Bookies take bets on CEO successor June 20, 2010 BOOKMAKERS are taking bids on who is likely to replace BP chief executive Tony Hayward, as uncertainty mounts over who will take the helm. Iain Conn, Bob Dudley and Doug Suttles are among some of the BP executives tipped on Irish book maker Paddy Power’s website, with odds favouring Conn, who is chief executive for [...]
Ocado to report a healthy sales drive June 20, 2010 THE online grocer, Ocado, aims to make its stock market debut by the middle of next month and is expected to make a formal announcement next week. The company has achieved soaring sales but has yet to make a pretax profit. Ocado hopes to achieve a valuation of £1bn and has appointed JPMorgan Cazenove, UBS [...]
The bike and car parts retailer who wants to own Britain on the move June 20, 2010 Halfords and its chief executive David Wild are having a good recession. Earlier this month, the bikes and car maintenance retail chain posted a strong set of full-year figures: pre-tax profits rose 42 per cent to £110m, while sales rose three per cent to £832m. The FTSE 250 business said the trend for healthy living [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 17, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES UGANDA TAX ROW DELAYS HERITAGE SALE OF OIL FIELD Uganda is insisting that Heritage Oil, the UK-listed oil explorer, must agree to pay $360m (£243m) in capital gains tax on the “super profits” it will make on a $1.35bn oilfields sale before it will sanction the deal. Uganda’s energy minister said the government [...]
Sainsbury’s sales grow at sluggish pace June 16, 2010 SAINSBURY’S followed its arch-rival Tesco in unveiling lethargic first quarter sales growth yesterday, weighed down by low food inflation and a challenging consumer environment. Like-for-like sales for the first quarter grew at their slowest rate in five years, just 1.1 per cent, excluding fuel sales, which jumped due to inflammatory oil price pressures. Including petrol, [...]
HOW DOES SAINSBURY’S PERFORMANCE COMPARE TO ITS PEERS? June 16, 2010 JAMES MONRO | S&P EQUITY RESEARCH “These results put Sainsbury’s in line with Tesco in terms of growth, adjusting for Clubcard sales, but we would have liked to see more given the benefit of two weeks of World Cup sales. But Sainsbury’s may need more margin investment to keep up with its rival over the [...]
Bonuses are back for top boardrooms June 16, 2010 THE average FTSE 100 boardroom bonus topped half a million pounds in the first half of this year, with an average pay rise for top directors of 23 per cent, research out today reveals. Bonus payments rose to an average of £558,918, a dramatic bounce from last year when payouts fell 30 per cent, according [...]
When process becomes more important than any one person June 16, 2010 FOR better of worse, some businesses become identified with their bosses. Look at Steve Jobs at Apple, whose share-price dropped when rumours about his health circulated last year. Or BP when it was run by Lord Browne, a man whose attitude towards the business he ran is often compared to that of Louis XIV’s towards [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 16, 2010 TESCO ING reiterates a “buy” recommendation on Tesco and said this was a fairly lacklustre first trading update, although the market shouldn’t be hugely surprised. ING noted Tesco’s chief executive Terry Leahy expects the first quarter to be a low point for the year and he continues to talk about “recovering global consumer markets.” CARPHONE [...]
Tesco growth falters on low food inflation June 15, 2010 TESCO, the UK’s biggest supermarket, yesterday said stalling levels of food price inflation had put the brakes on its sales growth for the first quarter of the year. Like-for-like sales in the UK, adjusted for VAT, inched up just 0.1 per cent over the three months to the end of May, excluding sales of petrol. [...]