Jaguar Land Rover is reportedly considering a takeover of private taxi firm Addison Lee. Addison Lee was put up for sale by its owner, Carlyle Group, earlier this month for around £390 million. Should Jaguar Land Rover pursue a take-over, this would see a shift for the company away from its traditional car manufacturing operations. The automotive firm is in the midst of a turnaround plan amid falling profits, slipping car sales and controversies involving emissions. Back in March, Jaguar Land Rover recalled 44,000 cars over carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, Jaguar Land Rover is also feeling the impact of the economic slowdown in China. In February, the auto motor company reported a record £3.4 billion quarterly loss, in light of “challenging market conditions”. Meanwhile, Addison Lee is fighting to compete with cheaper competitors such as Uber and ViaVan. Carylyle Group have enlisted the help of Bank of America and Rothschild to oversee the selling of the business. Jaguar Land Rover is currently owned by India’s Tata Motors. Shares in Tata Motors (NSE:TATAMOTORS) are currently down -2.88% as of 10:48AM (GMT).        

The Dutch multination technology firm Philips posted its first-quarter results on Monday, unable to hit sales predications made by analysts polled for Reuters. Analysts predicted that the health technology firm would reveal a comparable sales growth of 2.4%. Philips posted a 2% rise in comparable sales growth for the period, with sales in the quarter amounting to €4.2 billion. The business posted a core profit of €364 million, which comes in higher that the €344 million from the year prior. Additionally, operating cash flow was reported as €14 million. “We had a reasonable start to the year, as we delivered 2% comparable sales and order intake growth, further building on strong growth in 2018,” said Frans van Houten, CEO of Philips. The company revealed a strong performance for its Oral Healthcare business, driven by its “innovative” portfolio such as its Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean toothbrush, which uses sensor technology to alert users when too much pressure is being applied, automatically reducing the intensity of brushing. “We continue to expect our performance momentum to improve over the course of the year, based on the demand for our innovative products and solutions to improve people’s health and enhance care provider productivity, supported by our order book,” CEO Frans van Houten continued. The company expects to his its growth targets by 2020. “We reaffirm our overall targets of 4-6% comparable sales growth and an Adjusted EBITA margin improvement of 100 basis points on average per year for the 2017–2020 period.” At the end of 2018, the CEO of Philips expressed his Brexit concerns, believing that the lack of progress may lead to the company having to rethink its operations in the UK. Frans van Houten said that the firm may have to change its entire supply chain in order to reduce the impacts of the UK’s departure from the European Union. At 09:35 CEST Monday, shares in Koninklijke Philips NV (AM:PHIA) were trading at +1.96%.

Boeing’s (NYSE:BA) Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg is expected to be grilled on Monday during the company’s first confrontation with shareholders since the two crashes of its 737 MAX model. Since the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes, airlines and governments across the globe have grounded the model. Investigations were triggered into the accident worldwide and the delivery of the jets to various airlines has stopped. Dennis Muilenburg will face the task of restoring confidence in the company’s investors amid the aircraft’s health and safety concerns. Earlier this month, the company said that the global grounding of the 737 MAX jets will set Boeing back by over $1 billion. This is a significant contrast compares to the company’s last update in January which included plans to introduce over 900 jet aircrafts in 2019, in addition to increasing sales and profits. Airlines have also suffered from the grounding of the 737 MAX fleet. Last week the U.S’s leading airline based on passenger traffic, American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL), estimated that the grounding of the model will impact its pre-tax earnings for 2019 by roughly $350 million. Additionally, travel company Tui (ETR:TUI1) said that the grounding could cost it as much as €300 million as it sought to arrange alternative plans for its affected customers. Tui also underscored the uncertainty that prevails regarding if the Boeing 737 MAX will ever return to flight. According to Reuters, two people familiar with the occurrence said that the U.S Federal Aviation Administration could give Boeing to all clear to return its jet to flight in late May to the beginning of June. However, various pilots believe that the new training proposals do not address their concerns on the matter. The family and friends of one of the victims will hold a silent protest outside the meeting. At 19:55 GMT -4 Friday, shares in Boeing Co (NYSE:BO) were trading at -0.57%, whilst shares in American Airlines Group Inc (NASDAQ:AAL) were trading at -1.05%.

American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) posted its first-quarter results on Friday, citing the impacts of the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, it is the U. S’s leading airline based on passenger traffic. The company has estimated that the grounding of its Boeing 737 MAX fleet will impact its 2019 pre-tax earnings by roughly $350 million. American Airlines also revealed a first-quarter pre-tax profit of $245 million, as well as a first-quarter net profit of $185 million. “As we progress toward the busy summer travel period, demand for our product remains strong. However, our near-term earnings forecast has been affected by the grounding of our Boeing 737 MAX fleet, which we have removed from scheduled flying through Aug. 19,” Chairman and CEO Doug Parker commented. American Airlines also said that it expects its fuel expenses for the year to increase by $650 million as a result of the rising oil prices. “We presently estimate the grounding of the 737 MAX will impact our 2019 pre-tax earnings by approximately $350 million. With the recent run-up in oil prices, fuel expenses for the year are also expected to be approximately $650 million higher than we forecast just three months ago,” the CEO of American Airlines continued. “As we look forward to 2020 and beyond, we anticipate that our free cash flow production will increase significantly as our historic fleet replacement program winds down.” The fatal Boeing 737 MAX crash caused the grounding of the fleet worldwide. Following two crashes in five months, airlines and government across the globe grounded the model in March 2019. American Airlines is not the only carrier to be hit by the costs. Last month, travel company Tui (ETR:TUI1) warned on the impacts the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX fleet may have on its profits, stating that it may cost it as much as £252 million. Boeing (NYSE:BA) saw its own shares fall following the crash of the Ethiopian airlines Boeing 737 MAX. The company said that the global grounding of the planes will cost it over $1 billion.

RBS has a reported a fall in profits for the first three months of the year, citing Brexit uncertainty as a key issue. The bank reported a £707 million profit for the quarter, down from £808 million for the same period last year. This proved nevertheless ahead of analyst expectations and this was attributed to better cost control during the period, with operating expenses £73 million. Profits were down on the year before largely due to £265 million lower income. The bank said it remained on track to fulfil a £300 million cost reduction target this year, following a £45 million reduction in the quarter. In addition, RBS warned on the impact of continued Brexit-related uncertainty and the impact on its business. It said: “While we retain the outlook guidance we provided in the 2018 Annual Results document, we recognise that the ongoing impact of Brexit uncertainty on the economy, and associated delay in business borrowing decisions, is likely to make income growth more challenging in the near term.” The government still owns a 62% in RBS, after it was bailed out during the height of the financial crisis back in 2009. RBS shares (LON:RBS) are down -4.24% as of 12:57PM (GMT).

WPP (LON:WPP) published a trading update for the first quarter of the year on Friday, sending shares upwards. The advertising giant said that revenue totalled £3.588 billion for the period, up 0.9% compared with a year ago, and -0.6% on a constant currency basis. Meanwhile, like-for-like revenue fell -1.3% compared with the year before. Net like-for-like in the group’s largest market, North America, fell 8.5% during the period. WPP attributed this to client losses in the automotive, pharmaceutical and FMCG industries. In the U.K, like-for-like sales fell 0.9%, whilst in continental Europe they were down 0.3%. WPP said that performance Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands and Turkey were ‘up strongly’, however Austria, Italy and Spain proved ‘more challenging’. Its largest Western European market, Germany, was up slightly during the quarter. Some of its associated companies include Ogilvy, J. Walter Thompson, IMRB and Cohn & Wolfe. WPP is considered to be one of the “big five” advertising and public relations firms in the world. Mark Read, Chief Executive Officer, WPP: “We continue to make good progress in implementing our three-year strategy to return WPP to sustainable growth. “As anticipated, our first quarter trading update reflects the impact of certain significant client losses in 2018, in particular in the United States. Although we face a challenging year, especially in the first half, I am encouraged by how well our people, agencies and clients are responding to our new strategic direction. Our expectations for the full year are unchanged. Mark Read took over from the group’s founder and long-standing boss Martin Sorrell, who left the firm after allegations surfaced of misconduct and misuse of company money. Shares in WPP are currently +3.71% as of 12:05PM (GMT).  

Debenhams (LON:DEB) has announced the closure of 22 stores across the UK, which will place 1,200 jobs at risk. The department store named the locations of the stores on Friday, as it looks to restructure its business. The stores set to close are as follows: Altrincham Ashford Birmingham Fort Canterbury Chatham Eastbourne Folkestone Great Yarmouth Guildford Kirkcaldy Orpington Slough Southport Southsea Staines Stockton Walton Wandsworth Welwyn Garden City Wimbledon Witney Wolverhampton Debenhams was taken over by its lenders, Barclays and and Bank of Ireland, last month. Shares were suspended as a result. Lenders have agreed to provide £200 million in funding to keep the struggling retailer afloat. As part of the rescue deal, the department store is looking to close a total of 50 of underperforming sites. The remainder of the stores affected have yet to be disclosed. Once the closures have been completed, Debenhams will have around 116 stores in the UK. Terry Duddy, the executive chairman of Debenhams, said: “The issues facing the UK high street are very well known. Debenhams has a clear strategy and a bright future but in order for the business to prosper, we need to restructure the group’s store portfolio and its balance sheet, which are not appropriate for today’s much-changed retail environment. Our priority is to save as many stores and as many jobs as we can, while making the business fit for the future.” Debenhams has been in the headlines in recent months amid an ongoing battle between shareholder Mike Ashley and the board over control of the company. Mike Ashley, the owner of Sports Direct, wanted to become chief executive of Debenhams, however his approaches were rebuffed.