Cineworld record 10pc revenue boost after strong box office figures
Cineworld (LON:CINE) shares sunk slightly on Wednesday morning, despite recording a 10 percent revenue boost for the full year.
The group confirmed that it expects performance to be in line with expectations, with the group seeing admissions rising by 1.1 percent for the period from 1 Jan to 13 May. Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War were the biggest drivers of sales throughout the period, with box office revenue growing 9.6 percent on a pro-forma basis.
The group also announced a deal with Casual Dining Group on Wednesday, the leading UK-based mid-market restaurant company that includes the Bella Italia, Café Rouge, Las Iguanas, Belgo and La Tasca restaurant chains. The partnership deal will last for three years.
This follows on from another strategic move by Cineworld earlier this year, the $3.6 billion reverse takeover of US rival Regal Entertainments. The deal created one of the world’s largest cinema chains with hundreds of movie theatres across the United States, Europe and Israel.
Shares in Cineworld (LON:CINE) are currently trading up 0.29 percent at 271.40 (0935GMT).
CYBG report loss after £350m PPI hit
Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group (LON: CYBG) have swung into the red following large fines for payment protection complaints.
CYBG posted a loss of £95 million from last year’s profit of £46 million after putting aside £350 million for misselling PPI.
The FTSE 250 lender has estimated that 110,000 of its customers will complain in the run-up to the August 2019 deadline. City regulators are planning to step up a campaign to ensure customers who are eligible will complain and receive compensation.
The bank is currently in talks with Virgin Money (LON: VM) for a potential £1.6 billion takeover.
The approach was revealed last week, where CYGB plan to give investors 1.13 of its shares for each Virgin Money share. This will give them a 36.5 percent share of the total group.
In a bid to win approval from Virgin Money, CYBG will continue the Virgin Money brand. The lender has until June 4 to formally propose or withdraw its proposal.
Despite the poor results, City analysts believe a takeover of Virgin Money will make strategic sense.
“The absence of inorganic growth” for CYBG means that a deal with Virgin Money looked sensible for the bank and shows “management confidence”.
The group’s chief executive David Duffy said: “While the economic outlook remains uncertain, CYBG is well-positioned to continue executing our existing strategy and to capture future growth opportunities.”
UK wages up and unemployment down in three months to March
UK wages rose in real terms in the three months to March, whilst unemployment fell to 1.42 million.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed average weekly earnings increasing for employees over the period. UK wages excluding bonuses rose 2.9 percent in the three months to March, compared to an inflation rate of 2.7 percent for the same period.
Unemployment fell by 46,000 between January and March to 1.42 million, with employment up by 197,000 during the first three months of this year. This was the biggest jump since late 2015 and higher than 130,000 expected by economists.
Senior ONS statistician Matt Hughes says that growth in total pay remains in line with inflation, “meaning real earnings are flat on the year.”
“The growth in employment is still being driven by UK nationals, with a slight drop over the past year in the number of foreign workers.”
Toshiba shares up after narrowly avoiding being delisted
Japanese electronics giant Toshiba (TYO:6502) has narrowly avoided being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, after a stronger set of results for the full year to March put them back in the black.
The group posted record profits of 804 billion yen on Tuesday for the full year, a huge improvement 965.7 billion yen loss recorded the previous year.
The results were largely boosted by the one-off revenue from tax cuts linked to the sale of its nuclear units. Last year Toshiba faced increasing pressure after a series of accounting scandals and cost-overruns following the acquisition of the US nuclear energy firm Westinghouse. The group was then placed under bankruptcy protection.
Operating profits dropped 21.9 per cent to 64.1 billion yen over the period, however, while sales declined 2.4 per cent to 3.95 trillion yen.
Toshiba is expecting a net profit of 1.07 trillion yen for the current financial year, up 33.1 per cent from the previous year on sales of 3.6 trillion yen.
Shares in Toshiba (TYO:6502) are currently trading up 3.46 percent at 299 JPY (0946GMT).
Patisserie Valerie shares up after strong set of Christmas results
Soaring Christmas sales lent a hand to Patisserie Valerie’s (LON:CAKE) latest results, sending shares soaring at market open on Tuesday.
The chain bucked the gloomy trend on the high street, with “affordable treats” pushing up sales over the Christmas period.
Revenue rose 9 percent in the six months to the end of March, with pre-tax profit up 14 percent to £11.9 million. The company also hiked its interim dividend by 20 percent to 1.44p.
“The period started well with a good build up to Christmas with our new festive range, including the limited edition Reindeer slice, selling well,” the company said.
“The group has delivered a strong set of results in a sector which has well documented challenges,” Luke Johnson, executive chairman, added.
Shares in Patisserie Valerie are currently trading up 0.23 percent at 434.00 (0934GMT),
UBM trading in line with expectations, shares broadly flat
UBM (LON:UBM) confirmed it traded in line with forecasts in the year to date, despite challenging conditions in the US fashion sector.
The events organiser said major events like the Game Developers’ Conference, Enterprise Connect and Hotel Plus grew ‘strongly’, during the period, whilst CPhI North America, MD&M West, Hotelex & FineFood and Seatrade Cruise Global delivered ‘good’ growth.
Events in the US fashion industry performed in line with expectations, despite a challenging environment.
UBM is currently undergoing integration with rival Allworld, with performance in line with expectations. Allworld’s Food and Hospitality Asia event had delivered strong growth for UBM. Allworld is one of four bolt-on events businesses that were acquired for £20.2 million.
Shares in UBM are trading largely flat, down 0.015 percent at 989.00 (0919GMT).
Hargreaves Lansdown reports £3.3bn in new business
Investment provider Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HL) brought in £3.3 billion worth of new business in the four months to April 30th, helped by an increase in digital marketing and ongoing wealth consolidation on its platform.
Total new business for the year to date hit £6.6 billion, up from £5.6 billion last year, despite a 0.6 percent fall in market growth. Assets under administration stood at £88.8 billion as of 30 April. Year-to-date total revenue came in at £366.6 million, up 16 percent from the same period a year ago.
“Hargreaves Lansdown had another good tax year end, delivering strong net new business of £3.3 billion over the busiest time of our year and welcoming another 60,000 net new clients,’ Chris Hill, the group’s CEO, commented.
Shares in Hargreaves Lansdown are currently trading down 0.40 percent at 1,867.50 (0955GMT).
Net revenue for the period rose to £150.6 million, after benefitting from “net new business, higher market levels than last year and strong share dealing volumes”.
Vodafone shares fall despite moving into profit for the full year
Vodafone (LON:VOD) shares sunk nearly 4 percent on Tuesday morning, despite moving into profit for the full year to March.
Net profit for the year hit €2.79 billion, compared to a loss a year earlier of €6.08 billion due to a large tax expense.
Operating profit also rose, up 15.4 percent to €4.3 billion, despite a 2.2 percent fall in revenue to €46.6 billion due to the deconsolidation of Vodafone Netherlands and FX movements.
The group also announced that chief executive Vittorio Colao will be replaced in October by current chief financial officer Nick Read. Deputy CFO Margherita Della Valle will become CFO when Read moves into the top job.
Vodafone declared a final dividend of 10.23 cents per share on Tuesday, up 2.0 percent, with a total dividend per share of 15.07 euro cents.
Shares in Vodafone are currently trading down 3.67 percent at 199.60 (0935GMT).
easyJet shares rise on narrowing full-year loss
Budget airline EasyJet (LON:EZJ) narrowed their losses in the first half of the year, sending shares up nearly 3 percent in early morning trading.
In the six months to the end of March EasyJet reported a total loss before tax of £68 million, a large improvement on the £236 million in the first six months of 2017. The continuing loss was mainly due costs associated with the expansion of operations at Berlin’s Tegel airport.
Headline cost per seat excluding fuel rose by 2.2 percent to £43.11, up by 1.6 percent at constant currency. The group’s figure was influenced by increased loads, inflationary costs and the hit from severe weather.
Revenue per seat trend is expected to be slightly positive in the second half of the year, rising 10.9 percent to £54.10 in the first half of the year. Full-year profits to be between £530 million and £580 million.
“Total revenue was above £2bn for the first time, up almost 20 per cent year on year. This was driven by a record number of passengers at 37 million and our highest ever ancillary sales due to giving passengers more options and lower prices on hold luggage along with our improved inflight bistro,” said Johan Lundgren, easyJet Chief Executive.
Shares in easyJet are currently trading up 2.88 percent at 1,753.00 (0925GMT).
Uber announce new European boss
Former Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) director Jamie Heywood has been appointed as Uber’s new Northern and Eastern European boss.
Heywood is replacing former European chief Jo Bertram, who left the group after transport regulators removed Uber from London last year.
Amazon’s former director will join Uber and be responsible for the ride-sharing app in over 70 cities and 12 countries where the app is used by over 110,000 drivers and around eight million riders.
Many cities have had issues with the car-hailing group over issues including sexual assaults to the use of software to dodge regulators.
“I’m delighted that Jamie is joining Uber to lead our operations across Northern and Eastern Europe,” said the European chief Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty.
“His wide-range of international experience in both regulated industries and scaling fast-growing businesses will be invaluable for the next phase of Uber’s development.”
“Jamie’s leadership will also be crucial as we implement major changes across Europe including more safety features, improvements for drivers and a new approach to partnering with cities,” he added.
Heywood will take to his new role at the company later this month.
“I’m really looking forward to joining Uber at a time of exciting change and growth for the company,” he said.
Having been banned from London from a “lack of corporate responsibility”, the company will have a London licence appeal hearing on 25 June where a judge will decide if the group are able to continue operating in the capital.
The group recently acquired New York City-based e-bike startup, Jump Bikes in a deal estimated to be worth £100 million in cash and stock.
The CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, said in a blog post that the deal would help in his mission of “bringing together multiple modes of transportation within the Uber app—so that you can choose the fastest or most affordable way to get where you’re going, whether that’s in an Uber, on a bike, on the subway, or more.”