Asos goes from annus horribilis to the height of fashion July 21, 2015 Online clothing retailer Asos has seen a major turnaround in its fortunes over the past year. Despite being hit be several profit warnings and a major fire at its Barnsley, Yorkshire, depot, retail sales for the four months to the end of June increased 27 per cent in the UK, while international sales were up [...]
Experian sells its business intelligence arm FootFall to US firm Tyco for £38.5m July 21, 2015 Global information services firm Experian yesterday announced that it had divested itself of retail intelligence business FootFall for £38.5m to Tyco. Tyco is a leading provider of integrated retail performance and security solutions. FootFall monitors and analyses in-store customer behaviour to help retailers and shopping centres to understand their customers better. Said Experian chief executive [...]
Seabrook Crisps snapped up in Lloyds buyout July 20, 2015 BRADFORD-BASED Seabrook Crisps has been sold to Lloyds Bank for £35m in a management buyout, after the family-owned manufacturer returned to growth with a post-tax profit of £1.3m last year. Seabrook, which employs 150 staff and produces 20m crisp packets per year, has been bought by its senior management and Lloyds’ buyout branch LDC. LDC [...]
Best of the Brokers for 21 July 2015 July 20, 2015 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com HALFORDS Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated its “hold” rating on the bike specialist, and said the firm has the potential to sustain retail sales growth above five per cent over the next three years, as well as delivering a 10 per cent retail trading margin. [...]
Bank of England governor Mark Carney would be wrong to hike interest rates this year, and the next move should be a cut July 20, 2015 At a time when central banks all around the world are stimulating their economies through monetary easing and/or quantitative easing, it's madness that the Bank of England is considering raising interest rates – and if anything the next move should probably be a cut to 0.25 per cent. The Bank of Canada cut rates last [...]
Bank of England minutes to give clue on rate hike – London Report July 19, 2015 INCREASED rhetoric from the Bank of England suggesting an interest rate hike could come soon has sparked extra interest in this week’s minutes of the latest Monetary Policy Committee meeting. The minutes, out on Wednesday, will give clues as to how many MPC members are likely to vote for an interest rate before the end [...]
Why the Bank of England would be wrong to raise interest rates this year July 19, 2015 At a time when central banks all around the world are stimulating their economies through monetary and/or quantitative easing it's madness that the Bank of England is considering raising interest rates – and if anything the next move should probably be a cut to 0.25 per cent. The Bank of Canada cut rates last week citing a sluggish recovery [...]
Marks & Spencer leading the FTSE losers: Why clothing boss John Dixon’s departure gives M&S two major headaches July 17, 2015 Marks & Spencer is leading the FTSE 100 losers this morning, after it confirmed its executive director of general merchandise John Dixon had quit. M&S' share price opened down, and has continued to tumble throughout early trading. At pixel time, itwas down 1.3 per cent. When Dixon took up the role in [...]
Marks & Spencer’s share price tumbles as head of general merchandise John Dixon quits July 17, 2015 Marks & Spencer's head of general merchandise John Dixon has quit the business after three years in the role, prompting the retailer's share price to tumble in early trading. Dixon "has decided to leave the business to pursue career opportunities outside of the company", the retailer said this morning. He will step down from [...]
US corporate results round up July 16, 2015 Google Google beat earnings expectations in its latest financial results with earnings of $6.99 (£4.48) a share, but overall revenue of $17.73bn came in below analysts’ forecasts. Excluding the cost to acquire traffic, Google’s revenue in the second quarter rose 13 per cent to $14.35bn due to the strength of its core search business triggering [...]