Asda warns of shopper misery as sales drop August 17, 2010 SUPERMARKET chain Asda said yesterday shoppers were being hit in the pocket by government cuts as like-for-like sales excluding fuel fell 0.4 per cent in the second quarter. The chain said its market share had reduced in the 12 weeks to 11 July as total sales crept up “in the low single digits”. Chief executive [...]
M&S hires new finance boss to help Bolland’s revolution August 3, 2010 MARKS and Spencer has hired former WH Smith executive Alan Stewart to help new chief Marc Bolland ring the changes at the company. Stewart, 50, who has held a series of senior posts at public companies, will join the retailer in October. He will be the right hand man to Bolland, who joined in May [...]
Don’t bet on strong bank earnings July 18, 2010 REACTIONS were mixed as the first of the season’s US bank earnings rolled in last week. Some analysts – like GFT’s David Morrison – were blaming poor revenue growth reported by Citigroup and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BoA-ML) on Friday for the subsequent dip in the S&P 500 as it plunged 2.09 per cent in [...]
M&S defends £15m pay deal for new boss July 14, 2010 SIR STUART ROSE, the outgoing executive chairman of Marks & Spencer (M&S), along with the British retailer’s board faced investor revolt yesterday over the pay package handed to incoming chief executive Marc Bolland. With some shareholders calling his £15m deal “obscene” at its annual meeting, senior executives were left defending Bolland’s pay. Rose, who faced [...]
FTSE is boosted by banks as stress test fears begin to ease July 7, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading share index ended higher after a choppy session yesterday, driven by a recovery in banking stocks on reassuring comments from US peer State Street and an easing of stress test fears. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was 49.82 points higher, or up 1.0 per cent, at 5,014.82, its high for the [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 6, 2010 WM MORRISON Collins Stewart upgrades Wm Morrison to a “buy” with a new target price of 300p. Cites Morrison’s valuation relative to the European food retail peer group, strength of the balance sheet and its many strategic opportunities as key positives. Believes shares offer good value relative to peers. ATOS ORIGIN S&P maintains its “sell” [...]
Results fall short as executive pay surges July 4, 2010 REMUNERATION committees at the UK’s largest companies are demonstrating a marked failure to adequately link executive pay with performance, according to a damning new survey to be published today. While the median remuneration for chief executives at FTSE 100 companies has risen five per cent to £3.1m in the past two years, earnings per share [...]
M&S readies for investor anger on pay July 4, 2010 A STRONG set of first-quarter figures from retail bellwether Marks and Spencer this week looks set to be overshadowed by animosity at the firm’s annual shareholder meeting, with investors set to clash with executives over the eternally thorny issue of pay. Sir Stuart Rose will officially hand over the chief executive’s reins to ex-Morrisons man [...]
US HOUSING MARKET IN NEED OF HELP June 28, 2010 DAVID MORRISON CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT STOCK indices have been positively correlated to movements in euro-dollar for such a long time that it is easy to forget that this wasn’t always the case. There is growing evidence that this relationship is breaking down – equities are struggling to rally, whether the euro is falling or [...]
Ocado to float June 24, 2010 ECHOES of the dotcom bubble returned to the City yesterday, as an online grocery delivery firm that has not turned a profit in 10 years confirmed it will float with an estimated value of £1bn. Ocado said it will seek to raise £200m when it floats this year and expects existing shareholders to cash in [...]