Procter & Gamble shares spike in surprise profits boost October 19, 2018 Rising profits for the first quarter at consumer goods group Procter & Gamble (P&G) took the market by surprise today, leading its share price to rise almost eight per cent. The giant behind brands such as Pampers, Bounty and Pantene reported organic sales growth of four per cent in the last three months, its best results in [...]
Intu considers UK-Saudi takeover offer October 19, 2018 Shopping centre chain Intu is considering a takeover offer from a consortium including British billionaire John Whittakar, Saudi investment group Olayan, and Brookfield Property Group. Shares in Intu were up more than 14 per cent on the news that the company was mulling the offer to go private. Read more: Intu shares soar nearly 30 [...]
Danone hit by Morocco consumer boycott and China baby formula decline October 17, 2018 Food company Danone reported it is on track to meet full-year expectations despite a consumer boycott in Morocco and a slump in baby food sales in China. The French company said like-for-like sales grew by 1.4 per cent in the third quarter of the year and that it would target double-digit earnings per share growth. Read more: Inflation [...]
Shares in Asos soar on news of boosted profits and revenue October 17, 2018 Shares in online fashion giant Asos soared 15 per cent this morning as it revealed profits were up 28 per cent and sales grew by 26 per cent during a "record year" of investment. Revenue at the retailer was £2.4bn in the year to August 2018, up from £1.9bn in the previous year, while profit before tax grew from [...]
Asda and Sainsbury’s mega merger could hit Aldi and Lidl’s trollies October 17, 2018 Britain’s store wars are intensifying by the day but the force is still strong with German discounters Aldi and Lidl. The price-cutters continued to steal market share from the Big Four supermarkets in the 12 weeks to 7 October, figures from the closely-watched Kantar Worldpanel report showed yesterday. Aldi’s sales growth, its fastest since January [...]
UK foils more than 10 cyber attacks per week, says GCHQ October 16, 2018 The UK has faced more than 10 cyber attacks per week on average in the last two years, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) today revealed, with most coming from “hostile” nation states. Since it became operational in 2016, GCHQ’s cyber crime defence centre has been forced to defend Britain against 1,167 threats, 557 of which [...]
Barratt chair threatened with investor rebellion after shareholders advised to vote against re-election October 16, 2018 Housebuilding giant Barratt Developments could suffer a revolt at its annual general meeting tomorrow, after an influential shareholder advisory group recommended investors vote against the re-election of chairman John Allan. PIRC has said that Allan, who is also chair of Tesco, “cannot effectively represent two corporate cultures…the possibility of having to commit additional time to [...]
Third Jamie Oliver Group finance executive quits in just over a year October 16, 2018 Jamie Oliver Group director James Gregory has left the company, becoming the third finance executive to leave the TV chef's business in just over a year. The string of departures come at a tough time for the business, and the casual dining sector in general, as 12 of the Jamie's Italian brand restaurants were closed this year [...]
Shopping spree: Aldi and Lidl gain market share at expense of big three supermarkets October 16, 2018 The UK's biggest supermarkets lost ground to their budget rivals in the three months into the start of October, as the return of chilly weather marked the end of a bumper summer of growth. Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda all lost market share to Aldi and Lidl, with Tesco shedding 0.6 percentage points and Sainsbury's losing 0.4 percentage points [...]
In the new age of cyber warfare, finance firms are on the front line October 15, 2018 Throughout history, the job of the nation state has been to protect citizens from a range of threats, be that disease, famine, or foreign invasion. In an analogue world, these threats were physical in nature and, as a result, mostly localised. The threat landscape is radically different in a connected, digital world. Critical infrastructures, from smart [...]