Snapchat’s (NYSE: SNAP) advertising revenue is set to overtake Twitter’s advertising revenue by 2019 as the app gains popularity among young users. Advertisers are spending higher amounts of their digital ad budgets on targeting Snapchat’s users as more young people are flocking to the app from platforms such as Facebook (NASDAQ: FB). According to eMarketer, a market research company, Snap’s UK ad revenue growth is predicted to increase from £21.9 million in 2016 to £181.7 million in 2019. “Snapchat continues to pull in users and, by extension, ad revenues,” said Bill Fisher, UK senior analyst at eMarketer. “An almost doubling of revenues in 2018 is a great result.” Despite the app’s growth, the app faced a turbulent weekend after Rihanna blasted the app on Twitter, causing shares to fall four percent. After Snapchat played an advert for a game called “Would You Rather!”, showing pictures of Rihanna and Chris Brown next to captions that said “Slap Rihanna” and “Punch Chris Brown,” the singer took to Twitter. “SNAPCHAT I know you know you ain’t my fav app out there! But I’m just trying to figure out what the point was with this mess!,” “You spent money to animate something that would intentionally bring shame to DV victims and made a joke of it!!!,” she said. “Shame on you. Throw the whole app-oligy away.” Following the tweet, shares in the group fell from $17.88 (£12.83) to $17 throughout the day. This is not the first time a celebrities tweet has caused shares in Snap to drop. Last month, Kylie Jenner single-handedly wiped $1.3 billion from Snapchat’s market value. She reality star tweeted: “So does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me… ugh this is so sad.” John Illsley a director at accountancy firm Moore Stephens highlighted the vulnerability of social media platforms. “This underlines the fragility of social networking platforms from a corporate finance perspective. It is easy to forget just how young these businesses are.”  

Berkeley (LON: BKG), one of Britain’s biggest house-builders, has said that it cannot speed up production of new homes. Responding to increased pressure from the government, Berkeley has said that various ‘market constraints’ means it is impossible to boost their housing supply. Two weeks ago, Theresa May put pressure on housing groups to do more to tackle the UK’s housing shortage. The prime minister said she would not tolerate the slow rate of housebuilders and more needed to be done. “I want to see planning permissions going to people who are actually going to build houses, not just sit on land and watch its value rise,” she said. In her keynote speech, May said that failure to meet the targets could result in local councils losing their right to decide where developments take place. Berkeley responded and have said it is not possible to ramp up production of UK homes due to factors including economic uncertainty, the complexity of Britain’s planning system, and current mortgage lending limits. The housing group told shareholders: “The market conditions in London and the South East are unchanged from the first half with home movers and downsizers continuing to be constrained by high transaction costs, the 4.5x income multiple limit on mortgage borrowing and prevailing economic uncertainty. “In addition, domestic buy-to-let investors, who buy early in the cycle and provide security of cash flow to enable complex, capital intensive developments to be brought forward, are further impacted by additional transaction costs and the removal of interest deductibility. “These factors, together with the changing planning environment and the time and complexity of getting on site following planning approval, mean that Berkeley is currently unable to increase production beyond the business plan levels.” Following the statement, shares in Berkeley dropped by almost six percent in morning trading.    

Construction group Kier (LON:KIE) saw shares plunge over 5 percent on Thursday morning, despite reporting strong performance across its property and service divisions. The group reported a 4 percent increase in pre-tax profits, hitting £48.8 million in the six months to the end of December. Revenue rose 5 percent to £2,154 million, with underlying operating profit also up 5 percent to £60 million. Kier attributed the strong performance to its property division, which continued to perform ahead of its 15 percent ROCE target. The residential division’s return on capital made progressed toward its 15 percent target. However the group’s figures were hit hard by a 7 percent drop in revenue in the construction division, as project delays in the second half of the year impacted on results. The firm proposed an interim dividend of 23.0p, up 2% from the prior period, while basic earnings per share was 41.0p, up 3% from 39.7p. Haydn Mursell, chief executive, said the Group was “performing well”, adding that its £9.5 billion Construction and Services order book, combined with our £3.5bn pipeline in the Property and Residential divisions, “provides good visibility of work over the medium term.” “The Group’s performance reflects the strength of our business model and our financial and operational disciplines. Our portfolio of businesses provides balance and resilience and our approach to risk management is evident in the margin performance we have delivered over many years. We remain on course to deliver double-digit profit growth in 2018 and to achieve our Vision 2020 strategic targets.” Shares in Kier Group are currently trading down 5.47 percent at 1,019 (0926GMT).

Soap maker PZ Cussons (LON:PZC) issued a profit warning on Thursday, causing shares to plunge 25 percent in early trading. The company, who manufacture brands including Imperial Leather and St Tropez, said trading had been weaker than expected in the last half of the year, warning that profits for the full year to May would be between £80 million and £85 million instead of the £103.5 million forecast a year ago. The group attributed the problems to weak demand in the UK persona hygiene sector, as well as difficulties surrounding its milk business in Nigeria. “The Nigerian consumer’s discretionary income remains under pressure with subdued buying levels. As a result the usual peak season uplift has not occurred to the expected level,” the company said.

The company outlined several initiatives designed to bring performance back in line, saying “We believe that the initiatives outlined above will strengthen the group’s brand portfolio to better withstand the subdued levels of consumer confidence and higher levels of competitive intensity which are being faced in most of the markets in which it operates.” Shares in PZ Cussons have recovered from lows directly after market open, currently trading down 14.34 percent at 237.10 (0856GMT).

Old Mutual (JSE:OML) shares rose in early trading on Thursday, after confirming that it expects the company’s separation into four parts to be complete by the end of 2018. The group reported a 22 percent rise in adjusted operating profit to £2 billion over the course of 2017, an increase of 7 percent in constant currency. AOP earnings per share rose by 25 percent to 24.3 pence. The group reported strong performance over all businesses, with Old Mutual Emerging Markets AOP up 5 percent, Nedbank reported AOP up 4 percent and Old Mutual Wealth reported AOP up 40 percent to £363 million. The company is currently undergoing the split into four businesses: Old Mutual Wealth (OMW), Old Mutual Emerging Markets (OMEM), South African lender Nedbank and US firm Old Mutual Asset Management (OMAM). As part of the plan, its wealth arm will become newly-listed holding company called Old Mutual Limited (OML), which will include OMEM, Nedbank and the residual parts of Old Mutual PLC. Bruce Hemphill, group chief executive, said: “We are delivering on both of the commitments we made in March 2016 when we announced the managed separation. First, as these results demonstrate, we have improved the performance of the underlying businesses and set them up for continued future growth. Second, we have carried out the preparation needed to give effect to the managed separation. “The process has already delivered significant value through cost and debt reduction, and we are on track for material completion of the managed separation with the listings of Old Mutual Limited and Quilter within our expected timetable. “A vast amount has been achieved over the past two years and I would like to pay tribute to the hard work of all my colleagues for getting us to this point. We are now focused on concluding the final processes associated with the listings, securing the shareholder and court approvals and addressing any remaining issues for the final steps of managed separation.” Shares in Old Mutual (JSE:OML) are currently up 2.03 percent at 4,175.00 (0843GMT).

International real estate giant Savills (LON:SVS) reported a 3.5 percent increase in profit on Thursday, after a “highly resilient” in their UK residential business. Profit at the group £140.5 million, with revenues rising by 11 percent to £1.6 billion. Statutory profit before tax increased by 13 percent to £112.4 million, increasing its total dividend for the year by 4 percent to 30.2 pence per share. The group saw a particularly strong performance from its investment management business, with assets under management rising 5 per cent to £14.6 billion, as well as its UK residential business. Jeremy Helsby, group chief executive, said: “Savills has delivered another strong performance in 2017. Revenue and profits grew in each of our global Transaction Advisory, Consultancy and Property Management businesses despite challenging conditions in a number of markets. The strength of our business in key transactional markets across the globe, including a highly resilient performance in our UK residential business, were key to this result. “Throughout the year we maintained our focus on delivering exceptional service to our clients and continued to build on our global network through complementary acquisitions and new team hires. “We have made a solid start to 2018 with a pipeline of business carried over from last year in many markets, although this is against the backdrop of heightened market uncertainty, geopolitical risks and rising interest rates. We anticipate a tempering of the strong transaction volumes of recent times in some markets; however, at this early stage in the year our expectations for 2018 remain unchanged.” Shares in Savills (LON:SVS) are currently trading down 0.15 percent at 974.50 (0831GMT).

Shares in cinema chain Cineworld (LON:CINE) rose over 2 percent on Thursday morning, after an increase in demand had a positive effect on revenue. Revenues rose 11.6 percent over 2017 to hit £890.7 million, with admissions growing by 3.5 percent to £103.8 million. Pre-tax profit also rose 22.7 percent on a statutory basis to £120.5 million, while adjusted pre-tax profits rose by 14.5 percent to £127.5 million. Anthony Bloom, Chairman of Cineworld called 2017 an “exciting year” for the group – “the most momentous since its formation in 1995”. “For the financial year ended 31 December 2017, the Group’s operations in the UK and ROW once again posted record results and then in December we announced the proposed acquisition of Regal Entertainment Group for $3.4 billion which has successfully completed on 28 February 2018.” The group added that it was “confident” that the acquisition would be a success. Adjusted diluted EPS increased by 12.3 percent to 17.3p and the group declared a final dividend of 15.4p per share. Shares in Cineworld rose 2.41 percent at market open to 246.00 (0823GMT).