July Budget 2015: Living wage bill hurts retailers and small firms July 8, 2015 Retail and hospitality industry insiders warned yesterday that their sectors face a huge rise in labour costs after a Tory pledge to introduce a minimum wage of £9 for over-25s by 2020. From April next year, businesses will be required to pay £7.20 per hour to workers over the age of 25, rising to [...]
Best of the Brokers for 10 April 2015 April 9, 2015 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com CRANSWICK Numis reiterated its “hold” rating on the food producer. The broker described it as a “strongly managed concern with a good track record and decent prospects”, and highlighted a major investment programme due to be commissioned in autumn. Target price was trimmed [...]
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 [...]
Marks & Spencer boss Alan Stewart jumps ship for Tesco after sales drop July 10, 2014 Alan Stewart, chief financial officer at Marks & Spencer, is leaving the struggling retailer for supermarket giant Tesco, it was announced yesterday. Stewart will fill former Tesco CFO Laurie Mcllwee’s shoes at the retailer, where his pay packet is set to rise from £579,000 to £750,000 a year. Mcllwee stepped down from his role at Tesco [...]
Marks & Spencer website nightmare knocks share price: Here’s what the analysts say July 8, 2014 Marks & Spencer's long-awaited website overhaul has failed to perform. The company announced that online sales have dropped by 8.1 per cent in the 13 weeks to 28 June. The retailer excused the performance as a "settling in" of the new M&S.com site, which cost the company £150m. Marc Bolland, M&S chief executive, says that [...]
City Moves for 29 May 2015 | Who’s switching jobs May 28, 2015 EC Harris The natural and built asset design and consultancy firm has appointed James Crawley as an associate partner in its development management and consultancy team. Based in Leeds, he joins from Calderdale Council. Crawley has also held roles at Muse Developments and M&G Real Estate. OM Asset Management Trevedi Tewari has been appointed head [...]
New Look sales, profits rise despite “competitive” market June 2, 2015 New Look's new parents will be pleased with the fast fashion's latest set of results, showing the turnaround under Anders Kristiansen continuing to stabilise a previously struggling business. The figures Revenues were up 3.4 per cent to £1.4bn for the year to March 28, as like-for-likes climbed four per cent and UK like-for-likes rose 5.1 [...]
Tesco keeps clawback of Clarke’s pay-off in sight May 21, 2015 TESCO said yesterday that it could still claw back a £1.5m pay-off made to former chief executive Philip Clarke if new evidence of misconduct during his time at the retailer came to light. Tesco was forced to suspend its own internal probe into practices that led the company overstating profits by £263m when the Serious [...]
US data and high street giants lead for coming week – London Report March 29, 2015 INVESTORS this coming week will be digesting a flurry of global economic data and corporate results from a number of prominent UK retailers. The focus is likely to continue to be on US economic indicators, given recent concerns about a slowdown in growth in the first quarter, such as consumer confidence, spending and personal income. [...]
UK economy on track for growth despite global turmoil, EY Item Club forecasts January 17, 2016 Consumer spending will help fuel UK economic growth in 2016, according to new forecasts, painting a more positive picture amid global market turmoil which has wiped trillions from global equities this year. The economy is expected to grow at an accelerated rate of 2.6 per cent in 2016, up from 2.2 per cent last year and previous forecasts [...]