Morning Round-Up: Joules sales strong, Sports Direct down ahead of AGM, house prices slow

Lifestyle brand Joules hits strong sales

British lifestyle brand Joules saw impressive earnings for the year to May, with pretax profits up 41.5 percent.

The group, who floated on the stock market earlier this year, saw revenue rise 12.8 percent “in line with trading expectations”.

Earnings per share rose 42.9 percent. CEO Colin Porter commented on the results:

“The Group has a clear growth strategy, underpinned by the consistent quality and design of our products and the skill and commitment of our enterprising team.

“Our active customer base and international sales have also grown impressively, all of which is great testament to the growing strength and appeal of Joules as a premium lifestyle brand.”

Sports Direct chairman offers to step down

Sports Direct shares fell nearly 10 percent this morning after announcing it had rejected chairman Keith Hellawell’s resignation.

The company released its work practice report yesterday, vowing to change their working conditions ahead of its annual general meeting with shareholders today.

The retailer warned that 2016-17 profit was expected to fall 21 percent, with shares already down 60 percent on last year.

Chairman Keith Hellawell, who has been in the role since 2009, offered to step down but was asked to stay on by the board.

Sports Direct is currently trading down 9.79 percent at 315.37 (1008GMT).

House prices continue to slow – Halifax

House price growth slowed in August to 0.7 percent, according to mortgage lender Halifax.

The pace of growth slowed in August, with property values falling by 0.2 percent compared with July. However, houses remained 6.9 percent higher than this time last year, with the average home costing £213,930.

Martin Ellis, housing economist at the Halifax, commented:

“House price growth continued the trend of the past few months in August with a further moderation in both the annual and quarterly rates of increase. There are also signs of a softening in sales activity.

“The slowdown in the rate of house price growth is consistent with the forecast that we made at the end of 2015. Increasing difficulties in purchasing a home as house prices continued to increase more quickly than earnings were expected to constrain demand, curbing house price growth.”

07/09/2016
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