City Moves for 12 March 2014 | Who’s switching jobs March 11, 2014 MHA MacIntyre Hudson The accounting firm has announced the appointment of Sarah Jarvie as a manager in its restructuring and recovery team. She has over 15 years’ experience, and was most recently at KPMG. PwC The professional services firm has appointed two data analytics partners to its financial services risk and regulation team. Nick Bouch joins [...]
Best of the Brokers for 12 March 2014 March 11, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com AVIVA RBC Capital has moved its target price on the insurer from 400p to 550p and upgraded the stock from “underperform” to “neutral” following last week’s results, saying that a return to top-line growth in its life business and management drive to improve [...]
Here’s why the UK’s food sector has a rocky road ahead March 11, 2014 With some dire Christmas sales, heavy discounting and a ramping up of online shopping, the UK food retail sector feels unloved. That’s according to Barclays, which points out that the UK’s sector is now trading at a clear price-to-earnings discount when compared with continental Europe. It hasn’t always been like this for UK companies. Expansion [...]
High street hit by bad weather as shoppers turn to the web March 10, 2014 RETAILERS recorded a small rise in total sales in the year to February, up 0.7 per cent from the same month in 2013, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG. The data, released today, suggest that while total sales were up marginally, like-for-like transactions fell by one per cent in comparison to February [...]
Goals Soccer scores £11m placing March 10, 2014 GOALS Soccer Centres raised £11.4m through a share placing yesterday as the group revives expansion plans that were put on ice last year after a failed takeover approach bid by a Canadian pension fund. The five-a-side football pitch operator placed 5.2m new shares, equal to around 9.9 per cent of its existing share capital, to [...]
Euro investors at most bullish for three years March 10, 2014 THE CONFIDENCE of investors in the Eurozone rose again this month, climbing to the highest level since early 2011 despite the announcement of poor industrial output in France. The Sentix investor confidence index reached 13.9 in March, the highest level since the same month three years ago, before the European Central Bank’s swiftly-reversed increase in interest rates. [...]
Here’s what Parliament’s selling to swell its coffers March 10, 2014 The Houses of Parliament are doing a roaring trade in the new official guidebook, with sales of the book giving a boost to retail takings at a time when money is tight for the Palace of Westminster. The Westminster Hall shop, which offers mint creams and tea towels to visitors as well as books, made [...]
Mothercare announces interim boss Mark Newton-Jones March 10, 2014 After Simon Calver’s sudden departure last month, Mark Newton-Jones has been named as the interim chief executive (CEO) of babycare specialist Mothercare. Newton-Jones will take over next Monday, minding the group while it looks for a permanent new boss. He won’t, therefore, join the board. Calver left six weeks after the company issues a profit [...]
Property to join milk on sale at grocer Morrison March 10, 2014 SUPERMARKET chain William Morrison is this week set to sweeten its drop in profits with a property sell-off that could raise £500m for investors. The grocery giant, which has already said its Christmas sales were disappointing, is forecast to report annual pre-tax profits of between £734m and £805m, down from £879m in 2013 and the [...]
Bottom Line: Price wars can come and go but real estate is permanent March 10, 2014 FOUR pints of milk and a warehouse near Stockton-on-Tees, please. Morrisons’ latest special offers will be welcomed by shoppers and property buyers alike, though the latter have a bit longer to enjoy the spoils of the investment. Cutting the price of everyday groceries doesn’t look like a sustainable strategy on its own for Morrisons, with [...]