The Times
21st Century Fox shrugs off revenue dip to beat forecasts: 21st Century Fox beat analysts’ earnings forecasts despite a fall in revenue prompted in part by the absence of any major hit film releases and the sale of its pay-TV business in Italy and Germany to British Sky Broadcasting group.
Corporate pensions raise spirits and profits at L&G: Fears that George Osborne’s pension changes would drag down the bottom line at Legal & General have eased after Britain’s third-biggest insurer unveiled a rise, rather than a fall, in profits.
Inquiry will decide if ONS amounts to a hill of beans: An independent review of Britain’s economic statistics has been launched by a former deputy Governor of the Bank of England.
Retailers attack ‘chaotic’ Sunday trading changes: Local councils could use potential new powers to relax Sunday trade laws to “pick off” retailers they don’t like and promote certain streets and developments to the detriment of others.
Arcadia gets dressing down after invoice cuts: One of the giants of high street fashion has been criticised by small business representatives for imposing tougher payment terms on its suppliers.
Sky returns to hoist cup for La Liga games: Sky has scored a last-minute winner over BT in the battle for the rights to Spanish football matches despite walking away from the bidding over the weekend.
Batman’s latest is a smash hit for Time Warner: The video game hits Batman: Arkham Knight and Mortal Kombat X together with strong revenue growth from the licensing of older hit programmes such as The Big Bang Theory and Seinfeld helped Time Warner to smash past profits expectations in the past quarter.
The Independent
Former Madoff employee, Irwin Lipkin, jailed over £11 billion Ponzi scheme fraud: Irwin Lipkin, one of Bernard Madoff’s longest-serving lieutenants, has been sentenced to six months in prison for falsifying records that helped the Wall Street fraudster run his $17 billion (£11 billion) Ponzi scheme.
Standard Charter faces calls to quit ‘carbon bomb’ mine: Greenpeace has renewed its demand that the emerging markets bank Standard Chartered walks away from what has become known as Australia’s “carbon bomb” as a rival lender severed its ties with the controversial project.
RBS sell-off: Hedge funds investigated for making millions ‘at the taxpayer’s expense’: Britain’s financial watchdog is looking into claims that hedge funds made millions of pounds at the taxpayer’s expense by using inside information to short-sell shares in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
Financial Times
New StanChart Chief to overhaul bank’s culture and warns of challenges ahead: Bill Winters has had almost two months to take a close look inside Standard Chartered. Judging by the comments from the bank’s new Chief Executive as he reported his first set of results on Wednesday, he is worried by much of what he has found.
London’s City airport up for sale: The London airport on the doorstep of the City beloved by corporate Executives is to be put up for sale as its U.S. Owners look to capitalise from the soaring global demand for air travel.
LSE sale of Russell asset Manager stalled: The London Stock Exchange Group’s efforts to sell a recently acquired asset management business have stalled, despite a months-long process to dispose of Frank Russell Investments.
L&G still paying price for dividend cut during crisis, Chief says: Legal & General is still paying the price for cutting its dividend six years ago, its Chief Executive said on Wednesday, even after the life assurance and pensions group boosted its payout by a fifth.
Social landlords’ low bond yield fundraising tempers rent cut pain: A group of housing associations has raised hundreds of millions of pounds through a bond issue priced at a record low yield, despite a rent cut imposed by Whitehall.
Afren investors set to be wiped out: Investors expecting to retrieve any value from their holdings in Afren, the scandal-hit oil explorer that entered administration last week, will be sorely disappointed.
ANZ raising A$3 billion to deepen capital buffer: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group is raising A$3 billion ($2.2 billion) in an effort to bring its capital buffer closer in line with new requirements set out by Australia’s prudential watchdog.
Generic drugs ban prompts India to freeze EU trade talks: India has lashed out at an EU ban on 700 Indian-made generic drugs by saying it would indefinitely freeze talks on a planned free trade agreement with Brussels.
Stake sale timetable puts pressure on Avolon bidders: Two Chinese groups competing to buy Avolon will have to firm up their indicative offers for the rapidly growing aircraft leasing company before mid-September, according to its Founder and Chief Executive.
Bill Ackman seizes 7.5% Mondelez stake: Bill Ackman, the activist hedge fund Manager, has seized a 7.5% stake in Mondelez, the maker of Cadbury’s chocolate and Trident gum, in an attempt to force the food group to slash costs or put itself up for sale.
Fitbit tumbles despite vaulting results: Fitbit has seen off the early challenge of the Apple Watch, vaulting over Wall Street’s forecasts in its first earnings after going public.
Samson Resources close to filing for bankruptcy protection: Samson Resources, the Oklahoma-based oil and gas producer, is close to filing for bankruptcy protection, wiping out the $4 billion investment made by the KKR-led group that acquired the business in a $7.2 billion deal in 2011.
Lex:
Disney: smoke and fire: Traditional cable networks in the U.S. have been under attack for the past year as ratings have fallen sharply, a phenomenon blamed on “cord-cutting” and digital options such as Netflix. The one holdout was thought to be ESPN, the sports network majority-owned by Disney. ESPN’s portfolio of live sports gave it greater immunity to changing viewing habits. ESPN charges its distributors $6 per subscriber per month to carry its content. The standard Disney defence is that ESPN is far too compelling for subscribers to leave en masse or for pay TV distributors to drop. Yet it was recently reported that Nielsen data showed that ESPN had lost more than 3% of its subscribers in the past year. Disney has denied such a level of attrition. Nevertheless, it still must make a tough decision about whether to offer its own direct-to-consumer ESPN digital product in the way Time Warner has with its HBO network. The hint of difficulty at ESPN sent Disney shares down a tenth on Wednesday. Yet they are still up 70% in the past two years. And while it sorts out ESPN, the film studios and theme parks serve as buffers.
Société Générale: high society: Investors have waited a long time for Société Générale to recognise its capital weakness, and longer still for signs of robust profitability. On Wednesday they took the French bank’s capital plan and consensus-beating second-quarter net profit of €1.35 billion — its best performance since 2007 — as evidence of a rebirth of sorts, marking up its shares by more than 8%. First to capital, one reason SocGen trades at just 0.9 times tangible book value. Its common equity tier one ratio rose 30 basis points in the quarter to 10.4% — above the minimum European bank investors seek. That is progress but, like Crédit Agricole, it still trails regional peers. The plumper equity cushion means SocGen will have to run harder to lift its return on equity above 10% (from about 9% at the half year stage) and cover a cost of equity that should fall below 10% with its improved risk profile post-crisis. So it is a relief that revenue is growing, with its resurgent retail bank, easier conditions in its international units (despite Russian strains) and — merci beaucoup Mario Draghi — a standout leap in equities sales, which rose three-fifths. But what about costs? SocGen lifted its cost reduction target to offset IT and regulatory outlay. Yet despite decent revenue growth, its cost-to income ratio remains high at 65%. True, falling bad loan provisions will help it towards that 11% capital target. But it should not let a revenue renaissance slow its self-help. Investors will have less patience now.
Lending Club: still growing: OnDeck Capital, a marketplace lender that caters to small businesses, had its IPO a week later. Since then, OnDeck’s stock is down 63% while Lending Club has fallen 50%. U.S. bank stocks over the same period are up 8%. The U.S. Treasury is asking pesky questions of these upstarts, which match individual borrowers with both individual and institutional investors, such as whether they should “be required to have ‘skin in the game’ for the loans they originate or underwrite”. That really would be disruptive — to the platforms’ own business models. Meanwhile, the financial old guard is flirting with the new model itself. Goldman Sachs, the lead underwriter on Lending Club’s IPO, has built its own web-based business offering loans to consumers and small businesses. Yet none of those companies — and certainly no major financial group — can boast anything close to the same top line growth. While OnDeck revealed slowing loan origination in its second-quarter results on Monday, Lending Club’s results on Tuesday showed a 90% increase to $1.9 billion. Eventually it will have to find its place in a mature market, but the growth rates are immature enough to keep some investors interested.
Lombard:
Error report: OK, perhaps the last example is a bit unusual. The technology and legal services group was always exceptional for the opacity of its accounts. Critics such as short seller Gotham City and the FT’s Alphaville blog last year raised numerous doubts over the reliability of profit numbers. A restatement of the figures under a board no longer featuring Founder Rob Terry shows they were right to do so. Profits for 2014 once forecast to top £300 million have thus collapsed to a loss of £375 million. Quindell, which has sold the bulk of its businesses, said it had “made corrections to past errors” and that the recognition of revenues involved “judgments”. However, it strains credulity to suggest that a variance of almost £700 million could result from these factors alone. The Serious Fraud Office is investigating Quindell, whose shares fell 80% before suspension. The Financial Reporting Council is probing the conduct of auditors.
Humming a gold mine: The universal appeal of the Three Chord Trick has been underlined by BMG’s £10 million purchase of the rights to songs by eighties band Katrina & The Waves. The only really valuable tune is “Walking on Sunshine”. Its backbone is a shuffling of the chords A, D and E, a sequence central to many pop ditties. The Ramones, maestri of the Three Chord Trick, are all dead. So sadly they cannot benefit from the use of their cry “Hey ho, let’s go!” and their song “Blitzkrieg Bop”in TV ads for online white goods retailer AO World. The shares are down 62% since February. Investors appear to have taken the message a little too literally.
The Daily Telegraph
Zurich homes in on lower price for possible RSA bid: Zurich’s advisers are weighing up a lower than expected offer to take over the British insurer RSA, The Telegraph understands.
London City Airport could fetch £2 billion after being ‘put up for sale’: London City Airport could fetch £2 billion after being put up for sale by U.S. investment firm Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), according to reports.
Greece in ‘final stage’ of bail-out talks as bank shares collapse for a third day: Greece is close to reaching a deal with its creditors to secure a €86 billion lifeline that will keep it afloat for the next three years and secure its place within the Eurozone, according to the country’s prime Minister.
Companies forced to reveal pay gap between staff and CEO: Companies in the U.S. must reveal how much staff are paid compared with the Chief Executive, it was announced on Wednesday, in a move that will give significant firepower to activist investors.
U.K. growth slows in July as dominant services sector cools: Growth in Britain’s dominant services sector cooled in July, as employment growth rose at its slowest pace in more than a year, according to a closely watched survey.
Standard Chartered will stay in U.K. as new Chief rules out move to Asia: Standard Chartered will keep its headquarters in the U.K., new Chief Executive Bill Winters said, as he praised the bank tax changes in last month’s emergency Budget.
RBS sells asset Manager Cairn Capital to Mediobanca as it focuses on core U.K. bank: Royal Bank of Scotland has sold another business to foreign investors as the bailed-out bank works to shrink its balance sheet and increase its focus on U.K. retail and business banking.
London Stock Exchange’s new Russell businesses boost revenues: The London Stock Exchange Group has posted a 90% rise in half-year revenues, helped by its newly acquired Russell business.
Mumpreneurs generate £7 billion for the U.K. economy: The “mum economy” – the businesses run by mothers with children aged 18 or under – is thriving in the U.K., generating £7.2 billion for the nation’s coffers and supporting 204,000 jobs last year.
Global sugar glut to grow as India prepares to flood the market with the sweetener: Sugar producers hammered by the slump in global prices might be in for further pain as the Indian government looks set to bring in rules to make it compulsory for its own sugar mills to export millions of tonnes of surplus supplies to support local prices.
The Questor Column:
Devro profits recover ahead of Asian expansion: Sausage skin maker Devro, which is currently embarking on an ambitious overseas expansion plan, enjoyed a recovery in profits during the first half of the year. Peter Page, Chief Executive of Devro, is passionate about his product. He believes Devro’s collagen casings (sausage skins), are better than its competitors’ products that use more traditional animal gut. Meat consumption has increased in emerging markets, because people eat more animal products as they get richer. It is also investing £100 million developing new facilities in the U.S. and China. These factories are expected to begin production by the middle of next year. The company said pretax profits increased to £9.6 million during the six months to the end of June, from £1.6 million last year. Revenues increased by £3 million to £112.7 million in the first half, leading Mr Page to point out that “market demand is strong”. Shares in Devro now trade on a price to earnings ratio of 19.3 times. That rating looks quite high given the challenges ahead during the next 12 months. The last time Questor looked at the shares (Sell, 211p, April, 2014), the recovery was far from certain. With profits now heading in the right direction and an exciting expansion phase ahead we are happy to upgrade. Devro at 320p +21.25p. Questor says “Hold.”
Spirax-Sarco slides on profit dip: Engineering group Spirax-Sarco is a world leader in the management of steam in manufacturing processes. The company may have its roots in the industrial revolution but it is now at the cutting-edge of new technology. Spirax is involved in a wide range of industries from brewing, oil and gas, mining, paper mills and dairies. This spread of business gives the company a reasonably resilient revenue base. This is aided by the fact about 50% of its revenues come from providing companies with replacement products, which often they cannot do without. Spirax said that first-half pretax profits were down 10% to £57.3 million as it incurred costs of starting up a new Indian business and the strong pound weighed on trading. Putting the company’s challenges aside, the operating profit margin was still a healthy 20.6%, down just 40 basis points on the comparable period last year. Revenues were flat, and organic sales grew 3%. That said, the shares reached a record high of more than £36 this year and despite falling back to less than £32, the shares are still trading on 22 times forecast earnings per share. For a company that is only expected to increase pretax profits by about 8% to £156 million this year, that is quite expensive. With the company facing some challenges in the future, we downgrade to a hold. Spirax-Sarco at £32.29-160p. Questor says “Hold.”
The Guardian
Tsipras: Greece on ‘final stretch’ of talks with creditors over bailout deal: Greece is “in the final stretch” of talks with lenders on a multibillion-euro bailout, the country’s prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, has said, on a day when banks suffered more punishing losses on the Athens stock market.
Spain outperforms rest of Eurozone’s big four amid Greek debt crisis: Spain emerged as the best performer of the Eurozone’s big four economies last month as the single currency area largely shrugged off the impact of the Greek debt crisis.
Average house price rises to 8.8 times local salary in England and Wales: The average home in England and Wales cost a record 8.8 times the typical local salary in 2014, according to analysis by the Office for National Statistics that reveals prices in some areas have reached 20 times local incomes.
Happier meal? McDonald’s trials table service in U.K. as part of major revamp: McDonald’s is responding to increased competition in the fast food market by entering the slow lane. The home of the Big Mac and the rapid-fire eating experience is offering table service in the U.K. for the first time.
Pay rises quicker for privately educated graduates, study finds: Graduates who went to private school will earn an average of £4,500 more than their state-educated counterparts after just three years on the professional career ladder, according to new research.
Dairy farmers target Morrisons in protest at milk prices: Morrisons faces a day of action on Thursday by dairy farmers angry at milk price cuts they say are forcing them out of business.
Dixons Carphone Boss could earn up to £4.9 million next year: The Chief Executive of Dixons Carphone, Sebastian James, could earn up to £4.9 million next year if he meets performance targets for the newly merged retail group.
Daily Mail
Sterling climbs as investors back early interest rate rise despite signs economy is slowing: The pound was on the front foot as investors bet on an early rise in interest rates despite signs the economy is slowing.
Shares shock for America’s top media firms as investors take fright over string of poor results: Shares in some of America’s top entertainment firms fell as investors took fright over a string of disappointing results.
Aviva fights Vedanta tycoon over ‘opportunistic’ Cairn India bid: Aviva Investors has attacked Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal’s £1.5billion plans to buy out minority shareholders in oil and gas company Cairn India.
Legal & General Boss calls for end to short-termism and urges companies to invest for the future: The Boss of insurance giant Legal & General has urged businesses to stop ‘obsessing’ about minute increases in interest rates and focus on investing for the future.
Daily Express
SFO launches insurance probe: The Serious Fraud Office has opened a criminal investigation into the business and accounting practices of insurance claims processor Quindell.
Digs demand boosts Unite: Student digs provider Unite is expecting soaring demand for accommodation as new rules lift restrictions on the number of students studying at universities.
Ryanair break new passenger record: Ryanair claimed an industry first as it carried more than 10 million international passengers last month.
Standard cuts payout by half: Standard Chartered has halved its dividend as it bolsters its finances after a 44% drop in half-year profit.
The Scottish Herald
BP to invest around £640 million extending lives of North Sea fields: BP has decided to proceed with a $1 billion (£640 million) investment intended to maximise recovery of oil and gas from some North Sea fields, highlighting the impact of a Budget move to boost spending in the area amid the crude price slump.
Retail sales value in Scotland up in Q2 but flat year-on-year: Scottish retail sales value increased during the second quarter, having fallen in the opening three months of this year, official figures have shown.
Call centre giant wins £209 million contract from digital retailer: Webhelp, the call centre business which employs 3,000 people in Scotland, has won a £209 million contract to provide customer services for Shop Direct. Webhelp said it will support the digital retailer through traditional voice contact alongside webchat, email and social media channels.
Scotgold says Argyll mine viable even at $700 an ounce: Scotgold Resources has said its Argyll gold and silver mine is viable even if gold tumbles to $700 an ounce.
Cimpress snaps up Tradeprint: Tradeprint has been bought by Nasdaq listed Cimpress for an undisclosed sum.
NFU Scotland calls for abolition of Agricultural Wages Board: NFU Scotland is calling for abolition of the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board (SAWB) and for agricultural workers’ pay and conditions to be determined under general employment law.
Macfarlane back on acquisition trail: Macfarlane Group has returned to the acquisition trail with a deal to buy a Nottinghamshire based distributor for up to £2.75 million.
The Scotsman
Slowdown in services sector eases pressure on BoE: Early signs of an economic slowdown have emerged, with figures showing that activity in the U.K.’s powerhouse services sector eased last month.
Customer service overhaul sees Ryanair set record: Ryanair claims to have become the first airline to fly more than ten million international passengers in a month as its customer service overhaul continues to boost business.
Ingenious Audio secures £310,000 investment: The developer of a wireless guitar audio gadget has secured a £310,000 investment in an oversubscribed fundraising as it looks to ramp up production.
Local shops driving Co-operative Food expansion: Co-operative Food will take a further step towards its ambition of becoming the U.K.’s leading convenience retailer by opening its 150th new store since launching an expansion strategy.
City A.M.
Hauliers facing huge fines over Calais migrants: Fines issued to hauliers carrying illegal immigrants into the U.K. more than tripled over the past three years, it was revealed, sparking more criticism of the government’s handling of the Calais migrant crisis.
Canaccord sees first-quarter revenues fall: Canadian financial services group Canaccord Genuity announced that first-quarter revenues fell to CA$214.5 million (£104 million)
– 13% lower than the same period last year.
U.K.’s services boom extends past two years: The U.K. and Eurozone’s service sectors are seeing slower growth, new figures show, but are still expanding at levels consistent with robust economic growth.
Polypipe to pay £145 million for rival Nuaire: Plastic piping systems Polypipe announced that it had agreed to acquire rival Nuaire from Electra Partners for £145 million.
Tesla shares fall after the company lowers its delivery guidance: Tesla shares fell four% in after-hours trading after the company put the breaks on 2015 deliveries.
