Below are the key headlines from today’s updated papers, featuring the Financial Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
Billionaire betting queen Denise Coates nets £265m payout for year’s work. Online betting queen Denise Coates landed another staggering payday on Wednesday as the latest figures from her bet365 empire revealed a £265 million payout last year. The billionaire founder of the Stoke-on-Trent firm, which she started nearly 20 years ago, picked up £220 million in pay last year, according to the accounts of the privately owned bookmaker. On top of that Coates who owns half the business, banked £45 million of the £90 million paid out in dividends in the year to March 25. Her total pay is almost £50 million more than last year. It makes her easily the UK’s richest businesswoman, comfortably outstripping the estimated £720 million wealth of PartyPoker founder Ruth Parasol.
B&Q owner to pull out of Russia, Spain and Portugal after sales fall. Kingfisher (KGF)
announces move after sales drop by almost 3% at DIY chain in UK and Ireland. The owner of B&Q is pulling out of Russia, Spain and Portugal, affecting 5,000 jobs as the DIY retailer battles against falling sales at its main British and French chains. Sales at B&Q in the UK and Ireland dropped 2.9% in the three months to 31 October. Trading was worse at the group’s Castorama chain in France; sales falling 7.3% at established stores. “We are operating in a difficult retail environment. We face challenges and we are addressing them,” said Véronique Laury, the chief executive of B&Q’s owner, Kingfisher. Moving out of Russia, Spain and Portugal, she said, would allow Kingfisher “to apply our strategy with more focus and efficiency in our main markets where we have, or can reach, a market leading position”.
Upper Crust boss Kate Swann glides out with M&S café plan. Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) will open its first standalone café with help from franchise operator SSP Group (SSPG) , whose boss on Wednesday said she is leaving the business. The High Street bellwether, which has been struggling with a slump in profits, will sell wraps, freshly made baguettes, sushi, salads, beers and wines from “early next year” at Birmingham airport. If sales take off, the franchise will be replicated more widely, said Kate Swann, the outgoing chief executive of more than five years at SSP. She inked the deal with help from Simon Smith, her successor. Swann added: “Simon will rule the world with this concept. There’s loads of potential for it. The relationship with M&S is very close.” SSP, which owns Upper Crust and works with the likes of Starbucks too, today posted a 24% increase in underlying pre-tax profit to £184.4 million for the year to September 30. Revenues were up 9.5% to £2.5 billion from £2.3 billion the year before.
Marston’s sees sales hit £1.1bn but pubs firm frets over expansion. Pubs giant Marston’s (MARS) on Wednesday cheered sales passing the £1 billion mark for the first time, but said it would be more cautious about expansion amid “stress” battering the dining market. Boss Ralph Findlay expects to open 10 pubs and restaurants and five hotels in the current financial year, down from 14 and seven respectively last year. He said: “There is more political uncertainty around and there is more evidence that there is stress in the wider restaurant sector.” Casual dining groups such as burger chain Byron, Carluccio’s and Prezzo have closed a number of sites in 2018. Firms have struggled with higher business rates and wages, and weaker consumer confidence.
Shares in engineering group Babcock International Group (BAB) are down over 8% after the firm posted a 64% drop in half-year profits. The defence contractor took a £120million hit to restructure its business in the first half of the year and has warned investors over nuclear decommissioning revenues. Pre-tax profits fell to £65.1million in the six months to 30 September, down from £181.9million a year earlier.
Telecoms giant TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) is shifting its headquarters from London to Salford, with hundreds of staff being relocated to the existing northern site. The group said transferring its main office out of London was ‘part of its strategy to simplify its operations.’ The firm added it would start hiring for new posts in Salford next year, including graduate and apprenticeship roles.
Manx Telecom (MANX) hearing solution adds tech sparkle to solid telecoms arm. Gary Lamb, Manx’s chief executive, says the telecoms arm generates cash, pays dividends and invests in infrastructure but with a very stable population there is not much opportunity to grow the business. That was why Vannin Ventures was established in 2016. While a 100%-owned subsidiary, it is a deliberately separate operation to the telco operation. Vannin’s most recent significant investment (after its first investment in Partitionware) is a 67% stake in Goshawk, the company that invented the hearing loss solution. Lamb says the Isle of Man is an ideal place to develop new technology. The island was the first to introduce 3G, for example, while a captive population of 85,000 is an ideal testing ground for new products
Biffa (BIFF) is to ramp up investment in plastic recycling after the Government announced plans for a new tax in the last Budget. The waste management company has invested £15m in a plastic bottle recycling plant for recycling PET, which is used to make soft drinks bottles. Biffa already recycles 780m plastic bottles per year. Michael Topham, chief executive, said the move to invest in plastic recycling came as a result of “changing sentiment about plastics and a recent response from the Government”. In October’s Budget, the Government announced a new tax on the import and manufacture of plastic packaging that contains less than 30pc of recycled plastic
Sage Group (SGE) has signalled it is considering selling the legacy parts of its business, to focus on its cloud operations, admitting it had been “slow” to pick up on the technology in the past. Britain’s largest listed tech company posted organic revenue of £1.82bn for the year to the end of September, up 6.8% year on year. Profit before tax rose 16.4% to £398m in the period and its margin came in at 27.2%. The results were broadly in line with Sage’s revised guidance, issued in April after it warned it had experienced a difficult start to the year, and pointed to the “inconsistent operation execution” in its sales force. These issues ultimately resulted in Stephen Kelly stepping down as chief executive in August
The boss of Paragon Banking Group (PAG) said the challenger bank will continue to place its bets on professional landlords so that it avoids competing with bigger players and becoming a “loan sausage machine”. Chief executive Nigel Terrington said the bank had continued to grow, reporting a 7.8% rise in profit for the year to September, as it had largely avoided the highly competitive market for amateur landlords and instead focused its efforts on those with three houses or more. “There’s too much capital in the banking sector chasing an inadequate amount of business, so I need to make sure I’m allocating capital to the areas that are getting the best returns,” he said.
