Thursday set for Greece deadline
The Eurozone has given Greece until Thursday to come to an agreement with their creditors.
European Council President Donald Tusk confirmed that “the final deadline is this week,” after emergency talks in Brussels. He stated that it was the “most critical moment in the history of the eurozone”.
Whilst there were expectations that Greece would present new proposals on Tuesday, however none were forthcoming.
On Sunday, a meeting of all 28 members of the EU will be held and Greece’s future will be decided. In comments to French TV on Wednesday morning, the EU’s Economy Commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, said agreement with Greece was “indispensible” and a Greek exit from the Eurozone must be avoided.
Omega Diagnostics down 19% after publication of final results
Omega Diagnostics (AIM:ODX) is one of the biggest movers on the AIM market today, down 19.67% after publishing their final results for the year ending March 2015.
Their turnover is up 4% at £12.1 million and gross profit is up 4% at £7.7 million.
However, in a company statement a problem with their product Visitant(R) CD4 was cited, which could be the reason behind the drop in share price despite otherwise promising results. Chairman David Evans commented:
“Since our last update on Visitect(R) CD4 confirming completion of the internal investigation phase, we moved into the process of verification and validation. This includes testing the longer-term stability of in-house manufactured finished devices, and as such, could not commence until the manufacturing process had been selected. We have determined within the last few days that there is a stability issue with finished product that manifests after a period of five weeks of storage at room temperature. This requires further investigation as to root cause, which is being undertaken now.”
Omega is one of the UK’s leading companies in the fast growing area of food intolerance, and also operates in markets supplying tests for allergies and autoimmune diseases and specific infectious diseases.
Hotcha launches mini bond on Crowdcube
Bristol-based Chinese takeaway restaurant Hotcha has become the latest company to advertise an investment opportunity on Crowdcube.
Their mini bond offers a choice of financial return – investors can choose either an 8% interest rate, payable in cash, or a 12% interest rate redeemable in store credit.
The initial investment starts at a minimum of £250, and the company are looking to raise a total of £1 million. The opportunity has 44 days left and has already raised nearly a quarter of the total needed.
The team behind the project come from a variety of relevant industries, bringing a wealth of expertise to the table. Co-Founders James Laing and Andy Chan both have experience managing and directing sales-based companies and believe that, in order for the business to be successful, the simple things should be done right; in other words, the food should be fast, friendly and fresh.
Mini-bonds provide a regular return on your savings by lending money to more established brands over a set period. For more information on Hotcha’s investment opportunity, visit Crowcube.com.
What to expect from the Budget
This will be the first purely Conservative Budget in nearly 20 years and the first of the new government.
Even though we already had a Budget earlier this year, this Summer Budget is a sort of ‘emergency budget’, similar to the one George Osborne called following their victory in 2010.
The emergency budget will be held 8th July at 12:30 BST.
This is what the UK Investor Magazine is expecting from the Budget
- The 40% tax rate raised to £50,000
- Increase of personal allowance to £12,500 by 2020
- Possible abolition of 45% tax rate
- Announcement to allow round-the-clock Sunday trading
- Removal of inheritance tax on couple’s estates worth under £1 million
- Cuts in council rent subsidies for those with reasonable incomes
- The controversial announcement of £12 billion in welfare cuts
- Cuts to tax credits
- Further reforms to pension making them simpler to understand
- Removal of buy-to-let tax breaks
Cineworld posts 11.3% rise in profit
Cineworld (LON:CINE) posted an 11.2% increase in revenue for their first half as they benefitted from a good film release schedule and cinema openings.
“During the first half of the year we traded well with a good film release schedule and in addition continued our expansion plans, by opening three new Cineworld cinemas in the U.K. (Swindon, Broughton and Silverburn, with 31 screens in total) and one Picturehouse (in East Dulwich with 3 screens)…we are on track to open a further 6 cinemas in the U.K.–with a total 47 screens, of which 5 will be Picturehouse screens, the company said.
The outlook for the second half of the year is also encouraging, Cineworld is highly impacted by external factors such as film releases and film trends and are looking forward to what H2 has in store.
The strong results have led to N+1 Singer reiterating their buy stance on Cineworld, analysts are targeting a price of 550p citing admissions growth as reason to be optimistic.
“There is a promising film release programme during the second half of the year which includes titles such as “Star Wars: Episode VII”, the final Hunger Games title “Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2” and the next James Bond film “Spectre”, the company said in there results.
Shares in Cineworld are up 48% over the last two years.
Samsung performs below expectations in second quarter
Second quarter earnings for tech giant Samsung are likely to be below expectations, the company announced this morning.
Operating profit is likely to fall 4% to £3.9 billion in the period from April to June, with sales also falling 8%.
The company cites supply issues with its Samsung Galaxy S6 as a reason for its low forecasts for the second quarter, but says these have now been resolved.
The company is having difficulty selling its Samsung smartphones in a market that is very much dominated by Apple.
Samsung shares closed up 0.8% after reversing early losses. The company’s final detailed results will be released at the end of this month.
Tsipras to present new proposal at Eurozone summit
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is expected to present a new proposal at the Eurozone emergency summit later today.
This comes after the Greek people rejected the deal that was already on the table in a referendum on Sunday, despite being warned it was the ‘final deal’ Europe’s leaders were prepared to discuss.
Tsipras’ new plan is set to include a demand for debt to be cut by 30%, and a discussion on debt restructuring.
The Prime Minister has been urged to make “serious proposals”, as Greece faces an exit from the Euro.
Oil hit by Greece, China
Brent Crude broke beneath $60 per barrel today as Greek and Chinese fears hit sentiment.
Greece again was the source of investor woes and risk assets were unilaterally sold off as Greeks voted no in yesterday’s referendum.
“All signs point south for oil prices,” Capital Economics said in its Monday note.
China, the world’s second largest consumer of oil has suffered huge uncertainty in its stock markets which is filtering through to the wider economy.
Efforts by the authorities have failed to stabilise prices and fears are that they may be powerless to control a domestic crisis.
China “is a huge cause for concern and as such can’t be bullish for oil,” said Tamas Vargas, an analyst at PVM brokerage in London
Brent oil traded down at $58.44 in London afternoon trading.
What next for Greece?
The Greek people have made a stand and rejected further austerity measures from its government after voting no in yesterday’s referendum.
The Greek government hoped that the referendum would give them a better position in talks with creditors but European officials have thwarted any optimism of a quick deal.
ECB’s Nowotny said this morning that a deal in the next two days was “illusory.” Not what Tsipras would have liked to have heard.
In fact, as opposed to yesterday’s referendum cementing the Greek government, it appears to have unnerved some of the leading figures.
Greek Finance Minister Varoufakis resigned early this morning, a move he said he would make in the case of a yes vote.
The surprise announcement was met by a move higher in the Euro currency as investors looked forward to his replacement taking a softer stance on the relationship with creditors and a possible deal.
A deal, however, seems just as far away as it was on Friday.
Greece are in dire need of taking serious action. EU officials have again reiterated their conditions; Greece needs to make deep structural changes to welfare and taxes to secure the next tranche of aid.
The Greeks on the other hand, are pushing for a haircut to their debt mountain, something that some officials are saying is not going to happen.
The deadlock continues and the referendum has done nothing to ease tensions. The next moves by individual players are going to be key in how this crisis plays out.
The actions by the ECB will be pivotal to Greece’s ongoing inclusion in the Eurozone. Greek banks a heavily reliant on liquidity provisions from the ECB, if these are halted Greek banks will quickly drain and collapse. If the ECB withdraws support, it is likely to be the beginning of the end for Greece and their time in the Euro.
There are many payments Greece will have to make in the coming weeks, but the most important and one most likely to shape Greece’s future, is the payment due to the European Central Bank 20th July. If this payment is missed the ECB will be forced to reconsider ELA, a possible catalyst for Greece’s exit.
Ratings agency S&P have issued a note saying the chance of Greece leaving the Euro is now higher than them staying in.
This sentiment has been echoed by many investment banks.
Heineken and Carlsberg fight for Myanmar
Multinational beer companies Carlsberg and Heineken are fighting to expand into Myanmar, as some of Europe’s largest brewers turn to far-flung parts of the world for growth.
Myanmar has huge potential, with 80 percent of the adult population drinks beer solely produced by Myanmar Brewery, a company linked to the country’s former ruling military. After decades of isolation, the country is beginning to warm to consumerism, and has opened up its borders and begun to welcome tourism.
Beer sales in Myanmar rose 14 percent to $265 million between 2009 and 2013, and are forecast to reach $675 million by 2018, according to Euromonitor. Myanmar is showing strength as an emerging market and both Heineken and Carlsberg consider now to be a good time for expansion.
Heineken are no stranger to emerging markets; in 1991 they made a profitable move into Vietnam, which is now their third largest market.
“The calculated risks Heineken takes in emerging markets are an important part of the company’s future growth,” said Leo Evers, head of Heineken’s business in Vietnam.
Heineken shares fell 0.7 percent to 67.60 euros at 12:21 p.m. in Amsterdam, trimming this year’s gain to 15 percent.