Australia’s Wesfarmers in advanced talks to buy Home Retail Group’s Homebase for £340m January 13, 2016 Home Retail Group last night signalled the break-up of its retail empire after revealing that it is in advanced talks to sell Homebase to one of Australia’s biggest listed companies for £340m. The Perth-based Wesfarmers, which operates department stores and supermarkets as well as coal production facilities, began talks with Home Retail in September before [...]
Shares in Home Retail rally over Homebase bid rumours December 1, 2015 Shares in Home Retail Group rose more than three per cent yesterday on the back of reports that the former boss of Garden Centre Group is considering a bid for Homebase. Nicholas Marshall, who stepped down as chief executive of the rival garden retail chain – now called Wyevale Garden Centres – in 2012, told [...]
Home Retail Group’s share price rises despite disappointing figures as break up of Homebase and Argos looms January 14, 2016 Home Retail Group has warned that profits will be at the lower end of expectations, after a "mixed" performance from Argos. The figures Argos like-for-like sales decreased 2.2 per cent in the 18 weeks to 2 January to £1.84bn, although new digital concessions added in the past year contributed 3.1 per cent to growth. At Homebase, like-for-like sales grew by five [...]
Home Retail Group share price soars on announcing it will return £200m to shareholders with Wesfarmers to buy Homebase for £340m January 18, 2016 Home Retail Group has announced it will be returning £200m to shareholders, following the sale of its Homebase chain to one of Australia’s biggest listed companies. The British retail group has confirmed reports it will sell the DIY chain to Australian Wesfarmers for £340m. Wesfarmers, which already owns DIY supplier Bunnings, said it will spend another £242m [...]
Sainsbury’s to install 20 Argos outlets in time for Christmas September 5, 2016 Sainsbury's is set to install another 20 Argos outlets inside its supermarkets in the latest move to integrate the two stores following Sainsbury's acquisition of Argos-owner Home Retail Group (HRG). The supermarket giant completed the £1.4bn takeover of HRG, which also owned Homebase until earlier this year, at the end of last week, after being given the green light [...]
Home Retail Group’s DIY chain Homebase eyed up by French suitor for takeover bid December 6, 2015 Takeover interest in Home Retail Group’s Homebase is heating up amid reports that a French rival is eyeing a bid for the DIY chain. Leroy Merlin, the French home-improvement and gardening retailer with stores in 13 countries, is said to have examined a bid for the group. It is unclear whether the Family-owned group is [...]
Home Retail Group profits slump 28 per cent as firm admits “disappointing” performance from Argos April 27, 2016 Home Retail Group – the company everyone wanted a slice of earlier this year – has revealed a full year profits drop of 28 per cent as sales ticked down. HRG and Sainsburys' share prices were both down in early trading. The figures The Homebase and Argos parent company said benchmark pre-tax profit fell 28 per cent [...]
Online push helps Argos deliver best sales growth in two years June 9, 2016 Argos has posted its strongest sales growth in nearly two years and is on track to be taken over by Sainsbury's later this year, results published this morning confirmed. The figures Sales at Argos climbed by 0.1 per cent in the first three months of the financial year on a like-for-like basis, coming in at a [...]
Home Retail Group posts “significantly stronger” cash flow as time ticks on in Sainsbury’s vs Steinhoff bid for Argos March 10, 2016 Home Retail Group has revealed much higher cash flow levels and signs of improvement at Argos – the centre of a bidding war between Sainsbury's and Steinhoff. The figures Argos' like-for-likes dropped 2.6 per cent in the year to 27 February, to £4.1bn, as the retailer sustained second half declines of two per cent. Margins fell [...]
Pets at Home and new finance chief Graeme Jenkins part ways after Australia’s Wesfarmers admits to accounting errors at his former firm Target April 11, 2016 Pets at Home said that its incoming chief financial officer Graeme Jenkins will no longer be taking up the role after his former employer Wesfarmers this morning admitted to accounting errors at its Target Australia subsidiary where Jenkins was previously finance chief. The Australian conglomerate said that a probe into Target's accounting practices found that first-half profits at the department store had been falsely inflated by around [...]