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.
The bosses of Britain’s biggest builders have been paid more than £230million since the Help to Buy scheme was launched five years ago, the Mail can reveal. The chief executives of seven leading companies including Persimmon (PSN), Barratt Developments (BDEV) and Taylor Wimpey (TW.) have seen their pay triple on the back of the taxpayer-funded subsidy. Profits have also jumped fourfold since George Osborne’s housing programme was introduced in April 2013. But the number of new homes built has grown by just 50%. The figures come just a day after Persimmon’s chief executive Jeff Fairburn was forced out after a row over his hefty £102million pay. His pay package, which was cut to £75million after an outcry from investors and the public, was thrust back into the spotlight last month when Fairburn flounced out of a TV interview when asked about the bonus.
Persimmon boss ousted after refusing to hand back more of his £110m bonus. Ousted Persimmon (PSN) boss Jeff Fairburn turned down a final chance in recent weeks to save his job by handing back a bigger chunk of his controversial £75m bonus, The Daily Telegraph understands. A large proportion of the bonus has vested but cannot be cashed in until 2021. Mr Fairburn was offered the chance to forgo some of this. He declined. On Wednesday, the York-based housebuilder revealed it had asked Mr Fairburn to leave following mounting criticism of his record-beating pay package, which the company described as a “distraction”.
Advertisers are reining in spending over Brexit jitters, claims ITV (ITV) chief. Advertising revenues will be hit during the next few months by growing uncertainties over the economy as Britain prepares to leave the European Union, ITV has warned. Dame Carolyn McCall, the broadcaster’s chief executive, blamed an “increasingly uncertain economic environment” for a “softening” in marketing spending on its channels. ITV said that advertising income would fall by 3% in the fourth quarter and by between 6% and 8% next month. Over the full year, revenues would be flat. The forecast suggests that advertisers may have begun to retrench amid concerns that a difficult withdrawal from the EU could hit Britain’s already tepid growth.
Health scare for Wetherspoons’ boss Tim Martin as he warns of profit pressure. The boss of Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) has disclosed that he is working part-time while recovering from a burst appendix as he warned that rising costs will hit the pub chain’s profits. Shares in the FTSE 250 group fell by more than 11% to £11.26 after Tim Martin revealed his health scare alongside the company’s quarterly trading update. The pub chain said it was increasing wages from this week but was not immediately putting up prices, meaning profits are expected to be “slightly below” last year’s.
Mulberry gets a handbagging from House of Fraser collapse. The collapse of House of Fraser has claimed another casualty after Mulberry Group (MUL) reported an £8.2 million loss for the six months to the end of September, citing the 21 concessions that it operated within the department stores chain as a big contributory factor. The fashion brand also blamed fewer tourists coming to Britain and a challenging retail environment for a drop in like-for-like UK sales, although international sales rose by 13%. House of Fraser was bought by Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct after going into administration in August. Mulberry issued a profit warning when the company collapsed. Mr Ashley’s team was not compelled to honour previous trading ties.
Sophos suffers hard landing after fall-off in cyberattacks. More than a quarter was wiped off the value of Sophos Group (SOPH) yesterday after the cybersecurity group warned investors that it expected only “modest” growth in the second half of its financial year. Shares in the company fell by 132½p to 324p, their steepest slide since Sophos was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2015. The company said that billings had grown by only 3.3% in the first half of 2018, compared with 22% growth last year. It blamed the slowdown on tough comparatives with the previous year, when it benefited from the fallout from high-profile cyberattacks such as Notpetya, a hack that hit businesses including Maersk and WPP, and Wannacry, which shut down NHS computers.
Bristow tries to cool Acacia talk. Barrick Gold’s proposed new boss claimed that he “in no way intended to reflect Barrick’s intentions” when he said that he would consider a bid for Acacia Mining (ACA) . Mark Bristow, the Randgold Resources boss, is due to become chief executive of Barrick Group on January 1 after its $6 billion takeover of Randgold is completed. Barrick owns 64 per cent of Acacia Mining, a London-listed miner in dispute with Tanzania. Mr Bristow said on Tuesday that one option for Barrick to help to resolve the dispute would be to buy out Acacia’s minority shareholders.
A third of investors have revolted against excessive executive pay at Abcam (ABC) , one of Britain’s biggest biotechnology companies. Almost 33% of voting shareholders opposed the remuneration report at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, while more than 13% rejected its remuneration policy, which sets executive pay. Abcam is based in Cambridge and supplies products and tools to two thirds of the world’s scientific researchers. It generated pre-tax profit of £69 million last year on revenues of £233 million and is valued at £2.6 billion on the London stock market.
Damage caused by a runaway iron ore train will hit BHP’s sales this quarter, the mining group has admitted, as the first pictures of its mangled wreckage in Western Australia emerged. The world’s biggest mining company said that it was working to repair a stretch of track almost a mile long that was damaged when the train was forcibly derailed after speeding 57 miles without a driver through the Australian outback early on Monday morning. The train, comprising 268 wagons stretching almost two miles in length, was carrying up to 35,000 tonnes of iron ore worth about $2 million when the driver alighted to inspect an issue with a wagon and the train moved off without him. BHP Billiton (BLT) said that more than 130 people were working on repairs to the line, which is thought usually to carry about 20 trains a day from its mines to Port Hedland for export. It expected to resume partial rail operations in about a week’s time.
G4S shares slide after profit warning. Investors took a dim view of a profit warning from G4S (GFS) today as the outsourcing company said it would suffer from weak trading in its cash transportation business, a competitive market in the Benelux region and lower revenues from justice services. The forecast that profits would be flat this year led to the shares falling by 37¾p, to 178½p, their weakest since August 2016. It left City analysts questioning the leadership of Ashley Almanza, the chief executive, and speculating on whether more drastic action was needed.
Marks & Spencer rocked by worst food sales for a decade after scrapping its popular £10 ‘Dine in for Two’ meal deal. Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) boss Steve Rowe said he was facing the facts after its worst food sales in a decade. He said management was ‘turning every stone’ to revive the business after it posted a 2.9% drop in food, with purchases of clothing and homeware products down 1.1%. Revenues declined 3.1% to just under £5billion, but profits edged up 7.1% to £126.7million. The disappointing sales put further pressure on M&S to speed up its transformation plan ahead of Christmas. It is the first time since the second half of the 2008-09 financial year it has posted such poor food sales, when they fell 4.7%
Redrow founder Steve Morgan bows out as chairman to be replaced by chief exec John Tutte. Redrow (RDW) chairman and founder Steve Morgan is to step down from the housebuilder he set up in 1974. The 65-year-old will retire at the end of March having spent two stints as chairman – from 1974 to 2000 and then from 2009 to today. He will be replaced by chief executive John Tutte. Morgan holds a 21% stake in Redrow worth around £420million and his charity, The Morgan Foundation, has shares worth £140million.
Shares in fake tan and hair products maker InnovaDerma (IDP) sank despite a promising update. The Skinny Tan and Roots maker had previously only been able to sell its products in Superdrug due to an exclusivity agreement. But this is coming to an end, and from March they will be sold in Tesco and around 1,250 Boots stores, boosting its network from 800 to 2,400. This should lift revenue for the full year ending June 2019 by 31 per cent to £14million.
