Amazon Kindle Unlimited: £6 a month “Netflix for books” ebook subscription service launches July 18, 2014 Amazon has officially launched its new book subscription service Kindle Unlimited after details of the new offering leaked earlier in the week. Dubbed the “Netflix for books”, Amazon Unlimited will offer customers unlimited access to selected books and audiobooks, including best sellers such as Harry Potter and the Hunger Games, for a monthly fee of [...]
Co-op Group offloads pharmacy business to Bestway for £620m July 18, 2014 The Co-operative Group has agreed to sell its pharmacy business to privately owned Bestway for £620m, using the funds to slash its huge debt and invest in its core business across its consumer and retail divisions. The UK's biggest mutually owned company has reacted to its biggest-ever loss, amounting to £2.5bn for 2013, by making [...]
Sports Direct and Adidas score a deal to sell kits July 17, 2014 SPORTS DIRECT said yesterday that it had held “encouraging talks” with Adidas, after the iconic German sportswear brand refused to provide it with key kit for the teams it sponsored at the World Cup. Adidas withdrew replica shirts for countries including winners Germany – and Premier League teams such as Chelsea – because it was [...]
Mothercare share price slumps as new boss warns chain needs nursing July 17, 2014 Shares in Mothercare slumped 8.7 per cent yesterday after the baby product group’s new boss warned that it was in need of an overhaul to compete with rivals. Mark Newton-Jones, who was made chief executive last week after four months serving as interim chief, said many of its practices were “outdated” when compared with other [...]
Sports Direct share price down despite 15.6pc rise in profits, with no shareholder dividend July 17, 2014 Sports Direct has seen its share price drop two per cent following initial gains. The sportswear retailer reported its end-of-year results today, showing £239.5m in profit before tax, a 15.6 per cent rise on the 2013 figure. Revenue came in at £2.7bn, a rise of 23.8 per cent and underlying EBITDA was up 15 per [...]
Russian hypermarket Lenta eyes expansion as its sales accelerate July 16, 2014 Russian hypermarket chain Lenta said it expects full-year sales to accelerate further despite the backdrop of a slowing economy, as it aimed to expand its presence across the country by a third. The group, which floated in London in February, expected sales to grow by 34 to 38 per cent this year, a step up [...]
Best of the Brokers for 16 July 2014 July 16, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com HUNTING Goldman Sachs has downgraded to “neutral” from “buy”, reducing the target price to 900p from 965p. The broker thinks that Hunting is well positioned to benefit from strong activity in US onshore, but said the appreciation of sterling against the dollar could [...]
Inflation jumps to biggest monthly increase since October 2012 July 15, 2014 UK consumer inflation unexpectedly jumped to 1.9 per cent in June, according to latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Headline annual consumer price inflation (CPI) recorded a much higher increase than had been forecast, rising 0.4 percentage points on the May figure. That is the biggest monthly increase since October 2012 [...]
World Cup to blame for drop in retail sales growth to three-year low July 14, 2014 Retail sales grew at their slowest pace for over three years in June, with a variety of factors including England’s early exit from the World Cup being blamed for shoppers keeping a tight grip on their purses. Total sales were up just 0.6 per cent compared to the same month last year, the British [...]
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 [...]