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.
Canada’s Garda World considering a bid for outsourcer G4S (GFS) . Security company confirms it is looking at making cash offer for all or part of UK group. Canada’s Garda World Security has confirmed that it is considering making a cash offer for some or all of the UK outsourcing company G4S. G4S shares jumped 30% on the news,heading for their biggest single-day gain and lifting the company’s market value to about £3.8bn. The world’s largest security company, G4S has UK government contracts to run facilities including prisons and immigration centres, as well as providing security staff for a wide range of organisations and live events. It also operates a range of outsourced services for the NHS. The statement from privately held Garda World came after the London Evening Standard reported market talk of a potential bid. G4S declined to comment on the report.
Stagecoach fury after it is barred from three rail bids. Stagecoach Group (SGC) accused ministers of putting the future of the UK rail industry in doubt on Wednesday in a stinging attack as ministers dropped a pensions bombshell on the sector. The transport firm reacted after being disqualified by the Department for Transport from bidding for three new franchises for “non-compliant” bids. Stagecoach was chasing the East Midlands franchise, the Southeastern deal with support from Alstom and the West Coast franchise in a joint bid with Virgin and SNCF. But at the 11th hour Stagecoach was told it was being dropped because of its unwillingness to bear the long-term funding risk for railway pensions during the eight-year franchise period.
Indivior shares crash 74% after US charge over opioid scheme. British company accused of illegal marketing of Suboxone Film to drug addicts. The British pharmaceutical company Indivior (INDV) had more than £560m wiped from its market value on Wednesday after the US justice department charged it with fraudulent marketing of its treatment for people addicted to opioids. The indictment demanded the forfeiture of $3bn in cash, as well as all of Invidior’s main business divisions, bank accounts, trademarks and patents – effectively meaning the company would cease to exist if found guilty. A grand jury in the federal court in Abingdon, in the US state of Virginia, said Indivior marketed Suboxone Film, an opioid-based drug, as a safe and controllable treatment for opioid and heroin addiction. However, the indictment on Tuesday said that Indivior – until 2014 part of Reckitt Benckiser – sought to boost sales by telling healthcare providers and programmes that Suboxone Film, which contains the opioid buprenorphine, was better and safer than similar drugs, when in fact it was not.
Rolls Royce to heighten Trent 1000 engines checks due to blade hit. Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) will ramp up inspections on a popular jet engine used by more than a dozen airlines after discovering turbine blades were wearing out faster than expected. Checks on the Trent 1000 Ten engine, launched in November 2017, will increase over the next few months after signs too much flying at high thrust caused the blades to wear out prematurely. The move comes after Singapore Airlines grounded two jumbos fitted with the engines last week after identifying the issue. Rolls has suffered problems with vulnerable rotor blades before on two other versions of the Trent 1000.
Tesco says shoppers are feeling ‘Brexit fatigue’ but not stockpiling. Supermarket’s chief executive Dave Lewis says consumer markets have remained stable. Tesco (TSCO) , Britain’s biggest retailer, says shoppers have not changed their behaviour ahead of Brexit and are not stockpiling despite an “uncertain” outlook. The group, which reported a 28% increase in profits for last year, said it had almost completed a turnaround, kicked off four years ago after an accounting scandal and a slump in performance. “It’s been a very, very good year,” said the chief executive, Dave Lewis. “We have strong plans and a very strong platform for the future.” While shoppers were expressing “Brexit fatigue” in customer surveys, Lewis said, consumer markets remained stable and a rise in inflation in recent months was within industry norms.
Asos pays price for being complacent as profits plunge. The boss of ASOS (ASC) on Wednesday admitted the online fashion retailer had become complacent as its profits plunged. Chief executive Nick Beighton said: “We’re not satisfied with the results. We’re capable of much, much more.” He said he regretted not introducing enough new own-brand products to its website. But “we’re on that,” he added. “I wish we would’ve done it earlier in the season. It’s a competitive market. Every month competition gets better and so it should.”
McCarthy & Stone offers sweeteners to lure retirement home customers. Retirement homes builder McCarthy & Stone (MCS) is relying more heavily on price cuts and other incentives to sell homes in a tough housing market, the firm admitted on Wednesday. The firm, catering for the UK’s growing grey army, is increasingly using tactics like part exchange to encourage sales in a much more difficult climate since the referendum, according to chief executive John Tonkiss. Tonkiss has been cost-cutting to boost margins since taking over last year, with the group shedding nearly 200 jobs. The associated costs slashed pre-tax profits by two-thirds to £3.6 million in the six months to February 28.
Hollywood Bowl is on a roll with sales growth. Hollywood Bowl Group (BOWL) , which has just opened the UK’s biggest tenpin bowling centre in a decade, on Wednesday posted higher first-half sales. Shares in the tenpin bowling operator increased 6p, or 2.7%, to 226p after it cheered a “strong” start to the year. Revenues in the six months to March 31 increased 5.3% and comparable sales rose 4.4%. The update comes just weeks after Hollywood Bowl opened its new 34,000 square feet venue at Intu’s Lakeside shopping centre. Other new branches include in Watford, and the firm now has 60 sites.
Supreme Court ruling leaves mining firms facing new legal threats. Mining companies and oil producers could face the threat of legal action in the UK for environmental damage or human rights abuses committed elsewhere in the world after a landmark Supreme Court ruling. The UK’s highest court has ruled that 1,800 impoverished villagers in Zambia can pursue damages against Vedanta Resources (VED) for alleged contamination of water supplies by its subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM). Judges threw out Vedanta’s appeal against two earlier rulings in the villagers’ favour by the High Court and the Court of Appeal. They agreed that Vedanta was ultimately liable as the parent company of KCM, which operated the mine.
Associated British Foods (ABF) , the owner of Dorset Cereals, Ryvita crispbreads and Silver Spoon sugar, overcame a sluggish market this morning as the food manufacturing sector transforms itself. Barclays declared that “small is the new big and speed the new scale” in the food industry but it believes that generational leadership changes at the top of major companies will help them to recover lost ground. The bank’s analysts told clients that the company was a top pick. The analysts said that the traditional advantages of scale, big brands and mass marketing in the sector have been eroded but acknowledged that large European food businesses were becoming more flexible. Barclays believes that it will be harder for smaller brands to “blindside” the dominant players again and predicts that larger companies would prevail on “the next big battlegrounds”: food personalisation and consumers’ data.