for sales drop October 1, 2014 Sainsbury's new chief executive said that a “perfect storm” of effects had plunged sales further into the red in the second quarter as the supermarket retailer cut its full-year sales forecast and warned that it might review its dividend. In his first official trading update since taking over from Justin King in July, Mike [...]
Supermarkets sweep to the bottom of FTSE – London Report October 1, 2014 BRITAIN’S top equity index fell yesterday to its lowest closing level in nearly six months, as a new slump in the shares of supermarket retailers hit the market. The sentiment was also hit by news that Britain’s manufacturing grew at the slowest rate in 17 months in September as demand weakened at home and in [...]
Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons: Have investors given up on supermarkets? October 1, 2014 Tesco's share price has fallen 3.4 per cent today. Wm Morrison's has declined by 5 per cent. Sainsbury's share price tumbled 6.6 per cent. Although they operate in the same sector, each of these three supermarkets is suffering its own problem. So what is happening? Tesco's well documented £250m black hole in its [...]
Endless Capital sells Kiddicare two months after £2m takeover September 30, 2014 ENDLESS Capital has sold Kiddicare to online retailer Worldstores just two months after buying the mother and baby products site for £2m from Morrisons. The turnaround specialist bought Kiddicare in July after Morrisons’ disastrous ownership of the site. The Yorkshire-based grocer bought Kiddicare in 2011 for £70m as part of its bid to build its [...]