Below are the key morning press headlines, featuring the The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
The turmoil in the retail industry has hit the West End of London, as Shaftesbury (SHB) , the owner of large parts of Covent Garden, Chinatown and Carnaby Street, has suffered a fall in earnings. Yesterday it reported an 85% slide in annual pre-tax profit to £26 million after the value of its Covent Garden properties was written down. The value of the company’s portfolio fell by 0.6% in the 12 months to the end of September, including an 8.5% drop in its Longmartin joint venture, which owns St Martin’s Courtyard in Covent Garden. Shaftesbury owns about 15 acres in the West End, including 600 buildings in Covent Garden, Chinatown, Soho, Fitzrovia and Carnaby Street.
The printer of Britain’s banknotes has warned that it could go bust. De La Rue (DLAR) admitted yesterday that there were doubts about its survival as it scrapped dividend payments and revealed a litany of issues. Reporting first-half figures that showed a slump into the red and a danger of breaking banking covenants because of spiralling debts, Kevin Loosemore, the chairman, told the stock market: “We have concluded there is material uncertainty that casts significant doubt on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern.” The news sent shares in De La Rue tumbling, closing down at 134p, a 19-year low.
Mortgage approvals by the big lenders fell to a seven-month low last month as uncertainty about the general election and Brexit put off buyers. The number of approvals for house purchases, which is regarded as an early indicator of the health of the property market, fell by 1,000 to 41,219 from 42,216 in September, figures from UK Finance, the industry association, showed. It was the third month running that approvals dropped and comes amid signs that the economy is struggling. Monthly approvals are now almost 2,000 below the recent July high. Gross mortgage lending, at £25.5 billion, was down 0.9% compared with October last year.
Eddie Stobart’s former boss has launched a rescue bid for the company in an attempt to hijack a proposal by Dbay Advisors. Andrew Tinkler, who was chief executive of the troubled haulier until 2014, said Dbay’s offer was ‘not in the best interests of shareholders’. Eddie Stobart Logistics (ESL) revealed it had discovered a massive black hole in its accounts in August, caused by years of poor accounting practices and mis-stating the value of its contracts. Rather than buying the company and taking it private, as Dbay was suggesting, Tinkler now wants to pump £70million into Eddie Stobart by selling new shares. This could be used to pay some of the £200million debt pile and keep the business running. Tinkler, 56, has pledged he would provide a ‘significant amount’ of the cash, while the rest would come from new and existing shareholders. The ex-son-in-law of Eddie Stobart’s founder said he ‘has identified and can fix the issues’ which have dogged the company in recent years.
Compass Group (CPG), one of the world’s biggest catering companies, is to axe thousands of jobs across Europe as sweeping cuts across the banks and carmakers hit staff canteens. Compass is to cut around 3,000 roles as part of a programme to make £300m of savings over the next two years. Boss Dominic Blakemore said: “[There has been a] significant reduction in the number of people eating at our restaurants,” he said of Compass-operated staff canteens across Europe. The number of job cuts in Britain would be in the “low hundreds”, he added, some of which will be achieved by not filling new positions. Around £1.8bn was wiped off Compass’ market value as the company’s shares fell almost 6%.
Colombian billionaire Jaime Gilinski Bacal, one of the wealthiest people in Latin America, has bought a chunk of troubled Metro Bank (MTRO) as the UK lender fights to move on from the worst period in its history. The banker, once the biggest investor in TSB’s Spanish owner Banco de Sabadell, is now one of Metro’s top five shareholders after buying a 4.28% stake in the business. The move, announced to the stock market on Tuesday afternoon, follows a disastrous year for the bank in which a major accounting gaffe has left investors nursing huge losses. Mr Gilinski’s stake is worth almost £15m.
Topps Tiles (TPT) suffered a sharp drop in customer demand since the General Election was called, the home improvement firm said today. In the first eight weeks of its new financial year sales slumped by 7.2% – a rapid acceleration on the 1.9% drop recorded in the same period last year. Outgoing boss of 12 years Matthew Williams said that trading has become tougher, ‘with consumer demand weakening further’ since the December snap election was announced at the end of October. Williams anticipates that ‘external events’ will continue to weigh on shopper confidence ‘for the immediate future’, as many people put off moving house or taking on big home improvement projects for the time being.
Identity intelligence firm GB Group (GBG) rallied after first-half profits jumped from £3.6million to £8.6million. Revenues surged to £94.3million – boosted by takeovers and the timing of contracts for its fraud arm. It provides firms and public bodies with identity, age and location software that helps them decide with whom to trade and protects them against fraud. It can identify around 60% of the world’s population for its customers, which include Asos, HSBC and William Hill.