Below are the key morning headlines from today’s papers, featuring the Financial Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
Tesla motors ahead with first profit in two years. Shares jump 11 per cent after company hails ‘historic’ results. The electric car manufacturer Tesla has turned a profit for the first time in two years as the company overcomes a year of production delays, delivery problems and controversy surrounding the behaviour of its chief executive Elon Musk. Tesla reported a profit of $312 million in the third quarter, delivering Mr Musk’s promise of the company yielding a positive cash flow despite months of scandals and investigations. The company described the three-month period as a “truly historic quarter for Tesla” as the Model 3 saloon car continued to grow in popularity, selling 4,300 cars a week and 56,065 for the entire quarter, helping to deliver the profit and a free cash flow of $881 million.
Business growth slowed to its weakest pace in two years in the latest sign that the eurozone’s expansion is hitting a wall. Germany led the decline with manufacturing and services industry growth weakening, according to IHS Markit’s purchasing managers’ index. French factories stagnated while services companies reported some growth. Official surveys in France also showed a loss of confidence in its manufacturing sector.
Financial services clock up biggest surplus in world. Britain’s financial services industry had the biggest trade surplus in the world last year, reinforcing its position as an exporting powerhouse for the economy. The sector generated a trade surplus of $88 billion (£68 billion) last year, bigger than the US, Switzerland and Luxembourg combined, according to an analysis by The City UK, the lobby group for the square mile. Those countries are second, third and fourth in the list.
The High Court has dismissed a winding-up order that threatened the existence of stricken coffee chain Patisserie Valerie, but the company has been forced to open a probe into discrepancies relating multimillion-pound bonuses handed out to top executives. A petition lodged by tax authorities against the company’s main operating unit was dismissed by the High Court, holding company Patisserie Holdings (CAKE) said on Wednesday. But the chain admitted it was “seeking to understand” why share options from 2015 and 2016 “have not been appropriately disclosed and accounted for in its financial statements”.
Court reveals Stobart chief’s £18m bonus. Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) is to disclose details of an £18 million bonus to be paid to its chief executive in the latest round of the boardroom civil war with a former boss. Before a court case next month in which Andrew Tinkler, the former Stobart chief executive, is claiming wrongful dismissal from the company’s board, court papers claim that Warwick Brady, the present chief executive, is due an £18 million cash bonus tied to the expansion of the group’s airport at Southend in Essex. That payment has not been disclosed in the company’s public accounts. Mr Tinkler has also demanded the company disclose the commercial details of the deal under which Mr Brady will hit his bonus jackpot: a five-year agreement for Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, to start flying from the airport next year. Stobart Group’s most famous asset is its residual 12.5 per cent holding in the spun-off and separately quoted Eddie Stobart Logistics, the trucking firm from which Stobart Group evolved under Mr Tinkler’s stewardship.
Barclays has thrown down the gauntlet in its battle with activist Ed Bramson after improved trading in its heavily scrutinised investment bank helped boost quarterly profits. The FTSE 100 firm’s traders outperformed their Wall Street rivals over the period, helping push up third-quarter pre-tax profits by 32% to £1.5bn, up from £1.1bn the previous year. Barclays (BARC) chief executive Jes Staley said the results showed his strategy of diverting cash into the investment bank was paying off, with revenues in its markets division up almost a fifth.
CityFibre Infrastructure Holdings (CITY) , the broadband upstart aiming to challenge BT’s network business Openreach in the race to build ultra-fast fibre-optic networks, has agreed a £2.5bn spending plan. The company, which was acquired this year for £538m by Antin Infrastructure Partners and an arm of Goldman Sachs, said the funding will allow it to install networks in 37 towns by 2024. It aims to connect five million homes with fibre-optic broadband lines that are faster and more reliable than copper telephone lines. Greg Mesch, CityFibre’s chief executive, said: “It will be a combination of debt and equity. The next big announcement will be a debt facility."
Deutsche Bank analysts gave the European airline sector a hand as they said the recent sell-off of airline stocks looked overdone. Rising oil prices and lacklustre results from companies such as Ryanair Holdings (RYA) had caused investors to take flight. The hesitant vote of confidence caused easyJet (EZJ) to rise 8.5p, to 1141p, Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) was up 61p, to 2430p, and British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) climbed 4.4p, to 565.8p.
Packaging company Smith (DS) (SMDS) dealt a blow to hedge fund billionaire Crispin Odey, whose firm took a £28.5 million short position last week. Short sellers, most often hedge funds, bet the price of a particular stock will fall. Though DS Smith has been on the decline, it showed a glimmer of hope as its shares rose 3.8p, to 367.7p. Odey is still in the money, though, as its shares are 17.4p lower than last Friday when he took his stake.
