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.
The boss of struggling Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) on Wednesday said he will wield the axe on more stores as sales continued to fall. The High Street bellwether, which on Wednesday admitted first-half sales of clothing, home and food all fell, said in May it was planning to close 100 stores by 2020, of which 29 stores have already shut. Chief executive Steve Rowe, who is trying to turn its fortunes around with help from non-executive chairman Archie Norman, said: “I’m saying that this will continue. I won’t pause at a hundred [stores] and say that’s job done. We must learn the lesson of the past. We need the right stores, in the right sizes, in the right places,” said the M&S lifer. He refused to name the locations where the shops might shut, saying they are picked “on a case-by-case basis”. Smaller, High Street stores are likely to get the chop as its larger, out-of-town stores are more profitable.
Housebuilder Persimmon (PSN) has announced that chief executive Jeff Fairburn will step down on December 31 following the furore over his pay package. Mr Fairburn first came under fire last year when it was revealed that he would be receiving a £110m pay package thanks to generous awards set up under the company’s 2012 Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP). He initially rejected suggestions that he should forfeit any of his bonus, before agreeing to give away an undisclosed sum to charity and accepting a reduced £75m payout in February.
ITV (ITV) is braced for a tough Christmas as retailers slash advertising spending after a torrid year on the High Street. The broadcaster warned that it expects its total advertising revenue to be down as much as 8% in December, compared with last year. Carolyn McCall, ITV’s chief executive, said the “softening” affected television spending, rather than online or sponsorship sales. She cited an “increasingly uncertain economic environment” as Britain continues to negotiate its exit from the EU. Retailers traditionally spend heavily in December to compete for household Christmas budgets
Shares in G4S (GFS) nosedived to their lowest level in more than two years after the struggling security outsourcer admitted its profits would be flat this year. The former stock market darling, which has fallen out of favour after a string of high-profile failures, said organic revenues had grown 2.5% in the third quarter, up from 0.2pc in the previous three months. But shareholders baulked at news that full-year profit before interest, tax and amortisation would be roughly in line with last year when adjusted for currency swings – 5% behind analysts’ expectations.
More than a third was wiped off Sophos Group (SOPH) value after it surprised investors by trimming its forecasts for the second half of its financial year, even as rivals were posting strong growth. Shares in the FTSE 250-listed cyber security company slipped by as much as 39% as it said it was now expecting “a modest improvement” in constant currency billings growth in the six months to the end of March, having previously said it expected growth to come in in the mid-teens. Sophos blamed “challenging year-on-year comparatives” for the cut to forecasts, and said looking forward to the following financial year it was anticipating a “significant improvement” in constant currency billings growth.
Pub group Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) expects annual results to be weaker than the previous year, despite sales growing ‘strongly’. In a trading update for the 13 weeks to 28 October, the chain said like-for-like sales increased by 5.5%, and total sales were up 6.2%. Despite strong growth, chairman Tim Martin said the company was dealing with tough comparatives, having delivered several years of record profits.
The worst environmental disaster in Brazil’s history has triggered one of the biggest legal claims ever filed in a British court. The Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton (BLT) is being sued for about £5bn by Brazilian victims of the Samarco dam collapse in Mariana three years ago. The class action case was filed in the Liverpool high court on Monday by the UK-based SPG Law on behalf of 240,000 individuals, 24 municipal governments, 11,000 businesses, a Catholic archdiocese and the Krenak indigenous community. Nineteen people died after toxic waters from the failed tailings dam surged through the village of Bento Rodrigues on 5 November 2015. The sludge destroyed hundreds of homes, devastated fisheries, contaminated forests and left hundreds of thousands of dwellers along the Doce River without drinking water.
Piers Pottinger has stepped down as chairman at AIM-listed MySquar Limited (DI) (MYSQ) amid an ongoing internal inquiry into “financial irregularities” at the app developer. Pottinger had been leading the inquiry but he believes interim chief executive Stephen Chong and Stephen Austin, a non-executive director, are better placed to find out what went wrong. Pottinger — formerly of collapsed PR firm Bell Pottinger — had been absent from the company through illness and as a result he was not made fully aware of expenditure and financing details at MySQUAR. A source close to Pottinger said: “Piers thought about it overnight and thought ‘what am I adding here?’”
Redrow (RDW) founder Steve Morgan is quitting the board of the housebuilder 10 years after returning to steer the firm out of the financial crisis. The 65-year-old, who owns 28% of the company, took over as executive chairman in 2009 but will retire next March. Morgan, who attempted to take Redrow private in 2012 amid frustration at an underperforming share price, will hand over to long-serving chief executive John Tutte, who becomes executive chairman
Mulberry Group (MUL) boss on Wednesday warned that the House of Fraser collapse has hit profits but revealed he will keep the firm’s luxury handbags in the department store chain following a sit-down with its new owner Mike Ashley. Thierry Andretta said Mulberry will take a £2.1 million first-half hit after the August failure of House of Fraser, where it has a number of concessions. HoF has since been sold to Sports Direct, founded by Ashley, but a number of brands have pulled stock from shelves. Andretta told the Evening Standard he met Ashley in one of Sports Direct’s London offices following the collapse and they had “positive” talks. “For us we would like to continue to stay there,” he said of HoF. AIM-listed Mulberry said pre-tax losses widened to £3.6 million from £600,000 in the six months to September 30. Total sales fell 8% to £68.3 million
Ryanair Holdings (RYA) has sacked six cabin crew staff after they allegedly staged a photo showing themselves sleeping on an airport floor. The staff were accused of gross misconduct in creating the photo, which was shared widely on various social media platforms, as well as being reported by major news outlets across the world. However, the budget airline later published a video from security cameras allegedly showing the crew moving to a corner of the crew room away from where they were originally sitting and lying down. One crew member then appears to take a photograph.
