Fund managers under attack from hyper-activist investor Elliott Management February 26, 2014 US ACTIVIST investor Elliott Management flexed its muscles yesterday by taking large stakes in two of Britain’s most prominent fund management groups. The group took its shareholding in F&C Asset Management to 11 per cent while building its ownership of Alliance Trust to 10 per cent. The move will unnerve both companies given Elliott’s aggressive [...]
Lugano rescues point on Mel’s debut January 20, 2014 DEFENDER Diego Lugano scored his first West Brom goal as new boss Pepe Mel oversaw a 1-1 draw with Everton last night. The Baggies fell behind on 41 minutes after Kevin Mirallas slotted in from Romelu Lukaku’s knock down. But on 75 minutes Lugano headed in James Morrison’s cross. Mel said: “I’m very happy to [...]
Calver resigns as Mothercare chief executive February 24, 2014 MOTHERCARE chief executive Simon Calver has stepped down just six weeks after a hefty profits warning that sent shares in the baby products chain tumbling by more than a third. The firm brought in the former head of online movie rental service Lovefilm two years ago to lead its turnaround and overhaul its UK estate. [...]
Computacenter posts higher revenue January 16, 2014 IT services provider Computacenter reported a rise in full-year group revenue that exceeded analysts’ estimates, boosted by a strong demand for its maintenance services in the UK. Revenue grew six per cent in 2013, said Computacenter, whose clients include Lloyds Banking Group, Serco Group , British Telecom, Deutsche Bank, WM Morrison and EDF. Computacenter reported [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 20 January 2014 January 20, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES David Cameron faces EU isolation David Cameron risks “damaging Europe” with his anti-immigration stance, according to some of Britain’s allies, leaving the prime minister looking isolated in his attempts to restrict free movement in the EU. Ministers and officials from several EU powers told the Financial Times they would resist Mr Cameron’s attempts [...]
Ocado delivers Christmas cheer January 16, 2014 OCADO said its online grocery service for Morrisons launched “on time and on budget” last week as it reported bumper Christmas sales. Sales rose 21.3 per cent to £111.1m for the six weeks to 5 January as it benefited from extra capacity at its new fulfillment centre in Warwickshire. Ocado boss Tim Steiner said the [...]
Ocado co-founder Jason Gissing offloads 3m shares worth £15m February 6, 2014 OCADO’S outgoing commercial director and co-founder Jason Gissing sold shares worth £15m on the day that the online grocer announced full-year losses of £12.5m. Gissing, who announced on Tuesday that he would be leaving the company, sold just over three million shares on the same day at 498.75p each, reducing his stake by 0.52 per [...]
Supermarket shares slide as customers move to discounters December 17, 2013 More than half of us shopped at Aldi or Lidl in the last 12 weeks for the first time, according to Kantar Worldpanel data. That's seen more premium supermarkets take a hit – Sainsbury's are down by over 2.8 per cent, Tesco by nearly 1.5 per cent, and Morrison has seen a fall of 1.4 [...]
Here’s why the UK’s food sector has a rocky road ahead March 11, 2014 With some dire Christmas sales, heavy discounting and a ramping up of online shopping, the UK food retail sector feels unloved. That’s according to Barclays, which points out that the UK’s sector is now trading at a clear price-to-earnings discount when compared with continental Europe. It hasn’t always been like this for UK companies. Expansion [...]
Discount stores feast on Tesco’s market share March 12, 2014 TESCO’S market share has fallen to its lowest level in almost 10 years as the supermarket and its mid-market peers lose ground to hard discounters Aldi and Lidl. Britain’s biggest supermarket, which announced plans earlier this month to win back shoppers by cutting prices, saw its market share decline to 28.7 per cent in the [...]