Ocado shorters scrambling to shrink positions July 22, 2013 HEDGE funds who bet against Ocado have continued to shrink their unprofitable positions in the online grocer, shares in which have soared since its £216m tie-up with supermarket WM Morrison in May. Ocado has been a longstanding favourite among shortsellers, who borrow shares in the hope that a company’s share price will fall. However, the [...]
Morrisons employee arrested as grocer suffers payroll data theft March 17, 2014 Morrisons confirmed yesterday that one of its employees has been arrested in connection with the theft last week of payroll data covering thousands of its staff. The arrest by the West Yorkshire police yesterday morning comes after details of about 100,000 employees, including salaries and bank account details, were published on a website on Thursday [...]
UK tech stocks sink as US bubble fears hit market April 7, 2014 LONDON’S tech stocks stumbled yesterday after US jitters surrounding the sector late last week reached the City, having sent Asia’s tech stocks into freefall overnight. The FTSE 100’s three week rise abruptly ended as the index fell 72.7 points to 6,622.84 after a sell-off on a number of blue-chip tech stocks hurt investor sentiment. Microchip [...]
Morrisons and Ocado split over online sales tax July 28, 2013 WM MORRISON and Ocado bosses are heading for a clash over controversial plans to launch an online sales tax. The two companies last week formally completed a £216m licensing agreement that will allow Morrisons to launch an online grocery service by January 2014. However the debate surrounding the mooted tax has put Dalton Philips, the [...]
Accelerating competition: How to level the playing field for challenger banks June 24, 2014 THERE is something that politicians and bankers both agree upon – we believe that greater competition improves the service and the products that customers get. We’ve heard ideas about increasing competition in banking from across the political spectrum. Today, the BBA is adding to that debate with some new ideas on promoting competition by levelling [...]
London Report: Survey figures forecast to show more UK growth February 2, 2014 MANUFACTURING data, due out today, is the first of the UK survey figures that will be the highlights of this week’s economic calendar. Construction figures will follow tomorrow and services data on Wednesday, with all sectors expected to show further growth. Industrial production data is due on Friday. Martin Beck of Capital Economics said: “On [...]
Morrisons’ woes wipe £2.6bn off supermarkets March 13, 2014 FEARS of a new supermarket price war wiped around £2.6bn off the combined value of Britain’s major grocers yesterday after Morrisons launched a major assault on its discount rivals. Shares in Morrisons plunged 12 per cent – to their lowest level since 2008 – after it revealed it would invest £1bn in slashing prices over [...]
3 ways Morrisons will change your supermarket March 13, 2014 Morrisons’ extensive and rapid loss last year, and its foreseeable future profit warning, perhaps put it ahead of other supermarkets in terms of how quickly it needs to change. But the changes it needs and is planning to make affect all mainstream supermarkets. Indeed, the shares of all of them have lost this morning on [...]
Morrisons’ tax boss arrested in watchdog probe January 20, 2014 MORRISONS’ treasurer and head of tax is under investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for insider trading ahead of its £216m tie-up with Ocado last year, in yet another blow for the troubled supermarket. Paul Coyle was suspended from his post after being arrested in December in Harrogate by the Yorkshire police in connection [...]
Inside Track: City’s tech industry hopes are wrapped up in Just Eat April 3, 2014 JUST Eat shares got off to a very decent start in unconditional trading yesterday in a deal that has demolished some people’s reservations about the London new issues market for technology stocks. Contrary to what a number of experts said at City A.M.’s roundtable on the new issues market last June, London does seem prepared [...]