Applegreen IPO: Irish owners net €20m in petrol station listing June 16, 2015 Two Irish entrepreneurs are in line for a €20m (£14.37m) windfall after floating their petrol forecourt business on the London stock exchange. Bob Etchingham and Joe Barrett, who founded Irish petrol station group Applegreen 23 years ago, will net €15m and €5m respectively from the listing, according to regulatory documents filed yesterday. Both [...]
Magna Carta 2015: Where you can enjoy beer deals in London with #CheersBDB June 15, 2015 On 15 June 1215, King John finally agreed to sign the Magna Carta – a deal that meant monarchs were finally subject to the law, just like everyone else. But not only that. It also gave birth to the humble pint, thanks to the inclusion of an article that demanded "a single measure for ale". [...]
Tesco must find £5bn to rebuild its balance sheet, says Moody’s June 15, 2015 Troubled Tesco will need to find £5bn in order to relieve the pressure on its overstretched balance sheet, according to credit ratings agency Moody's. Read more: Here's what assets has Tesco sold off and what's heading to the checkout "It has a relatively high level of debt – also adjusted debt, such as the pension deficit and [...]
Former Tesco asset Blinkbox Music goes into administration less than six months after sale June 11, 2015 Blinkbox Music, the music streaming service sold off by Tesco in its asset fire sale, has gone into administration less than six months into its new ownership. Australian firm Guvera, which bought the company in January for significantly less than the £10m the supermarket paid to acquire it back in 2012, attempted to sell Blinkbox [...]
Around 1,000 in-store Tesco managers accept redundancy rather than take a pay cut June 11, 2015 More than a fifth of Tesco's in-store management have taken voluntary redundancy rather than move onto a lower rate of pay, as part of a huge restructure of the supermarket. Around 1,000 people have left the grocer, which has effectively stripped out two layers of management – deputy manager and line support – from [...]
Big four supermarkets will keep getting squeezed says Moody’s June 10, 2015 The leading big four supermarkets are expected to lose another four per cent of their market share by 2020 to discounters Aldi and Lidl, as competition in the grocery retail market intensifies. A report published today by credit rating agency Moody’s predicts Aldi and Lidl’s combined market share will reach 12-15 per cent by 2020, [...]
George Osborne’s great government sell-off: Taxpayers risk getting burnt as sun may yet shine on RBS June 10, 2015 So after almost seven years, the moment has arrived. The symbolic importance of George Osborne’s announcement last night that the Treasury is to begin selling Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) shares at a loss is hard to overstate. “I’m not interested in what is easy – I’m interested in what is right,” he told [...]
Stan Chart and Sainsbury’s lead FTSE 100 risers – London Report June 10, 2015 BRITAIN’S main equity index rallied from three-month lows yesterday, led by advances in banking group Standard Chartered and supermarket chain Sainsbury. Standard Chartered rose 5.8 per cent, with traders citing the possibility that British finance minister George Osborne might announce changes in a tax on the British banking industry when he spoke last night. Any [...]
KKR halves Pets at Home stake and eyes Tesco June 9, 2015 PRIVATE equity giant KKR has nearly halved its stake in Pets at Home just as it emerged yesterday that the firm has been invited to bid for Tesco’s South Korean business. US-based KKR bought Pets at Home from private equity rival Bridgepoint in 2010 for £995m. The pet care and products retailer floated on the [...]
Price war prompts a record high of bets against Supermarket giants June 9, 2015 HEDGE funds are making record bets against the health of the supermarket sector, with the average interest in the UK’s four listed grocers breaking the 11 per cent barrier for the first time. Sainsbury’s and Morrisons are now the two most-shorted constituents of the FTSE 100 behind oilfield services provider Petrofac, according to a report published [...]