City Views: Where do you think Tesco went wrong and what is your view on the CEO change? July 21, 2014 PAUL O’REILLY | VIRTUAL 1 I believe that Tesco should get rid of sections such as gardening and homeware. Also, Tesco was wrong to introduce auto-checkouts, as it needlessly cut of hundreds of jobs. I have no view on the CEO change other than I hope he will improve the company. RICHARD HILL-TOUT | SAUL TRUSTEE COMPANY [...]
Morrisons hands over Kiddicare to private equity group Endless July 14, 2014 Supermarket chain Morrisons confirmed yesterday it has sold its Kiddicare business to private equity group Endless Capital for £2m. The Yorkshire-based grocer bought the online baby products retailer in 2011 for £70m as part of its bid to build its online presence. However, the company announced in March that it had taken a £163m writedown [...]
Morrisons’ sale of floundering Kiddicare could come this week July 9, 2014 Morrisons is said to be on the brink of a deal to sell struggling maternity wear outlet Kiddicare to turnaround investor Endless. The likely sale, which has not yet been formalised, was reported by Sky News yesterday with the suggestion that an announcement could come as soon as the end of this week. Kiddicare was [...]
Ex-UBS analyst Rosenberger is on top at the StarMine Analyst Awards July 2, 2014 StarMine, one of the more analytical of the analysts gongs, has revealed its top names for 2014 exclusively in City A.M. Part of the Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence programme, the StarMine Analyst Awards measure the performance of sell-side analysts based on the returns of their buy and sell recommendations relative to industry benchmarks; and [...]
Best of the Brokers for 03 July 2014 July 2, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com OCADO GROUP Deutsche Bank has upped Ocado to “hold” after six months on a “sell” rating, reducing the target price to 330p from 350p. The broker thinks while there has been a slowdown in sales growth, expectations are more realistic, and there is [...]
London Report: FTSE ends on a high on strong economic data July 2, 2014 Britain’s top share index hit a one-week high yesterday, with upbeat economic data from the US and China improving investor sentiment and boosting cyclical sectors such as banks and miners and carmakers. The FTSE 100 index closed 0.2 per cent firmer at 6,816.37 points, after climbing to a high of 6,829.49, the highest level since [...]
Ocado delivers a profit but sales growth slowing July 1, 2014 Shares in Ocado slid 4.3 per cent yesterday despite the online grocer moving into the black in the first half, paving the way for its first annual profit in its 13-year history. The company said pre-tax profits totalled £7.5m for the 24 weeks to 18 May, following a £3.8m loss last year, thanks [...]
Bottom Line: Ocado thinks above and beyond Morrisons July 1, 2014 Ocado has understandably been coy over the last year about its plans beyond its tie-up with Morrisons. Running the supermarket’s online groceries business was a leap into the unknown and both companies needed time to bed down. The challenging part was copying the online platform it used to run its own grocery business and creating [...]
London Report: Miners lead way as second half kicks off with a jump July 1, 2014 LONDON’S leading shares yester-day kicked off the month and the second half of the year on a positive note, as investors looked to a mixed bag of global manufacturing surveys. The FTSE 100 ended up 0.87 per cent at 6,802.92. The FTSE 100 is still 1.3 percent off its 2014 peak of 6,894.88 in May, [...]
As Ocado posts a half-year profit, will the business now go from strength to strength? July 1, 2014 Jonathan Jackson, a partner and head of equities at Killik & Co, says Yes. Ocado offers a unique way to play the expected strong growth in the UK online grocery market. The group offers investors the potential to benefit from its industry-leading intellectual property, built up over 13 years of investment in technology, to more [...]