Company News

Greene King & Crawshaw Profit Warnings

In Weatherspoon’s full year results announcement, their CEO Tim Martin took the opportunity to criticise Greene King for blaming poor results on Brexit. He said “The only thing worse than complaining about the weather is complaining about Brexit”, implying that they were poor excuses. Yesterday (13/9/2016) butcher Crawshaw Group went further. In a profit warning “trading update” they blamed suppressed footfall patterns on “international football, adverse weather and Brexit”. In addition they said customers were now even more price focussed and they were ...

Tesco Fraud Charges, Cattles and Globo

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has charged three former managers of Tesco in relation to the overstatement of profits that occurred over several years and which came to light in 2014. The charges are fraud and false accounting and those charged are Carl Rogberg (finance director at the time), Christopher Bush (UK Managing Director) and John Scouler (UK Commercial Director). The former Chief Executive, Philip Clarke, has not been charged but is apparently still under investigation in relation to the offences. Neither ...

Micro Focus Takes On HPE Software

The big deal last week (announced on 7/9/2016) was undoubtedly the acquisition by Micro Focus International (MCRO) of the software business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). This is a deal valued at US$8.8 billion which will result in HPE shareholders owning 50.1% of the company and hence it is a reverse takeover. But the on-going business will be managed by Kevin Loosemore as Executive Chairman of Micro Focus and it will of course be registered and listed in the UK. It ...

BHP Billiton Meeting and Other ShareSoc Events

ShareSoc has organised a meeting for investors with BHP Billiton Plc on the 29th September at 11.15 am at their London offices. The meeting will consist of a presentation followed by Q&A and then a buffet lunch meeting with BHP Billiton members of staff. BHP Billiton announced their latest annual results on 16th August and the FT had this to say: “Writedowns and impairments have dragged BHP Billiton to its biggest annual loss, capping off a troubled year for the Anglo Australian miner ...

Sports Direct – AGM Resolution on Working Practices

Sports Direct (SPD) have received a requistioned resolution for its Annual General Meeting on the 7th September. The resolution which has been put forward by Unite Union and its supporters says: "That the board commissions an independent review of Sports Directs PLC’s human capital management strategy and report back to shareholders within six months." with the supporting comment that "As over 100 shareholders in Sports Direct, we believe the company’s current approach to human capital management will compromise its long-term growth ...

The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism – BHS and National Grid

The extraction by Sir Philip Green of £300m from BHS, which led to the business going into decline and leaving the company pension scheme under-funded before he sold it for a £1 to an unqualified chancer was strongly criticised by a select committee of the House of Commons yesterday. To quote from their report: "The tragedy is that those who have lost out are the ordinary employees and pensioners. This is the unacceptable face of capitalism". This echoes the comments of Ted ...

NewRiver Retail (NRR) Reconstruction and Complex Pay Scheme

NewRiver Retail announced before their AGM on the 12th July that they were going to change their domicile from Guernsey to the UK. This will assist with their move...

British Land (BLND) AGM Report

It was a hot day in London yesterday for the British Land AGM, but shareholders stayed cool in the meeting despite the share price being way down from last year. This is a only a very brief summary of the full report I have written for ShareSoc members and just covers the interesting aspects so far as investing in commercial property is concerned. First a bit of background. British Land is a FTSE-100 company REIT with assets of £9,619 million. It's a ...

McColls Retail Group – A Transformational Deal?

McColl’s Retail Group is a chain of 1,352 “convenience” and “newsagent” stores. After the market closed last night they announced the acquisition of 298 convenience stores from the Co-Op...

Bid for SABMiller (SAB) Queried

One of my contacts has questioned what is happening in the bid for brewer SABMiller by AB Inbev. Here is what he had to say: "The concern raised is that here appears to be a really anomalous situation which is in danger of setting a terribly bad precedent. The two largest shareholders in SAB Miller are Altria (Philip Morris) and the Santo Domingo family of Colombia. They have agreed to a deal for beneficial tax reasons (to them) whereby they accept a ...

Open Ended Property Funds Should Be Avoided

Commercial property funds are popular with private investors as historically they have provided high dividends with relative price stability. But the announcement yesterday by Standard Life Investments that it had suspended trading in its UK Property Fund has further undermined confidence in the property sector after it was already depressed because of the impact of Brexit. The suspension means that investors are unable to sell their holdings. This fund, one of the largest open-ended property funds, is an "open-ended" fund - in ...

Brexit Result Impact and Tesco AGM

The result is in, and the people have spoken. We will now leave the EU, unless of course there is some more re-negotiation or other fudge which would probably require some U-turns by politicians. They are of course adept at finessing such manoeuvres so don't be surprised if the outcome is not quite as simple as it might first appear. The pound has already fallen substantially (I am writing this just before the stock market opened). Is that a disaster? Not quite ...