Below are the key morning headlines from today’s papers, featuring the Financial Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
British inventor Sir James Dyson on Tuesday ramped up his plans to take on Elon Musk in the fight for control of the electric car market, choosing Singapore as the home for its new vehicle manufacturing base. His eponymous company plans to invest £2 billion into the new vehicles, of which £1 billion will go into battery technology and the other £1 billion into the construction of the cars. There will be several different models which should be available to buy in 2021, one year after the site itself is complete.
JK Rowling’s Harry Potter fuels Bloomsbury profit rise. Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential also helps boost publisher’s profits by 13%. A surge in sales of Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential and growing demand for the perennial favourite Harry Potter has helped to fuel a rise in first-half profits and revenue for the book publisher Bloomsbury Publishing (BMY) . The death in June of the 61-year-old TV chef and writer Bourdain resulted in a jump in sales of his no-holds-barred insider’s take on the New York restaurant business that catapulted him to fame when it was published in 2000. Nigel Newton, the chief executive of Bloomsbury Publishing, said of the recent Kitchen Confidential sales: “It was unexpected; there were a lot of ebook downloads, a lot of people wanted to read his master work.”
Spread-betting firm Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) had better news for the City on Tuesday after a turbulent summer as it weathered a crackdown on the sector by European watchdogs. The Israel-based company rode the bitcoin boom this year but its shares are almost 40% down on their August peak. The shares fell sharply after its founders sold a major chunk of the business. Gaming software company Playtech (PTEC) also jettisoned a legacy stake from a failed takeover of Plus500 in 2015. Around 9% of its shares are on loan with short-sellers betting on further falls. Plus500 said third-quarter revenues were down 14% on the same period last year, including two months of new restrictions from the European Securities and Markets Authority, which limit the amount of borrowing punters can use to enhance winnings.
Whitbread to expand Premier Inn portfolio in Germany after Costa sale. Like-for-like sales at hotel chain almost ground to a halt in six months to 30 August. Premier Inn’s owner, Whitbread (WTB) , is planning a major push into the German hotels market after the sale of its Costa Coffee business to Coca-Cola. Alison Brittain, Whitbread’s chief executive, said the company would plough some of the proceeds from the agreed £3.9bn sale into expanding its hotels business but a “significant proportion” of the money would be returned to shareholders. Whitbread is rolling out its Premier Inn chain in Germany, where it has one hotel in Frankfurt, with more hotels to open in Munich and Hamburg in the coming months. It expects to have 33 hotels with 6,000 rooms in Germany by 2021, which would make it one of the biggest budget hotel operators in that country.
Shares in Communisis (CMS) have rocketed after it agreed to a £153.8 million cash takeover offer from US payment solutions firm OSG Group. Communisis investors have been offered 71p per share in cash, representing a premium of 40% to last night’s closing price of 50.8p. Private equity-owned OSG is a leading independent provider of outsourced omnichannel billing, critical communications and payment solutions. David Gilbertson, chairman said: “Whilst the Communisis Board believes that the business would have a promising future as an independent listed company, a combination with OSG will provide Communisis with the scale, global presence and digital technology capabilities to ensure it remains at the forefront of its industry and maximises its future potential.”
Safestyle UK (SFE) which rocketed yesterday, this session Safestyle shares have fallen back 1.2p to 77.2p. The focus today has been on Invesco as it emerged that on Friday it had more than doubled its 5% stake in Safestyle to 10.2% – netting a tidy £1 million profit. Timing is everything in this market. The asset manager refused to comment on the decision
Britain’s biggest wealth manager St James’s Place (STJ) has announced that assets under management topped £100billion despite growing uncertainty in the financial markets. The FTSE 100 firm, which offers face-to-face advice on investments, pensions and tax to wealthy retail clients, saw the net inflow of funds of £7.58billion in the nine months to the end of September, up 15% on the same period last year. The increase and client retention rate ‘strong’ at 96% took funds under management to £100.6billion, which is up 11% since the beginning of the year and 17% higher over a 12-month period.
Steep declines at DIY chain Wickes over the last three months have overshadowed an otherwise sturdy performance from parent company Travis Perkins (TPK) . The group said today that it is ploughing ahead with a cost-cutting drive to stem the decay at its retail division, where sales tumbled 4.2%. The falling sales were driven by disappointing sales of kitchens and bathrooms during the quarter. Shoppers are treading with caution before splashing out on major home improvement projects in the run up to Brexit while some uncertainty around the UK economy remains.
