Below are the key morning press headlines, featuring the The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
Goals Soccer Centres (GOAL) said it was keeping its options open after Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct International (SPD) swooped in with a £4m bid for the struggling five-a-side football operator. The acquisitive retail tycoon, who recently bought Jack Wills, Evans Cycles and Sofa.com, said he would offer 5p a share, but Goals said it would wait for other bids to come in. Shares were suspended at 27p in March, when it was worth £20m, after an investigation into its tax affairs was opened. Goals owes the taxman £12m and has admitted it has found “improper behaviour” dating back to 2010. Because of that its AIM trading facility will end at the end of September. Such a move would leave Sports Direct, which has a 19% stake in the business, and other shareholders without a say in a potential sales process. In June, Sports Direct failed in an attempt to oust the entire Goals board.
The City regulator is facing questions about whether trading in Thomas Cook Group (TCG) shares should have been suspended weeks before its collapse and about the lack of disclosure over the company’s rescue talks with lenders. The 178-year-old travel company collapsed yesterday under the weight of its £1.7 billion debts after it failed to secure a last-ditch £1.1 billion rescue package. Desperate attempts to clinch a rescue deal with Fosun Tourism Group, the Chinese company that was Thomas Cook’s biggest shareholder, its lenders and other stakeholders unravelled suddenly on Thursday after it emerged that its banks, including Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, had requested £200 million. This was to be used as a seasonal standby facility over the winter period, on top of the £900 million injection of new capital. It has emerged that Thomas Cook was notified of this additional £200 million funding requirement as far back as September 9.
Burford Capital (BUR) hit back yesterday at Muddy Waters, the short-seller that has sent its share price tumbling. In a 45-page rebuttal, the besieged litigation funding group claimed to have earned more than $1 billion from legal cases that either had concluded or were close to being resolved. It also rejected accusations that it routinely ascribed “aggressive” valuations to continuing litigation, insisting that it had upgraded forecasts for only a third of its cases, and defended its earnings estimates for legal action that it has bankrolled relating to the 2012 nationalisation of YPF, Argentina’s largest oil company.
“Market conditions” have prompted Metro Bank (MTRO) to halt a plan to raise £250 million from a bond issuance to investors. The bank said late yesterday that it had “decided not to proceed at this time”. The about-turn may unnerve shareholders in the troubled bank, which has been hit by an accounting error and regulatory investigations. Metro had struggled to drum up interest among investors to raise £250 million, despite offering a yield of 7.5%, described by analysts as generous. It said in the prospectus for its bond last week that Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority inquiries had broadened to include senior management and could lead to “criminal and/or civil liability for the bank” or suspension of its regulatory permissions, while “making redress and the cost of any regulatory sanctions may involve significant expense”.
Grainger (GRI) has been linked with allegations that sales of residential properties that it managed on behalf of Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) were “corrupt”. Agents appointed by Grainger marketed London flats and houses that were sold at an “undervalue” and in some cases to “connected parties”, including an estate agent’s father, according to claims that have emerged in a High Court case. The allegations came to light in a legal battle between Ventra Investments, a property company, and Bank of Scotland. Ventra argues that it was damaged by loans that it claims it was mis-sold by the bank, a subsidiary of Lloyds. In order to settle its debts, Ventra’s properties were managed on behalf of Lloyds by Grainger, one of the UK’s largest professional landlords, which had an agreement to look after the bank’s insolvent properties.
Orders for Crossword Cybersecurity plc (CCS) product Rizikon Assurance doubled between January and June, while revenue rose 5% to £570,757 – but losses widened from £824,000 to £1.1million due to investment in marketing and development. Chaired by former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove, the firm will unveil its second product by the end of 2019 and cryptically said it is aiming to close ‘several large opportunities’ in the next few months too.