The world’s largest meatpacking company has agreed to pay a record fine for their role in a corruption scandal in Brazil, after the owners gave testimony against the Brazilian President under a plea bargain.
The fine will be paid by the controlling shareholder of JBS, J&F Investimentos, to the tune of 10.3 billion real. J&F Investimentos agreed to pay the sum after investigation in two corruption scandals.
The scandals may well topped the presidency of Michel Temer, after J&F’s owners, Joesley and Wesley Batista, gave evidence under a plea bargain. Though the pair have since resigned, they admitted to spending 600m real to bribe around 1,900 politicians.
The payments will be effective as of December and J&F will have 25 years to make them.
The fine is shocking in its size, bigger than the recent $2.6 billion fine agreed by Brazil’s engineering giant Odebrecht after a scandal involving Brazilian oil giant Petrobras.
Just over a year after their last crowdfunding campaign, London-based craft brewers Redchurch Brewery are taking to Crowdcube again to fund further expansion plans.
The business started from its humble roots in an archway in Bethnal Green just six years ago, the brainchild of current Managing Director Gary Ward. Working full-time commercial solicitor, Ward started brewing craft beer on the side – before taking the plunge and making Redchurch Brewery his main focus.
Source: Redchurch
In those six years, Redchurch has come a long way. Back in January of last year the brewery raised £500,000 in its first crowdfunding campaign, investing the money to expand to two arches and acquire a 30 barrel brew house in Harlow.
When Ward started the business, Redchurch was one of only five craft brewers in London – over the past couple of years however, consumers’ appetite for artisan beer has soared. Whilst current estimates put the number of active small-scale craft breweries in the UK at over 1000 and growing, potential investors can take heart; Redchurch always been ahead of the pack.
The now-renowned craft brewery sells beer nationally into Marks and Spencer, Waitrose, a range of bars and restaurants including Byron, as well as exporting beers around the world.
Redchurch’s beers are staying true to their roots, taking their names from famous location in east London such as ‘Brick Lane Lager’, ‘Hoxton Stout’ and ‘Bethnal Pale Ale’.
When Ward began the business, he worked alone carrying out all of the brewing, bottling, packaging and deliveries himself. Now, the business employs 12 full time and six part time staff to keep up with consumer demand.
Redchurch’s sales have grown substantially since 2012 when they posted £177k in sales. The brewery is projecting a jump to £1.7m revenue in 2016 after £710k in 2016.
Source: Redchurch Brewery
Now the business is looking to crowdfund again to take the business to the next level. Ward has plans to add further fermentation vessels, increasing production capacity to more than 1.3 million litres annually, improve the speed and efficiency of the packaging process and employing more brewers and delivery drivers.
Redchurch’s craft beer is tapping into an ever growing market which is already threatening more established brands. In 2015 over 532 million pints were produced by members of the Society for Independent Brewers, up 13% from 2013.
Redchurch Brewery’s crowdfunding campaign is currently live on Crowdcube, with the aim of raising £400,000. So far, investors have poured in over half the amount needed, with another two weeks to go.
You can see more details about Redchurch’s campaign on Crowdcube here.
Strategists at JP Morgan have today released a note to the media suggesting that a coalition led by Labour may actually cause the pound to rally.
This goes against conventional market thinking which has been pricing a ‘strong and stable’ conservative government as the best outcome for sterling.
JP Morgan FX Strategist, Paul Meggyesi said:
“The wake-up call for markets was a YouGov poll released on Thursday– this shows a halving in the Conservative lead to only 5pts compared to an average of polls at the start of the week.”
“A hung parliament would in more normal circumstances be viewed as quite negative for sterling – that was very much the experience of the 2015 election when sterling was braced for one of a myriad of potential coalition permutations only for sterling to jump by 3pc once David Cameron secured an improbable narrow majority.”
Meggyesi suggests that a coalition would remove the risk of a ‘Hard-Brexit’ or ‘no-deal’ with the EU being touted by Theresa May if she doesn’t get her way in negotiations.
“In the post-referendum world, all political developments need to be viewed through a Brexit prism and an argument can be made that a hung parliament which delivered or held out the prospect of a softer-Brexit coalition of the left-of-centre parties (Labour/Lib Dems/SNP) might actually be sterling positive.”
Shares in mining company Minco (LON:MIO) fell over 2 percent on Tuesday, after the company confirmed it had recorded no revenue for the three month period to the end of March 2017.
In a statement Minco said it had recorded a loss of $219,000 in the first quarter of 2017, compared to a loss of $426,000 for the same period ended March 31 2016.
The loss for the three-month period ended 31 March 2017 included a foreign exchange loss of $32,000 compared to a foreign exchange loss of $159,000 for the same period ended 31 March 2016.
Minco is a United Kingdom-based mineral exploration and development company focused on exploration in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom, and indirectly on base metal and silver projects in Mexico.
Shares in Minco are currently trading down 2.12 percent at 2.08 (0925GMT).
Budget airline Ryanair (LON:RYA) reported a record full year profit on Tuesday, despite expectations that it would be hit by the effects of terrorist attacks and the fallout from Brexit.
Full year net profits rose 6 percent to 1.316 billion euros, with fares cut by 13 percent and an ‘industry leading’ 94 percent load factor.
Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary said:
“We are pleased to report a 6 percent increase in profit after tax to 1.316 billion euros, despite difficult trading conditions in 2017 caused by a series of security events at European cities, a switch of charter capacity from North Africa, Turkey and Egypt to mainland Europe, and a sharp decline in Sterling following the June 2016 Brexit vote. We reacted to these challenges by improving our customer experience, and stimulating growth with lower fares.”
However, looking forward O’Leary added:
“Investors should be wary of the risk of negative Brexit developments, or any repeat of last year’s security events at European cities, which could damage consumer confidence, close-in bookings and this FY18 guidance”.
Ryanair shares are currently trading down 1.22 percent at 17.79 (0907GMT).
The FTSE 100 hit a new record high in mid-morning trading on Friday, pushed up by a fall in the Pound.
The pound fell after the latest General Election poll found the Conservative Party’s lead over Labour had narrowed substantially, with less than two weeks to go before Britain votes.
Despite the Conservatives starting the campaign with a strong lead, the Labour Party has since increase its projected vote share by five points to 38 percent, with the Conservatives saw theirs drop to 43%, a fall of one point.
The pound is currently trading down 0.68 percent against the dollar at $1.28, and 1.15 against the euro.
Michael Hewson of CMC Markets commented:
“If you look at European markets, they’re lower by a considerable amount. The weaker pound is certainly not hindering the FTSE’s rise,” he says.
The FTSE is currently up 0.15 percent at 7528.62 (12013GMT).
One of the founders of premium drinks Fever-Tree is now £73 million richer, after selling a 3.9 percent stake in his company.
Deputy chairman Charles Rolls sold almost double the amount of shares he planned to sell, offering 4.5 million shares at £16.25 each. The larger-than-anticipated share sell-off followed “significant” demand from investors.
Rolls retains an 11.2 percent stake in the business, which he founded with chief executive Tim Warrilow.
The premium drinks group has seen an impressive performance on the stock market since its floated towards with end of 2014. Its share price has rise 900 percent since the IPO, rising more than 50 percent his year alone.
In its preliminary results for 2016, Fever-Tree profits soared to £34.3 million last year, up from £16.8 million in 2015, marking an increase of 105 percent. Fever-Tree’s international sales have expanded rapidly, and more than 50 percent of its revenues now come from outside the UK.
Fever-Tree (LON:FEVR) shares are currently up 0.96 percent at 1,728.50 (1116GMT).
The price of oil dipped further on Thursday, despite reports that Opec producers have agreed to extend supply cuts until arch 2018.
Oil had a rocky morning ahead of the announcement, rising just before it was announced on the hope of positive news. However, the agreed extension disappointed markets and saw the price of oil fall in afternoon trading.
WTI Crude is currently trading down 1.03 percent at $50.83 per barrel, with Brent trading down 0.8 percent at $53.83.
The remaining producers not part of the OPEC group – including Russia – are also set to decide later today if they too will extend cuts.
The FTSE 100 also had a volatile morning on the back of the oil price movements, nearing a record high in morning trading before falling back down alongside the price of oil.
The share index hit 7,529.74 – around four points shy of the record intraday high of 7,533 it hit last week – before slipping back around midday.
Historic Australian company Ansell has sold its condom business to a Chinese consortium, in a deal worth $600 million.
Ansell, whose founder Eric Ansell begun making condoms in 1929, sold the division to Humanwell Healthcare Group and CITIC Capital China Partners in an all-cash deal.
Ansell chief executive Magnus Nicolin said: “It is our only consumer business, it is the only business where we’re not number one in the world, it is a business with a dramatically different go-to-market in terms of marketing spend.”
Ansell make brands including Mates, Skyn and Jissbon, whose sales have lagged recently behind those of Reckitt Benckiser’s Durex.
The Chinese condom market is set to expand rapidly in the near future, growing around 12 percent annually between 2016 and 2024, according to a Transparency Market Research report.
The sale will allow Ansell to focus on the manufacturing of its other products, including industrial and medical rubber products.
Electrical retailer Dixons Carphone (LON:DC) saw shares rise nearly 5 percent on Wednesday, after reporting a 9 percent rise in sales and boosting profit expectations.
For the 16 weeks to April 29th the retailer saw like-for-like sales grow by 4 percent, with CEO Seb James saying the company had performed well against a “lively political backdrop”.
In an update to investors, the company said that it expects pre-tax profit for the full year to come in between £485 million to £490 million.
Chief executive Seb James said: “Despite a lively political backdrop, we have been able to continue to grow our business and maintain very high levels of customer satisfaction across the group.”
In the UK & Ireland, like-for-like revenues in the full year improved by approximately 3 percent as a result of sales successfully transferred from closed stores and sales disruptions, largely benefitting UK and Ireland electricals, where like-for-like revenues grew 7 percent.
The group’s activity in Southern Europe saw a particular improvement, delivering “another very good year” with full year like-for-like revenues up 6 percent.
“With Greece a particularly strong performer, the business continues to gain market share and improve its service and delivery propositions and in Spain the SmartHouse initiative is providing good momentum against a tough overall market backdrop”, the company said.
Shares in Dixons Carphone are currently trading up 2.85 percent at 335.91 (1724GMT).
