Matalan nixes £1.5bn sale on price dispute February 10, 2010 MATALAN owner John Hargreaves has abandoned an auction of the budget fashion retailer after potential buyers refused to match his £1.5bn asking price. Hargreaves, who founded the chain in Preston in 1985, appointed Goldman Sachs and PricewaterhouseCoopers to explore a sale of the business in December after receiving unsolicited offers from private equity groups. Buyout [...]
Vacancies lure bankers into new role hunt February 10, 2010 The jobs market in the City got off to a good start this year, with job opportunities in financial services jumping by 60 per cent last month. Newly available job vacancies surged to 4,646 from 2,898 a year ago, when hiring in the sector hit a low point. Following the usual seasonal dip in hiring [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 21, 2010 UK MAIL Seymour Pierce reckons UK Mail had a good Christmas and has upgraded its full-year profit forecasts for 2010 as a result. The broker notes UK Mail shares had a strong rise at the end of last year thanks to the postal strikes but have slipped to a level which looks under-rated. It has [...]
Festive cheer as Next hikes profit targets January 5, 2010 NEXT has increased its full-year profit forecast after reporting an unexpected boost in sales. The fashion retailer’s like-for-like sales grew by 3.2 per cent in the 22 weeks to Christmas Eve. It has now raised its full-year profit forecast to between £490m and £500m – above its previous estimate of £472m. In a statement Next [...]
No frillers win fight of skies January 7, 2010 RYANAIR blew away the competition over Christmas, flying nearly five million passengers in December – 12 per cent more than last year. And total passengers for 2009 reached the dizzy heights of 65m, jetting past the 58m recorded the previous year. The budget airline’s biggest rival EasyJet notched up a 9.3 per cent year-on-year rise [...]
High street celebrates Xmas boost January 11, 2010 SNOWY weather and economic gloom could not deter British shoppers from hitting the high streets in their droves last month, giving retailers their best December performance in four years, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) will say today. Total retail sales values increased by an astonishing six per cent last month on December 2008 and 5.4 [...]
Retail reporting bonanza set to reveal festive cheer January 12, 2010 TOMORROW promises a reporting bonanza, with Christmas updates expected to reveal robust trading over the festive season. Home Retail Group, owner of Argos and Homebase, is expected to reveal an increase in their 2009/2010 profit forecast after sales growth last year. Meanwhile Halfords, HMV, Mothercare, Premier Oil and Premier Foods, the UK’s largest food producer, [...]
Retail sales figures “disappointing” January 22, 2010 RETAIL sales volumes rose by much less than expected in December as a large rise in prices deterred shoppers from splashing out over Christmas, official figures have shown. The Office for National Statistics said the figure rose just 0.3 percent last month, less than the 1.1 percent analysts had expected and the weakest for the [...]
HOW WILL CADBURY’S FINAL DEFENCE AGAINST KRAFT PAN OUT? January 11, 2010 DAVID BUIK | BGC PARTNERS “Cadbury will come out with a brought-forward trading statement which will look electric. Roger Carr will dismiss Irene Rosenfeld and chew her up like a bag of nails. If she can’t improve the bid, it’s goodnight Vienna.” JEREMY BATSTONE-CARR | CHARLES STANLEY “All we’re going to get is top-line numbers. [...]
Ocado bullish about spring public listing February 7, 2010 ONLINE grocer Ocado will launch an audacious IPO in May which could value the company at £1.2bn. The firm, which delivers Waitrose food to doorsteps, hopes to raise an initial £160m from the flotation. This will wipe out its £55m debts and provide it with £100m to build a new distribution centre. A source close [...]