All eyes will be on Morrisons’ interim results this week to see if the strategy of CEO David Potts has delivered September 13, 2016 WM Morrison is on a mission to be leaner and meaner. Under CEO David Potts, 'in' have come aggressive price cuts while 'out' are a series of ill-fated ventures including a minority stake in US online grocery business Fresh Direct and M-Local, a hastily assembled collection of convenience stores. Potts has turned his focus to the [...]
Here’s how the supermarkets were doing just before the Brexit vote June 28, 2016 In the immediate run-up to the EU referendum, supermarket sales were strong, according to data released today, but in the three month period before the vote, sales slipped. The figures from Nielsen show that in the four weeks ending 18 June, UK supermarkets had their first increase in year-on-year takings since July 2015. Sales were up 0.4 [...]
Tesco’s share price rises as it agrees to sell Korean arm Homeplus to consortium of investors led by MBK for £4.2bn September 7, 2015 Tesco's share price opened up this morning after revealing it has agreed to sell its South Korean arm Homeplus for £4.2bn to a consortium of investors, led by MBK Partners, the beleaugered supermarket has confirmed. The consortium also includes the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Public Sector Pension Investment Board and Temasek. [...]
Tesco share price closes up ahead of first half results on Wednesday October 6, 2015 Shares in troubled supermarket Tesco closed up three per cent to 192.10p per share this afternoon, ahead of its full-year results which are due out tomorrow morning. Tesco's shares inched up at the open, and added about one per cent over the course of the morning, and continued to make gains throughout the afternoon. Shares [...]
City Moves for 2 September 2016 | Who’s switching jobs September 2, 2016 Noble Foods Group John Gildersleeve has been appointed chairman of Noble Foods Group. John will oversee the implementation of the group's growth strategy for diversification and acquisitions. John spent 20 years on the Board of Tesco during its period of rapid expansion. Currently he is the chairman of British Land, a FTSE top 50 property [...]
Have we reached peak hipster? Sainsbury’s is now the UK’s biggest vinyl record retailer June 8, 2016 An interesting nugget came out of this morning's Sainsbury's (rather mixed) results: the supermarket said it is now the biggest seller of vinyl on the high street. In this morning's first quarter results statements, Sainsbury's said since it reintroduced vinyl record earlier this year after 25 years of just CDs, it had achieved an eight per cent market [...]
Tesco in talks to sell 10 more supermarket development sites to Meyer Bergman October 1, 2015 Tesco is in talks to sell a large chunk of its UK land portfolio, as the supermarket looks to raise funds to bolster its battered balance sheet and pay down debt. The company is understood to be in advanced discussions to sell 10 development sites to European investment giant Meyer Bergman for about £250m. The [...]
Black Friday 2015 UK deals: Amazon, John Lewis, Tesco, Currys PC World, Ebay, Carphone Warehouse and Asos sales are here November 26, 2015 Retailers up and down the UK are offering massive savings as part of the Black Friday sales. This year Black Friday will happen on Friday 27th November. However, some retailers have already started their week of deals. Outlets including Amazon, Argos, Very, Ebay have been running hundreds if not thousands of deals throughout the week. Others like Tesco, John [...]
City Moves for 22 September | Who’s switching jobs September 22, 2016 Societe Generale Societe Generale has appointed Carlos Goncalves as head of global technology services. He replaces Bertrand Lemarignier who will take up a new position within the group. Carlos started his career in the research and development team of Portugal Telecom before joining Societe Generale in 1993 as part of the IT department. Carlos was initially in [...]
The Brexit rally is less fragile than it looks October 19, 2016 The performance of UK shares has generally confounded most strategists. Since the vote to leave the EU in June, UK savers have enjoyed returns of close to 15 per cent. While the weakness of sterling has eaten most of those returns for overseas investors, we are in a much better place than many were predicting in [...]