WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 12, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES UNICREDIT CHIEF SIGNALS RIGHTS ISSUE TO INCREASE CAPITAL LEVELS UniCredit has given its clearest signal yet that it will seek to raise its capital buffers as market turmoil continues to hit European bank shares. In his first big interview since becoming chief a year ago Federico Ghizzoni told the Financial Times that details [...]
Home Retail Group looks to bid for Habitat stores June 23, 2011 HOME Retail Group, the owner of the Argos and Homebase retail chains, is in talks to buy Habitat. The luxury furnishings company is now owned by restructuring specialist Hilco. It has 71 stores worldwide, including 35 in the UK, 26 in France, five in Spain and five in Germany, employing 2,100 staff. It is understood [...]
Home Retail buys slice of Habitat for £24.5m June 24, 2011 Home Retail Group has announced that it has bought parts of the Habitat chain for £24.5m. The Argos and Homebase owner has bout the rights are for the exclusive use of the Habitat brand, its brand designs and intellectual property in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. It has also acquired the Habitat UK [...]
Home Retail buys slice of Habitat for £24.5m June 24, 2011 Home Retail Group has announced that it has bought parts of the Habitat chain for £24.5m. The Argos and Homebase owner has bout the rights are for the exclusive use of the Habitat brand, its brand designs and intellectual property in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. It has also acquired the Habitat UK [...]
Sales slide at Argos as shoppers stay home June 9, 2011 Sales of home goods from Argos fell more than expected in the past three months as shoppers cut back on expensive electronics, its owner Home Retail Group has said. Home Retail, which also owns home and garden DIY chain Homebase, said Argos like-for-like sales slumped by 9.6 per cent to £817m in its first quarter, [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 8, 2011 HOME RETAIL GROUP Nomura rates the owner of Argos and Homebase as “reduce” with a target price of 130p, and reduces its full-year forecatss for the group by around 16 per cent. The broker sees profits of £137.4m for February 2012, with like-for-like first half sales at Argos down nine per cent, given tough World [...]
More shop chains winding up July 24, 2011 THE number of retail companies which plunged into administration in the second quarter of this year increased by eight per cent compared with same period last year, according to figures from Deloitte. A total of 43 were affected, with household names like Oddbins and Focus being hit by the downturn in consumer spending. Moben, Habitat [...]
The writing was on the wall for Focus DIY June 14, 2011 AT the start of last month the Focus DIY chain entered administration. BrandIndex data gives us a read on the problems that they have had for a long period. When we compare them to their competitors (B&Q, Homebase and Wickes) we can see that they were the least talked about, and when people did talk [...]
Templeman to head retail body June 2, 2011 Debenhams chief executive Rob Templeman will be announced today as the new head of UK’s leading retail industry body, the British Retail Consortium. He will replace Luke Mayhew, current chairman, in the autumn of this year. Templeman led high street giant Debenhams through its IPO in 2006, and was previously head of Halfords Group, Homebase [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 18, 2011 HSBC HSBC has promoted Krishna Patel, chief executive of HSBC Africa, to chief executive of its Global Private Banking division, reporting to group chief executive Stuart Gulliver. Patel will start his new role on 1 September, initially based in Geneva, and will focus on strengthening the bank’s presence in the fastest-growing wealth markets. Patel, who [...]