B&Q owner Kingfisher saw strong profits in the first half of the year, with business in Poland and the UK leading the figures.
The group, who own B&Q and Screwfix in the UK, saw underlying pre-tax profit rise 13.5 percent to £436 million. Adjusted earnings per share were up 10.6 percent to 12.3p, with sales in the UK and Ireland up 3.1 percent.
In a statement, Kingfisher said the first half of the year had shown “good early progress”, and was “on track with first year strategic milestones”.
CEO Véronique Laury commented:
“In the UK, the EU referendum has created uncertainty for the economic outlook, even though there has been no clear evidence of an impact on demand so far on our businesses. In France we remain cautious on the short term outlook.
“Given the expertise and energy of our colleagues we continue to feel confident about the challenges ahead.”
Kingfisher (LON:KGF) shares initially rose on the news, but have since fallen back down. They are currently trading down 1.66 percent to 370.44 (1355GMT).
Pharmaceutical firm Glaxo Smith Kline has announced the appointment of Emma Walmsley as the firm’s first female chief executive, taking over from its current CEO Sir Andrew Witty in 2017.
Walmsley will become one of only seven female CEOS in the FTSE 100. She is currently the firm’s head of consumer healthcare, spending 17 years at cosmetics company L’Oreal before joining Glaxo Smith Kline in 2010.
GSK’s chairman Philip Hampton commented:
“Emma is an outstanding leader with highly valuable experience of building and running major global businesses and a strong track record of delivering growth and driving performance in healthcare.”
Newly appointed CEO Emma Walmsley
Current CEO Andrew Witty has been with the firm for over 30 years, overseeing initiatives including plans to drop patents in the world’s poorest countries and overseeing the development of a malaria vaccine.
In a company statement, Emma Walmsley said she was “delighted and honoured” to take on the role.
“We have the opportunity and the potential to create meaningful benefits for patients, consumers and our shareholders,” she continued.
GSK (LON:GSK) shares moved up steadily on the news, currently trading up 0.12 percent at 1,648.00 (1305GMT).
Leading fund manager Neil Woodford has criticised UK investors for taking a “short-term” approach to tech start-ups, arguing that more capital must be made available for entrepreneurs.
Speaking to the BBC as part of their Tech Talent coverage, Woodford said, “We have been appallingly bad at giving those minnows the long-term capital they need.” He says financing is a major issue in the UK, arguing that investors are not looking at the long-term gains and want investments that are too short-term.
The BBC are currently investigating why so many huge tech firms such as Facebook and Google are headquartered in the US. Whilst the UK is generally good at developing lots of small scale businesses, a lack of long-term funding is the reason many do not take manage to step up to the next level.
Rohan Silva, a former advisor to David Cameron, praised the government’s tax breaks for small-scale businesses but said finding “scale-up cash” needed to help companies grow is still “a big challenge”.
“There is a big role for government in providing a bunch of that funding, particularly when it comes to research in the laboratory and helping that go to market,” he said.
Apple continues to dominate the smartphone market following the iPhone 7 launch last Friday and difficulties faced by Samsung’s recall of various Galaxy devices.
Despite disappointing sales for previous iPhone 6 models, consumer sales for the new handset have thus far proved promising for European networks and phone stockists. On Friday, the iPhone went on sale in 28 countries, marking its biggest global launch to date.
Nevertheless, the added and somewhat incremental changes on the iPhone have underwhelmed critics, as Apple continues to find it difficult to revolutionise the much-loved handset. The addition of a wireless headphone jack and waterproofing has nonetheless proved popular with consumers. The new wireless ‘AirPods’ will be released soon, retailing at £159; a sharp increase from the £29 the older ‘EarPods’ currently retail at. This latest release comes alongside the reconfiguration of the iPhone operating system, iOS 10.
Moreover, Apple have benefited from a recently publicised issue with Samsung devices as a result of a widespread manufacturing fault affecting Galaxy Note 7 smartphones. This caused several of the models device batteries to explode, and led to a global recall of thousands of handsets. It has been speculated that up to 2.5 million Galaxy devices may be affected by the glitch, costing the South Korean tech giants Samsung up to $2 million (£1.5million). Pressure to compete with the impending release of the iPhone 7 has been cited as a potential cause of the manufacturing error, after Samsung’s attempts to rush production. Bloomberg intelligence analyst, Andrea Lei said of the error “Clearly, they missed something…they were rushing to beat Apple and they made a mistake.”
Despite the relatively lacklustre renovations of the iPhone 7, Apple continues to benefit from Samsung’s Galaxy complications and high consumer demand. Independent financial advisor Raymond James has subsequently raised its price target for Apple to $139 from $129, projecting a 20% stock rise as a result of the unexpectedly strong performance of iPhone 7 sales.
British banks may lose their passporting rights to operate across the EU unless the UK stays within the European Economic Area.
The head of Germany’s central bank Jens Weidmann has warned on the impact it would have on the British banking industry, possibly forcing international banks to consider moving to other European cities to retain the ability to conduct business across the EU.
“Passporting rights are tied to the single market and would automatically cease to apply if Great Britain is no longer at least part of the European Economic Area,” Weidmann told the Guardian newspaper.
His comments come after the formation of a new lobby group led by Conservative Eurosceptics campaigning for Britain to leave the European single market and end free movement. The ‘Leave Means Leave’ campaign’s hard line would, according to Weidmann, include the end of passporting for British banks.
As part of the campaign’s launch, the group says remaining in the single market is the “‘no say. low growth, regulatory burden, sovereignty illusion’ option locking in perpetual trade deficits”.
Weidmann also warned of complacency over the health of Britain’s economy.
“Britain hasn’t even applied to leave yet,” he said. “To assume on the basis of the developments so far that there won’t be any negative consequences would be to draw false conclusions.”
Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) shares fell over 8 percent in early trading after being asked to pay $14 billion to settle an investigation into its practices in the US.
The bank has been under investigation by the the US Department of Justice into the the bank’s issuance and underwriting of residential mortgage-backed securities between 2005 and 2007.
In a statement released this morning Deutsche Bank said it “has no intent to settle these potential civil claims anywhere near the number cited”, adding that “the negotiations are only just beginning.”
Residential mortgage-backed securities were a key factor in causing the 2008 financial crisis and several US banks have been under investigation since.
Deutsche Bank is down 8.29 percent at 13.54.
MPs have launched an inquiry into the salaries of top business executives in the wake of several shareholder revolts over pay.
Prime Minister Theresa May has vowed to decrease the pay gap between CEOs and the average worker, calling it ‘irrational’ and ‘unhealthy’. May’s plans include making shareholder votes on corporate pay binding and publicising the ratio between a CEO’s pay and that of the average worker in the company.
The investigation by MPs comes after both BHS and Sports Direct faced questions over their governance by the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee.
Committee chair Iain Wright said it needed to look “at the laws that govern business and how they are enforced”, adding that “good corporate governance shouldn’t be a hindrance to business.”
The average pay of FTSE 100 CEOs rose more than 10 percent in 2015, according to a survey released in August, meaning CEOs now earn 140 times more than their employees. Whilst the findings of the Business, Innovation and Skills committee are not binding on government, it is likely to add to the increasing pressure for change amongst the public.
Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HL) shares fell on Thursday after being downgraded from buy to sell by investment group Liberum.
The group cited industry headwinds as a reason for the downgrade, including a possible further cut in the base rate.
Liberum’s Justin Bates commented:
“There is no doubting the formidable track record and strength of the Hargreaves Lansdown business model. However, trading on a PE of 36x, with the prospect of consensus downgrades and significant industry headwinds, Liberum view the risk/reward as unfavourable.
“The possibility of further cuts to base rates, increased regulatory capital requirements, margin pressure and the FCA’s review of the industry add up to a challenging outlook.”
The downgrade comes a just over a week after strong preliminary full year results. Net revenue rose 11 percent to £326.5 million, with profit up 10 percent to £218.9 million.
Shares were down 3.17 percent to 1,276 at 1010GMT.
UK unemployment data has dodged a downturn in the wake of Brexit, remaining steady at 4.9 percent.
The figure represents a 0.6 percent fall from this time last year, with the total unemployment figure at 1.63 million.
The positive data suggests the job market has yet to feel a negative effect from Brexit, despite warnings from major businesses before the referendum.
Ben Brettell, senior economist at Hargreaves Lansdown, commented:
“The UK’s labour market proved resilient in the immediate aftermath of the vote to leave the EU, ONS data has shown.
“This is the latest piece of evidence which shows the economy has fared better than expected since June’s referendum.”
The figures were supported by a strong growth in self-employment and a lean towards part-time working. Growth in average weekly earnings including bonuses also slowed slightly, increasing 2.3 percent on last year, but remaining ahead of the UK’s 0.6 percent inflation rate.
China’s industrial output rose more than expected in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, suggesting higher government spending is having the desired effect on demand.
Industrial output rose 6.3 percent in August from a year earlier, its fastest jump in five months. Demand across all sectors spiked, suggesting growth for the year may well remain within the government’s target of between 6.5 and 7 percent.
Car sales hit a three and a half year high, with retail sales up from 10.2 percent to 10.6 percent.
The figures are a welcome change from recent disappointing economic data to come from China, most of which pointed towards a slowdown in growth.
PSBC launches share sale
China’s Postal Savings Bank of China has announced plans to raise $8 billion by listing on the Hong Kong stock market.
It will be the making it the world’s biggest share sale this year, and the largest since AliBaba floated in 2014.
However the response from traders is likely to be weak, with most shares being bought by ‘cornerstone investors’. A group of six cornerstone investors are expected to buy about 72 percent of the shares on offer.
