Fast Lane: Lookers raises profit guidance despite challenging market conditions October 6, 2021 Lookers, a leading UK motor retail and aftersale group, has lifted profit expectations for the year on the back of promising Q3 results. While new car sales flagged amid a global semiconductor chip shortage Lookers has outperformed the market by around 3.4 percentage points. Despite the dip the company has said it is expecting profit [...]
Tesco hikes profit forecasts and launches share buyback programme October 6, 2021 Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket, has hiked its forecasts for full year profits and kicked off a share buyback programme. Stronger than expected demand for the food retailer’s products prompted it to raise expectations for retail operating profits to between £2.5bn and £2.6bn. Ken Murphy, chief executive of Tesco, said: “We’ve had a strong six [...]
Sir Philip Green’s wife spent millions on London homes as BHS collapsed October 5, 2021 Sir Philip Green’s wife spent millions on London properties while thousands of employees working at now-collapsed BHS prepared to lose their jobs. Details of Lady Tina Green’s spending were laid bare in the ‘Pandora Papers – leaked offshore financial documents published by the BBC. Tina Green used a company located in the British Virgin Islands [...]
JP Morgan snaps up Old Street property for £181m October 5, 2021 The Great Ropemaker Partnership has announced the sale of 160 Old Street, EC1, to a fund advised by JP Morgan Global Alternatives for £181.5m. The fund comes under the management of JP Morgan’s alternative investment arm which has $191bn in assets under management. The Old Street property was comprehensively refurbished while under the management of [...]
BrewDog hopeful of a better year after filing 2020 losses October 4, 2021 BrewDog has said the most recent trading numbers for its bar division “tell a very different story” to its yearly results for 2020. The company’s venues division posted a pre-tax loss of £10.4m for the year ended December 31 2020. This is compared to a pre-tax loss of £653,000 in 2019. What’s more, the company [...]
French Connection sold to consortium led by second-largest shareholder October 4, 2021 Clothing brand French Connection has been sold to a consortium including its second-largest shareholder in a deal valuing it at £29m. The firm – which operates 150 stores and concessions across the world – has accepted a 30p-per-share offer, after struggling with years of losses. It represented a 30 per cent premium to the share [...]
Cake Box to open 20 new stores as Uber Eats and Deliveroo orders double sales October 4, 2021 Cake Box said this morning that its sales nearly almost doubled for the past six months amid a strong recovery in customer demand. The high street cream cake retailer said it was buoyed by its continued expansion, opening 20 new franchise sites over the six months to September, to bring it to a total of [...]
Supermarkets bleed sales thanks to food shortages October 3, 2021 The country’s largest supermarkets have lost out on more than £2bn sales this year so far thanks to food shortages. Leading retailers – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons – lost out on sales during the first nine months of the year, according to data shared with trade magazine The Grocer. The sector has been hit [...]
Tesco gears up to announce interim results amid sector’s driver chaos October 3, 2021 Supermarket behemoth Tesco is expected to reveal a big share buyback programme this week, alongside setting out plans to overcome supply chain disruption. Tesco’s buyback scheme will run in parallel to its normal dividend, The Sunday Times reported, with no expected plans for a special dividend. The grocer will post its interim results on Wednesday, [...]
AO World shares plummet 17 per cent as EBITDA dips October 1, 2021 Leading online electrical retailer AO World has seen its share price plummet after publishing lukewarm post close trade results. AO World’s share price slipped by 17.57 per cent compared to yesterday’s close price with shares trading at 179.2p after the company revealed that supply chain disruption had affected intake in the first half of the [...]