Below are the key headlines from today’s papers, featuring the Financial Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
PM slaps down Hammond by insisting Budget boost will be safe in no deal Brexit
Construction giant Laing O’Rourke delays filing accounts amid warning sector is ‘starved of oxygen’. One of Britain’s biggest contractors has revealed fresh delays in agreeing a critical debt restructuring and delayed publishing its accounts as it warned that the infrastructure sector is being “starved of oxygen”. Crossrail and Hinkley Point C builder Laing O’Rourke, which employs around 15,000 people and is one of the country’s biggest private companies, said its annual accounts would not be filed “until Christmas at the earliest”. Its financial statements were due to be lodged with Companies House on Sept 30.
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) has shrugged off concerns about a slowdown in Asia and US-China trade tensions by delivering profits that beat City forecasts. Pre-tax profits for Europe’s largest lender topped $5.9bn (£4.6bn) for the three months to September, up more than a quarter (28%) on $4.6bn the previous year. Asia continued to drive earnings – accounting for three quarters of profits for the period – as the lender’s ‘pivot to Asia’ strategy paid dividends. The profits beat analyst forecasts of $5.6bn, as lower than expected costs and higher revenues lifted the bank’s bottom line. HSBC shares were up 4.5% in morning trading in London
Warpaint London (W7L) has fallen victim to the slowdown on UK high streets as it issued a profit warning for the year ending Dec 31, citing “challenging” market conditions and “retailers reducing stock levels and Christmas orders”. The Aim-listed company said as the financial year was “heavily dependent on second half trading” it now expects profits between £8.5m to £10m, compared to its previous £12m forecast. Revenue is expected to fall in the range of £48m to £52m. Shares plummeted 43% to 117.20p in morning trade on the back of the news
Gama Aviation (GMAA) shares have suffered their biggest-ever fall after the provider of private jets and aviation support services warned it would not hit forecast growth. The Aim-listed company’s shares fell as much as 28% as it warned that profits would miss expectations after trading in the third quarter of its financial year did not improve as much as the company had expected. The announcement surprised investors as just last month, Gama had said it expected “substantial growth” in the second half of the year, which ends in December
Just Eat shares down after broker downgrade. Just Eat (JE.) shares were down 3% at 584p after a broker downgrade. Peel Hunt has downgraded its investment rating on Just Eat to sell (from buy) and cut its price target to 520p from 950p. The food deliver firm has struggled this year after rival Deliveroo announced in June it was going to hire thousands of extra delivery riders so that it could start offering its services to UK takeaway restaurants for the first time
Cancer firm Advanced Oncotherapy might be a long term winner. For those with enough patience Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) , otherwise known as Avo, could be an interesting proposition. The company was spun out of CERN, the European nuclear research organisation, in 2013 and is making super-powerful machines which can treat cancer tumours using proton-beam therapy. Proton-beam therapy is nothing new but Avo says its new machines will cost a fraction of the price that rivals like Varian, IBA and Mevion offer. So confident are Goetz Partner analysts that Avo can deliver that they’ve whacked a massive 155p target price on the stock, a 300% increase on what it is trading at. Investors must wait a while before this stock gets anywhere near 155p but if it does it’ll have been worth it.
