Below are the key morning headlines from today’s papers, featuring the Financial Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
No-deal Brexit will cause chaos at ports, says Next (NXT) . Retailer warns of higher prices and demands clarity on plans. Britain faces crippling delays at ports and a further fall in the pound if it leaves the European Union without an agreement, a top retailer has warned. Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise, chief executive of Next, called on ministers to provide clarity urgently for businesses as he described severe border disruption in March as the biggest Brexit risk facing the high street chain.
Smaller banks will lose out as big lenders bounce back, claims Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) boss. Britain’s challenger banks will struggle to compete against the resurgent big six lenders, RBS chief Ross McEwan has said ahead of a contest for an £833m competition fund stumped up by the bank. Mr McEwan played down the threat posed by the growing band of challenger banks during a “fireside chat” at an event in the City today. The boss of the taxpayer-owned bank said small lenders would struggle as larger rivals such as RBS picked up speed after a decade of hefty restructuring and misconduct costs following the financial crisis.
Bigger stake despite pier pressure. Luke Johnson is to lift his stake in the Brighton Pier Group (The) (PIER) to 27% by exercising his warrants in the company at a cost of almost £1 million. The investor, who acquired the grade II listed pier in 2016 in an £18 million deal, is raising his holding from 23.7%
SSE buys out wind farm partners as it steps up clean energy plan. SSE (SSE) has stepped up its presence in wind power by buying out its partner in developing a pair of wind farms in the Firth of Forth and Firth of Tay. The big six energy giant said it would pay £118m for Fluor’s 50% stake in the Seagreen offshore wind projects, just months ahead of its exit from the domestic retail market. Martin Pibworth, SSE’s wholesale energy boss, said the Seagreen acquisition “aligns with SSE’s ambition” to boost its growth through owning, operating and developing clean energy projects.
Hedge funds cash in after Comcast buys Sky (SKY) shares. Comcast has taken a significant step towards securing its £30.6 billion takeover of Sky after buying more than 30% of the pay-TV group’s shares. America’s largest cable provider needs more than 50% of Sky’s stock to seize control and has been busy acquiring shares on the stock market since a dramatic weekend auction. Many of the hedge funds that piled into Sky during the takeover battle between Comcast and 21st Century Fox appear to have cashed in their bets. Elliott and Baupost, the American hedge funds, and Odey Asset Management, a Mayfair-based investor, are among those to have profited from the surge in Sky’s share price.
Irn-Bru switch pays off with sparkling returns. Barr (A.G.) (BAG) , the Scottish company that makes Irn-Bru, has shrugged off the furore over its decision to halve the drink’s sugar content and reported an increase in its market share.
Retirement housebuilder McCarthy & Stone (MCS) has taken the axe to jobs in a cost-cutting shake-up welcomed by investors. Releasing its ‘business transformation strategy’, McCarthy said it would slash costs by £40million per year by 2021. A ‘reorganisation of the sales team’ would be key to this, it added, while it would also simplify its building designs and contract work out where cheaper. The company has not yet decided how many jobs will be cut or where.
Low & Bonar (LWB) tumbled as it issued a profit warning. Though it sold as much as it was expecting to, the firm said prices of key raw materials had continued to rise. Meanwhile stiff competition from rivals meant it hadn’t dared to push up prices for its customers. Profitability for the full year would be ‘significantly lower than previously anticipated’, the company confirmed. To add to its woes, Low’s chief financial officer Simon Webb announced he was jumping ship ‘for personal reasons’
