Mothercare share price sinks after “challenging” backdrop leads to loss

Miranda Wadham
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Mothercare share price sinks after “challenging” backdrop leads to loss
Mothercare’s share price tanked on Thursday, tumbling over 15 percent after posting a loss of £16.8 million. Whilst some of the figures for the six months to September looking promising, investors were spooked by a recent “softening in the market” and “a challenging consumer backdrop”. Online sales growth grew 57 percent in constant currency, with half-year like-for-like UK sales up 2.5 per cent to £229 million. However, Mothercare’s adjusted loss before tax came to £0.7 million, a significant drop from the £5.9 million profit made in the same period last year. International like-for-like sales fell eight per cent, despite the group vowing to move its focus to more international sales, and overall six-month losses stood at £16.8 million. Mothercare’s problems with its defined benefit pension scheme continued to weigh, and the group were forced to pay out £7.1 million to the scheme to keep it in the black. By September, the shortfall was still stood at £68.9 million shortfall. The firm went to the bank to draw down £24.5 million on its lending facility over the period. Mothercare shares are currently trading down 15.87 percent at 70.25 (1025GMT).

Philip Hammond’s budget: LIVE

Miranda Wadham
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0
Philip Hammond’s budget: LIVE
Chancellor Philip Hammond laid out his budget on Wednesday, focusing heavily on Brexit and aiming to alleviate the effect of a possible fall in economic growth as the UK prepares to leave the European Union.

Brexit

Hammond said the government “are determined to to ensure that the country is prepared for every possible outcome”. Because of this, Britain is to set aside £3 billion for Brexit preparations over the next two years, on top of £700 million already invested.

Tech

Turning to investment in the technology sector, Hammond said that “Britain must be at the forefront of technological revolution”. “Britain must invest and in this budget that is what we choose to do,” unlock over £20 billion British business bank seeded with

Start-up businesses

Ensuring that EIS is not used as a shelter for low risk capital preservation schemes. National Productivity Investment Fund to be extended for a further year and expanded to more than £31 billion.

OBR figures

British productivity growth revised down by OBR. The OBR forecasts the deficit to be 1.3% of GDP in 2020-21, giving £14.8bn of headroom against the 2% target.

Maths

Commitment to maths, 40 million to train maths teachers and extra money for schools who get pupils to take A Level maths.

Environment

Focusing on the eni extra funds and tax incentives for electric car drivers. That includes a new £400m charging infrastructure fund, an extra £100m in Plug-In-Car Grant, and £40m for research into charging.

Wages

Increase targeted affordability funding, benefitting 400,000 people. National wage living raising 4.3 percent to 7.83, with the largest increase in youth rates in 10 years. Pay rise for over 2 million low wage workers across the country. New rail card for people under 30.

Duties

Duties on most ciders, wines, beers and spirits to be frozen. Fuel duty rise for April cancelled. Tobacco tax will continue to rise at inflation plus 2%. That could see the cost of cigarettes rise by about 6%.

Tax

Higher rate of income tax free allowance rise to £46,350

Universal Credit

Commitment to fix Universal Credit Now onto the Universal Credit fix, or attempt to fix the worst problems – govt removing the 7 day waiting period, extending repayment period for advances, any claimant will get housing benefit for another 2 weeks – package to ease concerns is 1.5 billion

Small businesses

Further business rate relief. Annual uprating of business rates in April next year, bringing forward planned switch from RPI to CPI. Worth £2.6 billion to businesses in the next 2 years.

Housing market

Providing Kensington and Chelsea Council with a further £28 million for community space and local residence counselling. 100pc council tax premium on empty properties. “House prices are too high. Rents absorb too much of monthly income”, says Hammond. “Governments have failed to build enough homes to meet needs”. Increased supply of homes by more than 1.1 million since 2010. Housebuilding stands are highest level since the crash. £44 billion of capital funding to support housing market. Additional £34 million to develop construction skills. Announcement that stamp duty will be abolished for all first-time buyers on properties up to £300,000 and for the first £300,000 on purchases up to £500,000

Thomas Cook share price plunges after hit to UK profits

Miranda Wadham
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0
Thomas Cook share price plunges after hit to UK profits
Shares in travel company Thomas Cook plunged on Wednesday morning, after UK profits dropped significantly in the year to 30th September. The group was hit by a combination of rising holiday prices and a fall in the value of the pound, as well as a price war in the Spanish market. Earnings in its UK division dropped by 40 percent over the year to £52 million, sending shares down over 10 percent at market open. However, outside of the UK, underlying earnings rose across the group as a whole to £330 million, despite being hit by a surge in costs from fraudulent illness claims. Thomas Cook said: “In response, our UK tour operator has implemented a set of actions to improve profitability. “We have taken a robust approach towards illness claims including improving our handling and assessment processes, and taking legal action against fraudsters – as a result, the claim rate has declined dramatically.” However, looking ahead, the company confirmed that current trading remained in line with expectations after a renewed interest in winter breaks in Egypt and the Canaries. Peter Fankhauser, chief executive of Thomas Cook, said: “2017 was a milestone year in the strategic development of Thomas Cook.
“Looking to the year ahead, we can see real momentum in our Group Airline, and expect our Continental Europe and Northern Europe tour operator businesses to continue their good performance.”
Shares in Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) are currently down 8.87 percent at 110.90 (1209GMT).
 

Clothing brand Quiz sees shares rise over 5 pc after Love Island star collaboration

Miranda Wadham
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0
Clothing brand Quiz sees shares rise over 5 pc after Love Island star collaboration
Fast fashion clothing group Quiz (LON:QUIZ) saw shares rise over 5 percent on Wednesday, as its marketing revamp begins to take effect. The group hired a new head of marketing, Lesley Morton, in September 2017, who launched a more widespread marketing campaign and a collaboration with Love Island star Gabby Allen. Group revenue rose 35.2 percent in the six months to September, from £41.5 million to £56.1 million. Profit before tax rose by 31 percent to £4.8 million, driven by a 204 percent increase in online revenue to £13.8 million. Underlying international sales increased 26.1 percent to £10 million, with revenue from UK stores and concessions increasing by 15.2 percent to £32.3 million. Tarak Ramzan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said he was “pleased to report a very good performance for the QUIZ brand in the first half of the financial year”. “The Group’s strong performance is a reflection of the growing awareness of the QUIZ brand and increasing demand for our products that offer the latest glamorous looks and occasion wear at great value. “Current trading has remained strong since the period end and, underpinned by our strong collections, the Group enters the important Christmas trading period with good momentum. The Board remains confident of delivering growth across all channels for the full year.” Shares in Quiz are currently trading up 5.75 percent at 166.55 (1100GMT).

easyjet shares fly after final results

Raymond Jones
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easyjet shares fly after final results
easyjet released final results for the year ending 30th September on Tuesday and investors welcomed them, pushing shares over 7% higher. The low-cost carrier said passenger numbers had risen 9.7% over the past year helping revenue jump by 8.1% to £5.05 billion. The company pointed to ‘rigorous cost control’ and savings of £85m to help offset a drop in revenue per seat. Out-going Carolyn McCall, easyJet Chief Executive, commented on the results saying: “easyJet delivered a robust performance during a difficult year for the aviation industry, flying a record 80 million passengers at our highest ever annual load factor of 92.6% whilst growing capacity by 8.5% and revenues by over 8.1% to more than £5 billion. “Our planned approach of achieving number one or two positions at Europe’s leading airports, friendly and efficient customer service and a continuous focus on sustainable cost control has put easyJet at a strategic advantage during a period when there have been bankruptcies and some airlines have struggled operationally. easyJet’s model is resilient and sustainable and we now have a huge amount of positive momentum which will enable the airline to continue to grow profitably. “On a personal note, this will be my final set of results as CEO and I would like to thank all of easyJet’s people who have contributed so much to easyJet’s success story. I wish them all the very best for the future.” Touching on the Air Berlin acquisition, easyjet said it would incur losses in the region of £60m for the newly acquired operation at Berlin Tegel airport. Shares in easyjet rose to 1369p, up 7% at the time of writing.

Burningnight Group crowdfunding passes the 50% mark

Raymond Jones
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0
Burningnight Group crowdfunding passes the 50% mark
A crowdfunding campaign by bar company BurningNight Group to create a new sports-themed venue, Sportskeller, has already raised 50% of its target just weeks after launch. Sportskeller will be its first chameleon bar, teaming up some of the most popular elements of the hugely successful Bierkeller and sports bar Shooters. BurningNight Group, which owns and operates six Bierkeller Entertainment Complexes in cities across the country, plans to add the new bars in smaller cities and towns. It has already pinpointed four potential sites and intends to use capital raised through the Crowdcube platform to support the roll-out. People can invest from as little as £10 and, up to £50, they’ll have it matched on a loyalty card for food and drink at existing bars. With other generous incentives on offer, including a suitcase of world beers, private masterclasses and tastings, the campaign has attracted almost £400,000 since its launch at the beginning of November. BurningNight Group CEO Allan Harper says he has been delighted with the positive response so far from individual small and larger investors. He said: “Sportskeller will bring something new to the leisure market, combining a lot of features that people love about Bierkeller and Shooters into one. “We’re excited about the idea, we can see from our customer base that it has such potential, and we’re really happy so many people agree. With interest rates so low at the moment, a lot of them are looking for different ways to make their money work, we know they’re keen to support British-based businesses, and bars and restaurants are an especially popular sector right now. “The sales and profits at our bars are strong and we believe our Crowdcube campaign is a great way for people to have a stake in our newest brand right from the start.” You invest in Burningnight now via Crowdcube by clicking here.   This article is a sponsored article. #riskaware

Tax efficient forestry investment brochure

Raymond Jones
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Tax efficient forestry investment brochure

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Forestry is low risk

Estimated up to 18% yields

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Latin American street food “Cubana” raising £200k crowdfund loan to scale up business

Miranda Wadham
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0
Latin American street food “Cubana” raising £200k crowdfund loan to scale up business
Cubana Waterloo Ltd are raising a £200,000 loan on leading crowdfunding platform Crowd2Fund, in order to expand their Latin American street food and exotic Cuban cocktails concept. The restaurant chain initially raised over £100,000 in July and returned to the platform in November due to unprecedented demand from a loyal and eager crowd. The restaurant group was started in 1998 by Phillip Oppenheim, who was inspired to create his own Cuban themed restaurant after visiting the country in the early nineties and discovering mojitos, the magic of the people and the beauty of the island. Back then the Latin American culture was much lesser known in the UK, and Oppenheim realised that the food, drink, culture and history of the country would make for a compelling st ory. Cubana serves up freshly prepared free-range street food dishes, Cuban mountain coffee and a range of refreshing cocktails. The group is credited as first having introduced mojitos to the UK in the 90s, and has since sold close to one million of them . Oppenheimer’s family are farmers, and prior to going to university he helped out by working on the farm. This experience resulted in him becoming a lifelong campaigner against factory farming, which now extends to Cubana’s ethos of having a procurement policy focussed on ethical sourcing and a 100% free range policy. The original Cubana site is in Waterloo, with the second site in Smithfield having opened in 2014. The company now turns over more than £2 million pounds per year, a close to double digi t percentage increase year on year. The crowdfunds will be used to ramp up the activity of Cubana by investing them into new operational software and doubling down on marketing efforts to take advantage of the predicted increased footfall of the Smithfie ld site when Crossrail and the relocated Museum of London open. Philip Oppenheim says: “We are spending some funds on developing the Cubana bakery and coffee roaster at Smithfield, which we anticipate will have substantially more passing trade due to new economic activity in the area. We are also completely revamping all of our financial systems and EPOS to make sure we are robustly managed and ready to cautiously look for new sites next year.” Additional associated planned activity includes the launch of a new website, alongside enhancing the company’s digital marketing efforts. Over the longer term Cubana plan to steadily increase their number of sites, alongside maintaining their firm ethical stance on only sourcing free range produce. “In five years I would like a small chain of Cubana bar restaurants which keep to our core principles of providing freshly prepared, authentic Cuban and Latin American food and fresh tropical cocktails and smoothies at reasonable prices. I would not want to be invo lved in a large corporate chain which prepares all of its food in large factories. A lot of once good places have retracted from their sustainability roots. The day someone says to me that we can save £1 a portion by not going for free range chicken is the day we have grown too large,” said Oppenheim. The company sought Crowd2Fund’s loan product as a financing solution due to not wanting to sell equity in the business and wanting to utilise a more creative solution than traditional banks which are not lend ing to banks at the moment. The loan will be payable at an estimated APR of 10%. Oppenheim said: “We dipped a toe in the water in July during the first campaign and were hugely impressed with the results and interest from investors. We now see Crowd2Fund as a great platform for the future”.

Burningnight Group expanding pub portfolio with ‘SportsKeller’

Raymond Jones
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0
Burningnight Group expanding pub portfolio with ‘SportsKeller’
The owners of The Bierkeller Entertainment Complex are planning to team up two of their most successful bars to create a new sports-themed venue … Sportskeller. BurningNight Group already has six complexes in cities across the country, which all house three venues under one roof – Bierkeller Bavarian bar, sports bar Shooters and Around the World. It is also unveiling its latest concept, American-style barbecue restaurant Smokin’ Bar & Kitchen, in Leeds this month. Now the company has revealed it intends to create its first chameleon bar – bringing together many of the most popular elements of the Bierkeller and Shooters. Sportskeller will keep the long Bavarian bench seating and famous Bavarian stompers show which make Bierkeller’s lively atmosphere so unique at weekend nights, and it will add in midweek highlights from Shooters including Champions League football nights, and student specials like Sportskeller’s Got Talent. With four potential Sportskeller sites already identified, it has launched a crowdfunding campaign to attract investment for a roll-out into cities and towns smaller than those chosen for full Bierkeller Entertainment Complexes. BurningNight Group CEO Allan Harper explained: “Our bars are thriving so we are ambitious to expand further and we already have several sites in excellent locations earmarked for development. “Our existing bars are consistently busy, and we know our customers love what the Bierkeller Entertainment Complex has to offer. That’s why we want to give them, and potential new customers, the chance to get involved at the beginning of our newest brand.” Allan added that the Sportskeller bars would focus on an area of the market where the company has a proven track record. “Our sports bars Shooters are already hugely popular with fans wanting to watch big matches or title fights live on a giant screen. “The atmosphere is always fantastic, it’s the next best thing to being at a stadium, so we wanted to recreate that but in a new and different way. Sportskeller will have a lot of features that people love about Bierkeller and Shooters combined, so it’s the best of both worlds.” Burningnight Group are crowdfunding on Crowdcube now, you can find out more information here.

BITCOIN: Had you invested $100 in 2010, today you would have more than $200 million

Raymond Jones
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0
BITCOIN: Had you invested $100 in 2010, today you would have more than $200 million
In April 2010, the price of one Bitcoin was 0.003 dollars, while the price of one Bitcoin today is more than 7000 dollars. If you had invested $100 seven years ago, today you would have more than 200 million dollars. Just as Wall Street started paying more attention to Bitcoin, new rivals emerged in the world of cryptocurrencies, threatening to push the current leader aside. One of them is Ethereum. Today, Ethereum represents 32% of the total value of all cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin represents 38%). There is also Litecoin whose total value has exceeded 1 billion dollars for the first time. For everyone interested in learning how to trade with the prices of cryptocurrencies, or for anyone interested in expanding their knowledge and investing their time in learning new things, Fortrade has prepared a free ebook named “How to Trade with the Prices of Cryptocurrencies” (so-called CFDs). The ebook is adapted to all proficiency levels and can be downloaded using the link below. Click here to download your free ebook – “How to Trade with the Prices of Cryptocurrencies”. Meanwhile, many countries legalized Bitcoin as means of payment which had a strong positive effect on its price. In Japan, many retail outlets allowed shopping with Bitcoin, making Japan the biggest Bitcoin market in the world. Investors expect that many other countries will soon allow this form of trade. One of the reasons for the rise in the price of Bitcoin this year is that it can’t be manipulated by state governments. Bitcoin uses a public online record known as a “block chain”. The total number of Bitcoins are produced through a process called “mining” that involves solving series of complex mathematical problems. Click here to download your free ebook – “How to Trade with the Prices of Cryptocurrencies” Fortrade Ltd is authorized and regulated in the UK by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) under the license number 609970. Trading CFDs and other leveraged products carries a high level of risk to your capital as prices may move rapidly against you. Be Aware: You can lose all, but not more than the balance of your Trading Account. These products may not be suitable for all clients therefore ensure you understand the risks and seek independent advice. This material does not constitute an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. Fortrade accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of the information and for any consequences that result. We offer no guarantee or warranty that this information is correct or complete. Consequently, any person that acts according to it, is doing so at its own risk.    
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