Below are the key morning press headlines, featuring the The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
Urgent reform of business rates and the apprenticeship levy is “essential” to help retailers to navigate the challenges posed by changing shopping habits, the industry has warned. The British Retail Consortium yesterday called on political parties to consider the plight of physical shops in their election manifestos. With high rates of closures and job losses, the group said that action must be taken “to ensure the industry can continue to support local communities up and down the country”. The consortium, which represents more than 5,000 businesses, said that business rates were “accelerating store closures, job losses and declining high streets and hindering the industry’s ability to invest in the stores of the future and in new technology which will benefit UK shoppers”.
Sirius Minerals (SXX) is trying to breathe new life into its £5 billion fertiliser mine under the North York Moors National Park by touting for a “strategic investor” to help to provide $600 million to get the project back on track. Sirius is being watched closely by its army of 85,000 retail shareholders, many of them locals, who have been backing the project. Politicians in North Yorkshire say that the government should intervene to kick-start the project, to create hundreds of jobs, a new industry and boost a regional economy affected by the decline of the steel sector. The company is constructing the Woodsmith Mine, close to the coastal town of Whitby. The deep mine is seeking large deposits of polyhalite, a type of potash used in fertiliser. However, progress to secure the project’s future stalled in September when the issue of a $500 million junk bond, key to unlocking much greater investment, was withdrawn.
Greggs (GRG) faces a hit from an African swine fever epidemic which is pushing up global pork prices. The firm could be among the businesses stung by the outbreak, which has infected 100 million pigs in China alone and wiped out a quarter of the animals worldwide, analysts at Peel Hunt said. Despite that, Greggs’ shares shot up by more than 17% after it raised profit forecasts for the fourth time this year. Greggs now expects full-year profits to be higher than previously expected, with in-house broker Edison previously forecasting earnings of £107m.
The battle over Just Eat (JE.) has intensified after one of the suitors lowered the bar on its hostile takeover offer. Investment firm Prosus said it now needs to win the backing of 75% of the food delivery group’s shareholders – down from the previous target of 90%. Prosus is attempting to hijack a previously agreed deal that would see Just Eat bought by rival Takeaway.com. Prosus chief executive Bob van Dijk said there was no need to increase his 710p-per-share offer, or £4.9 billion, in order to win over investors. ‘We believe it offers fair value and gives shareholders certainty,’ he said, contrasting his company’s cash bid with Takeaway’s offer, which will be paid in shares. However, Just Eat’s board stuck to its guns, once again rejecting van Dijk’s bid to win its business because the offer ‘fails to appropriately reflect the quality of Just Eat’.
Dignity (DTY) is seeking to cash in on a trend for mail order funerals as relatives seek alternative ways to remember their loved ones. Dignity has seen a surge in sales of direct cremations – in which the funeral provider collects and cremates the body, then returns the ashes. Chief executive Mike McCollum speculated direct cremations could eventually account for 20pc of the overall market from just a few percent now. The service is much cheaper – typically less than half the average funeral cost in the UK of £3,757- but Mr McCollum said attitudes rather than cost was driving the trend.
A recovery could be on the way for Aston Martin Holdings (AML) , according to HSBC. Analysts at the bank are encouraging investors to snap up Aston’s cut-price stock, upgrading it to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ and lifting its target price from 533p to 550p. After a disastrous first year as a public company, the recent third-quarter results were a relief to investors and the future looks brighter for the struggling luxury car maker. Although it published a third-quarter loss of £13.5m, it left its full-year guidance unchanged – pleasantly surprising the City, which was widely expecting another downgrade. The upcoming James Bond film No Time To Die, featuring four Astons, will provide a boost, HSBC says. And the launch of its family-targeted SUV, the DBX, could be ‘a turning point for the equity story’. ‘After months of underperformance and the future of the company at stake, we believe the launch of the DBX is potentially game-changing,’ HSBC analysts said, adding that it’s ‘no time to die’ for Aston just yet.
Informa (INF) has bought a stake in a networking business for entrepreneurs set up by one of the co-founders of Lastminute.com. Informa said yesterday that it had made a minority investment in Founders Forum and had started a joint venture with the organisation, which holds events that bring together investors, chief executives and technology entrepreneurs. The forum was co-founded by Brent Hoberman, 50, who with Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, 46, was behind Lastminute.com, an online travel agent that epitomised the dotcom boom at the turn of the century
A string of partnerships to provide international money payments has made Finablr PLC (FIN) “highly confident” about its prospects. The global payments platform said that its adjusted income had risen by 9% to $1.2 billion in the first nine months of the year, while earnings were up 22% to $182.3 million. Finablr has signed deals with Samsung, the South Korean electronics group, to provide international money transfers to 47 countries, and Airtel Africa, the telecoms and money services business, to allow customers to send money from more than 100 countries into Airtel Money wallets across Africa. It also announced an agreement with China Union Pay to collaborate on cross-border payments into mainland China.