Greene King (LON:GNK) published a trading update on Tuesday for the year to April 28th, sending shares downwards. The pub chain said that like-for-like sales for the period were up 2.9%, proving ahead of market expectations. Over the Easter period, like-for-like sales were up 4.6% compared to the same period a year ago. Greene King attributed this to good weather and ‘particularly strong trading’ from Chef & Brewer, which saw like-for-like sales of 15.3%. In addition, the company said that it had ‘made further progress’ with regards to its debt refinancing plan. Specifically, the firm repaid £393 million during the year, alongside utilising the Greene King securitisation for £250 million at 3.6%, creating greater financial headroom. Greene King said that it expects net cost inflation to fall between £10-20 million, and full-year profit before tax within the range of £244 million and £247 million. Rooney Anand, the group’s chief executive is also set to depart the firm. He commented on the trading update: “We have traded strongly this year and have returned to market outperformance. As I hand over to my successor Nick Mackenzie, I believe that, with our strong pub and beer brands, talented and dedicated team and high-quality estate, Greene King is well positioned to make further progress and continue outperforming the market.” Greene King is the UK’s largest pub operator. It owns various pubs and hotels across the country and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Shares in the pub group are currently trading down -7.52% as of 11:59, as the market reacts to the figures.    

Spotify have reached 100 million paying premium users it announced on Monday, sending shares in the Swedish company soaring during morning trading. The music streaming service said that 4 million users subscribed during the first quarter of 2019. Across the period, Spotify also successfully launched in India, taking its presence to a total of 79 countries. Spotify also said that performance was also strong in its second biggest market, North America. However, strong growth in the company’s home market of Europe was also resilient, ultimately accounting for 40% of its total subscribers. The Swedish firm went public on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2018, it was valued at $29.5 billion upon its listing.

Lufthansa posted a deeper loss on Tuesday for its first-quarter of 2019, blaming higher fuel costs. Germany’s largest airline lost €342 million, which is almost nine times deeper than that of the first-quarter a year prior. The weak start to the year resulted in an adjusted EBIT of -€336 million, but the airline expects to see “substantially improved trends” over the rest of the year. “The key drivers of this earnings decline were a EUR 202 million increase in fuel costs and a deterioration in unit revenues in Europe,” Lufthansa said. Total revenues for the group were up 3% from the same period last year, amounting to a total of €7.9 billion. Shares in the group were trading over 2% lower on Tuesday morning following the announcement. In March, the German airline issued a wary revenue and profit guidance for the year after reduced fares and higher fuel prices dampened its 2018 earnings. “Overcapacities, especially on short- and medium-haul European routes, substantially depressed our first-quarter earnings,” said Ulrik Svensson, Chief Financial Officer of Lufthansa. “We are confident, though, that we will see a recovery in our unit revenues as early as the second quarter. Our confidence is based above all on our favorable booking levels for the months ahead,” the Chief Executive Officer continued in an announcement. The company has said that for 2019 as a whole, it expects to post a year-on-year revenue growth of a “mid-single-digit percentage amount”. Additionally, it has predicted an Adjusted EBIT margin of 6.5-8%. Lufthansa has cut its planned capacity growth for Eurowings, now expecting it to be flat instead of the 2% forecasted growth. Low-cost airline Ryanair (LON:RYA) joins the list of airlines struggling amid rising costs and overcapacity. The Hungarian airline Wizz Air (LON:WIZZ) has also revealed its difficulties amid the increasing cost of fuel. Elsewhere in the industry, American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) recently revealed the impacts of the world wide grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX on its earnings. At 09:14 CEST, shares in Deutsche Lufthansa AG (ETR:LHA) were trading at -2.03%.

BP (LON:BP) posted a decrease in its profits on Tuesday in its first-quarter results, when compared to the same period a year prior. Underlying replacement cost profit for the first quarter of the year was $2.4 billion. This compares to $2.6 billion from a year earlier. The multinational oil and gas company has said that this diminished figure is a reflection of the weaker price margin environment at the start of the quarter. It was partially offset by strong supply and trading results. Reported oil and gas production for the quarter averaged 3.8 million barrels a day of oil equivalent. “BP’s performance this quarter demonstrates the strength of our strategy. With solid Upstream and Downstream delivery and strong trading results, we produced resilient earnings and cash flow through a volatile period that began with weak market conditions and included significant turnarounds,” said Bob Dudley, group chief executive, in the company’s results. The company has said that it expects second-quarter reported production for 2019 to be broadly flat with the first-quarter. “Moving through the year, we will keep our focus on disciplined growth, with efficient project execution and safe and reliable operations, Bob Dudley continued. The company announced a dividend of 10.25 cents a share for the quarter, which is 2.5% higher than that posted a year earlier. Earlier this year, BP revealed its fourth-quarter and full year results for 2018. Underlying replacement cost profit for the financial year reached $12.7 billion, almost double of that reported for 2017. Additionally, in October, the oil and gas company’s profit hit a five-year high for its third-quarter. Elsewhere, it was revealed that Shell’s, the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas company (AMS:RDSA), $1.1 billion deal for a Nigerian oil licence may have been assisted by an alleged bribery scheme, according to the Independent. The multinational oil and gas company, BP, is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.

Sainsbury’s launched the UK’s first till-free store at Holborn Circus on Monday. The UK’s second largest supermarket said that from today customers will be able to pay exclusively using their smartphones through an app. The London location was selected due to the high volume of cashless transactions at the store. Sainsbury’s said that 82% of transactions in the Holborn convenience store are cashless. Sainsbury’s Group Chief Digital Officer, Clodagh Moriarty, commented on the launch: “We know our customers value their time and many want to shop as quickly as possible – technology is key to that. This is an experiment rather than a new format for us – it hasn’t been done in the UK before and we’re really excited to understand how our customers respond to the app experience. We’ll be with our customers and colleagues all the way over the coming months, iterating continuously based on their feedback before we decide if, how and where we make this experience more widely available.” Other stores also offer the app payment technology including Blackfriars, Mansion House, Shoreditch and Clapham High Street among others. However, Holborn Circus is the only location to go completely digital. Sainsbury’s will no doubt be trying to compete with competitors such as Lidl and Aldi, which have both continued to increased their market share in recent years. However, digital retailer Amazon have led the way with regards to cashless stores, having already opened its first AmazonGo locations in Seattle and Chicago. Sainsbury’s will also be looking to show investors that it has an innovative strategy going forward, particularly after its proposed merger with Asda was blocked by the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) last week. Last Thursday, Chief Executive Mike Coupe expressed his disappointment over the decision. He said in a statement: “The specific reason for wanting to merge was to lower prices for customers. The CMA’s conclusion that we would increase prices post-merger ignores the dynamic and highly competitive nature of the UK grocery market. The CMA is today effectively taking £1 billion out of customers’ pockets.” Shares in Sainsbury’s (LON:SBRY) are currently up +0.36% as of 14:10PM (GMT).