Below are the key headlines from today’s updated papers, featuring the Financial Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
Fuller’s agrees to sell London beer business to Japan’s Asahi in £250m deal. Fuller Smith & Turner (FSTA) , one of London’s last remaining big brewers, on Friday agreed a £250 million sale of its beer arm in a shock move that will net the founding families a multi-million pound payday. The firm, which makes beer at the Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, has agreed to offload its beer division to Japanese brewing giant Asahi, which is behind the Peroni and Grolsch brands. The deal will see Asahi take control of the production and distribution of ales such as London Pride, as well as ciders. The sale also includes the freehold of the historic brewery. Fuller’s, led by Simon Emeny, will return between £55 million and £69 million to shareholders. The company is just over 50% owned by the founding Fuller and Turner families. Shares in Fuller’s surged 166p, or more than 18%, to 1075p. The firm, founded in 1845, now plans to focus on its 381 mainly freehold pubs and hotels.
European price war puts squeeze on Vodafone Group (VOD) revenue. A price war in southern Europe has continued to squeeze Vodafone, with quarterly revenue dropping under its new chief executive. The world’s second largest mobile operator said that group revenue had declined 6.8% to €11 billion in the three months to the end of December on a statutory basis. Sales in Spain and Italy, where Vodafone is grappling with low-cost challengers, dropped 7.3% and 2.8% respectively during the third quarter and growth was also weighed down by weakness in its South African market. On an underlying basis, group service revenue rose 0.1% year-on-year in the final three months of 2018. This compares to 0.8% in the previous six months and analyst expectations of 0.3%. Despite the pressures, the company reiterated its full-year forecasts of growth of about 3% in underlying earnings.
Findel (FDL) — the online discount retailer in which Sports Direct tycoon Ashley has a 29.9% stake — said its profits will be towards the upper end (£28 million) of what the City was expecting this year. Sales were boosted by personalised gifts in the third-quarter to the end of December. Shares rose 12p, or 6%, to 212p
Tribal Group (TRB) – Shares in the company — which sells software to universities — tanked 9.9p, or 12%, to 70p after it received a letter from one of its resellers demanding between £15 million and £30 million in royalty payments. Tribal claims this has come as a total surprise given that they have been using the unnamed reseller for nearly 20 years, adding that there has never been any problems in the past. The letter from the reseller says that Tribal has failed to account properly for royalties under the terms of an agreement signed in 2000 and had breached the terms of that agreement. Tribal said: “The board does not consider the claims to be justified.” Tribal added that the reseller in question has recently been taken over by an unnamed American private equity firm and that this might explain its new aggressive attitude
Burford Capital (BUR) was up 30p at 1812p. Liberum believes the industry is managing $15 billion (£11.5 billion) in assets, but that it could grow to $50 billion. Analyst Ben Williams said: “We expect Burford’s litigation investments to grow from $2.7 billion in 2017 to $5.5 billion in 2022. We recognise that this is huge. The $251 million equity raised in early October shows Burford’s growth ambitions.” Rivals Manolete Partners and Litigation Capital Management also gained.
Mastercard crashes Visa play for Earthport (EPO) with £233m bid. Mastercard has made a £233m offer for struggling payments minnow Earthport in a bid that scuppers rival Visa’s move for the business. Shares in Earthport soared 29% to 35.9p on Friday after it emerged that Mastercard had trumped Visa’s £200m offer. Visa had hired Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs to advise it on its move and announced its bid last month. Earthport is now urging shareholders to instead vote in favour of a takeover by Mastercard, which at 33p a share is 342% higher than Earthport’s closing price of 7.45p before Visa’s deal was announced.
Rentokil told to sell contracts to seal merger. Rentokil Initial (RTO) , one of the country’s biggest suppliers of soap and hand dryers for public toilets, has been told to sell a number of contracts to secure its merger with Cannon Hygiene, after the competition watchdog warned the deal could lead to higher prices. The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) said it must sell off all of its contracts with national and multinational regional customers that Cannon Hygiene previously served to tie up the deal. The watchdog warned that merger could result in “higher prices or a worst deal for customers”.
Irn Bru maker Barr (A.G.) (BAG) fears more regulation in wake of sugar tax. The maker of Irn Bru has warned on further regulatory invention in the soft drinks industry and Brexit uncertainty despite predicting higher full-year revenues. AG Barr, which also makes Rubicon, Stathmore and Funkin, said the sugar tax that came into force in April last year was affecting sales with margins also under pressure. “Further regulatory intervention is on the horizon” and consumer habits were changing, the Scottish soft drink manufacturer said. Last year AG Barr overhauled its range of drinks to reduce sugar content and changed the recipe for its Irn Bru range.
Indivior wins latest legal skirmish in battle to defend drug from generic rivals. Pharmaceutical company Indivior (INDV) has won a victory in its fight against generic competition to its key opioid addiction treatment after a US court issued a restraining order preventing a copycat drug from entering the market. Indivior has been locked in a number of long-running court battles to defend its patent for Suboxone, a once-daily oral treatment for opioid addiction that dissolves under the tongue. This latest skirmish involves Alvogen Pine Brook, a pharmaceutical company that wants to launch a generic version of Suboxone onto the US market before Indivior’s patent expires.
Vodafone ‘pauses’ use of Huawei kit in core networks amid espionage concerns. Vodafone Group (VOD) will pause installation of hardware created by Chinese technology business Huawei in its core networks, the company’s chief executive said on Friday. The decision by Vodafone places more pressure on Huawei, which has seen its hardware blocked by several phone networks around the world in recent months following growing concern over the business’ closeness to the Chinese government. Nick Read, Vodafone’s chief executive, said during the business’ earning call on Friday that Vodafone was communicating with security agencies in the UK, but said that he chose to pause the installation of new hardware in Vodafone’s core network due to “general noise” about the subject. The “noise level is at an unhealthy level across Europe,” Mr Read said of the ongoing debate about the Chinese business. The debate around Huawei risks becoming a “tailspin into more emotion rather than facts,” he said. Vodafone will continue to purchase Huawei technology for its 4G and 5G networks, but will rely on competitors including Nokia and Ericsson in its core network, Mr Read said. The chief executive warned that a ban on Huawei technology would significantly delay the launch of 5G networks.
Bonmarché stops short of another profit warning despite festive slump. Bonmarche Holdings (BON) shop sales fell heavily and online growth slowed over Christmas but the fashion retailer for the over-50s escaped issuing another profit warning, much to the relief of worried investors. Shares in Bonmarché spiked by as much as 12% to 41.7p after the company said its third quarter remained “in line with its revised expectations”. Last month the retailer shocked the City by saying it would make a £4m full-year loss rather than £5m of profits, blaming Brexit uncertainty and “extremely poor” Black Friday sales.