Sainsbury’s profit plummets after spending £46m on failed Asda merger May 1, 2019 Sainsbury’s profits tumbled 42 per cent last year as the supermarket giant spent £46m on its failed merger with Asda, it revealed this morning. Read more: Watchdog kills Sainsbury's-Asda merger: What went wrong? The supermarket suffered a body blow last week when the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) banned the proposed merger “in its entirety”, a [...]
High street giant Next credits warm Easter weather as sales blast past expectations May 1, 2019 High street bellwether Next welcomed robust sales growth in its latest quarter as revenue beat its own estimates. Read more: Next says 'no evidence' Brexit has hurt sales as profits dip The retailer credited “unusually warm weather” over Easter for the 4.5 per cent year-on-year rise to sales of around £10m. While high street stores [...]
Sainsbury’s slips behind supermarket rivals after Asda merger blocked April 30, 2019 Sainsbury's sales fell behind those of rivals in the three months to the end of April, according to data released just a week after the supermarket's £7.3bn Asda merger was blocked. Sainsbury’s suffered a 1.2 per cent fall in sales compared to the same period last year, data group Kantar's statistics showed, while Aldi and Lidl [...]
Consumer confidence remains steady amid Brexit carry-on, survey shows April 30, 2019 Britons were more positive about the future economic situation in April than they were in March, but are putting off major purchases amid financial and political uncertainty, a new study has today shown. Read more: CBI: UK retailers enjoy rising sales for the first time in five months Meanwhile, fewer people in the UK were positive [...]
Online car dealer firm Auto Trader announces board shakeup with retirement of CEO April 29, 2019 Online car ad group Auto Trader has promoted its finance boss as its new chief executive following the decision of the incumbent Trevor Mather's decision to retire. Mather will retire from the positions of CEO and director on 31 March 2020, allowing Nathan Coe, who is the current chief operating and financial officer, to take [...]
Financial investment fraud cases jumped 74 per cent in 2018 April 29, 2019 Reported fraud cases related to financial investments rose 74 per cent to 6,890 last year, up from 3,950 in 2017. The most commonly reported cases were related to share and bond sales which saw an increase to 860 last year, up from 200 in 2017, and pyramid or Ponzi schemes, which saw an increase to [...]
Prime retail rents slip for embattled high street landlords April 28, 2019 Troubles for high street landlords deepened in the first three months of 2019, as tough trading conditions and store closures pushed down rents on prime retail properties. Read more: Laura Ashley shares hit all-time low as fashion retailer sounds alarm Rents at prime high street shops fell one per cent in the first quarter of [...]
Sainsbury’s: Buyers bet that shares have seen the low April 26, 2019 By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. Trading within a whisker of a record low, a lot of bad news is already written into the share price. Yesterday’s humiliation of Sainsbury (J) (LSE:SBRY) and its boss Mike Coupe has not stopped investors from piling into the supermarket giant’s shares in the belief the chain can bounce [...]
Which stock markets look ‘cheap’ after strong performances in the first quarter of 2019? April 26, 2019 Those who were brave enough to fight the emotional urge to sell during the carnage in markets which brought 2018 to a close have been richly rewarded in the first few months of 2019. Of the five markets in our regular analysis, even the worst of the bunch (Japan) returned almost 8 per cent so far [...]
Bramson may lose the battle but still win the war in his clash with Barclays’ board April 26, 2019 Arguments about the merits of Barclays’ voyage into investment banking feel almost as old as the industry itself. Next week’s showdown between the lender’s board and Edward Bramson, who wants to muscle his way onto it, might prove to be a mere footnote in that story – or, ultimately, warrant a full chapter. Bramson will [...]