Best of the Brokers for 9 October 2014 October 8, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com EUROMONEY INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR Westhouse securities has reiterated its “neutral” rating. It reduced its target price from 1,090p to 1,063p. It added that Euromoney’s pre-close update contained no real surprises, but confirmed that challenging trading conditions in banking and foreign exchange continued to constrain [...]
Travel firms take hit as Ebola fear fails to recede – London Report October 8, 2014 BRITAIN’S main equity index fell yesterday as worries about Ebola reaching Europe hurt travel firms and telecoms tester Spirent Communications became the latest UK company to warn on profits. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed 13.34 points lower, or 0.2 per cent, at 6,482.24 points, taking its fall from a 14-and-a-half–year high hit last month [...]
Mike Ashley moves to oust Rangers chief Graham Wallace after taking £4.3m stake October 8, 2014 Retail tycoon Mike Ashley has bought five per cent of Scottish football club Glasgow Rangers as part of a move to oust the chief executive and a director from the board. Ashley, who owns Newcastle United and has made a series of investments in recent weeks including buying shares in Tesco and Debenhams, took the [...]
Tesco suspends Kevin Grace: Fifth executive leaves over £250m profit miss October 7, 2014 Tesco has suspended a fifth director over a shock discovery last month of an error in its accounts which meant first half profits were overstated by £250m. Kevin Grace, Tesco’s group commercial director, was asked on Monday to step aside as Deloitte and Freshfields carry out their investigation into what went wrong in Tesco’s accounts. [...]
Fears over Ebola contagion puts airlines in a spin – London Report October 7, 2014 BRITAIN’S top share index fell back yesterday, with travel and leisure companies hit by concerns that the spread of Ebola outside Africa could hurt air travel and the tourism business. Sentiment was also hit by a set of poor data, including an unexpected four per cent month-on-month drop in German industrial production in August. Analysts had [...]
Tesco share price rises amid talk of more boardroom changes and mounting pressure on chairman Sir Richard Broadbent October 7, 2014 Tesco's share price recovered slightly yesterday, ticking up 2.4 per cent by close, but the talk was of more changes at the top. According to the Financial Times, Tesco shareholders have been meeting with the company's senior non-executive director Patrick Cescau to ascertain if further boardroom reshaping is required. Tesco appointed two new board members yesterday, Richard Cousins and [...]
Tesco share price rises as Richard Cousins and Mikael Ohlsson join board October 6, 2014 Tesco brought some relief to its unhappy investors yesterday after announcing that it had beefed up its board by hiring the chief executive of catering giant Compass and the former boss of Ikea. The embattled retailer said Richard Cousins, a turnaround specialist who had led Compass since 2006, and Mikael Ohlsson, who was chief [...]
Banks lead the pack as FTSE bounces back – London Report October 6, 2014 GAINS in major bank stocks led Britain’s benchmark equity index higher yesterday, and troubled supermarket group Tesco rose after new board appointments. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index, which fell to its lowest closing level in nearly a year last week, closed up by 0.6 per cent, or 35.74 points, at 6,563.65 points. Among the financials, [...]
Tesco chairman Sir Richard Broadbent could be considering his resignation October 6, 2014 Is Tesco chairman Sir Richard Broadbent departing the supermarket? After overseeing probably the retailer’s worst period in history, Broadbent may finally be mulling an exit from the country’s biggest supermarket. The chairman would consider stepping down, the Wall Street Journal reports, after the investigation into a recently discovered £250m accounting blackhole is complete, After three [...]
Tesco share price rises on board announcements October 6, 2014 Tesco's share price rose this morning after the troubled supermarket revealed it was bolstering its senior team. The retail giant, whose share price had fallen 52 per cent this year by the end of Friday's trading, has added two new non-executive members to its board, including former chief executive and president of Ikea Group Mikael Ohlsson. The [...]