Afternoon Press Round-Up
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 company debuted on the market in December owns the rights to Lego exhibition BrickLive, a kind of Woodstock for juvenile Lego aficionados world wide. Backed by small cap specialist , the business is majority owned by executive chairman David Ciclitira, who controls 40% of the firm. Parents want to get the kids off screens and that is likely to help BrickLive. Shares have doubled this year from 33p before dropping back to 62p. Dabbling in markets like China, where business can be opaque, may raise fears that its partners will run off with the Bricklive idea, but Ciclitira says his contracts are written with non-compete clauses
Struggling on Monday warned of turbulent times ahead for the aviation industry, forecasting that a number of airlines will collapse as it capped off a miserable summer by posting lower profits. The Dublin-based carrier was hurt in the six months to September 30 by repeated ATC staff strikes which led to flight cancellations. That, coupled with higher fuel costs, contributed to profits falling 7% to €1.2 billion. The budget airline’s chief executive Michael O’Leary warned that margins are under pressure because of fuel reaching $85 per barrel, rising interest rates and a stronger US dollar. O’Leary pointed to a number of recent collapses, including Danish airline Primera and Cyprus firm Cobalt. He warned: “It is inevitable that more of the weaker, unhedged European airlines will fold this winter.”
Staff in line for payouts after loses data leak appeal. Workers’ personal details were leaked online by a senior IT employee in 2014. Morrisons could face a hefty compensation bill after the supermarket lost an appeal against a ruling that is liable for a former employee leaking personal information about 100,000 members of staff. The ruling, which paves the way for 5,518 claimants to receive compensation, is the UK’s first data protection class action. It comes after workers’ personal details were leaked online by a senior IT employee, Andrew Skelton, in 2014. Information including salaries, national insurance numbers, dates of birth and bank account details were also sent to a number of newspapers. Skelton was jailed for eight years in July 2015 for his actions
Premier Inn unveils no-frills hotel brand with pod-style rooms. Owner creates spin-off Zip as it refocuses after sale of Costa Coffee to Coca-Cola. Premier Inn’s owner, Whitbread, is launching a no-frills hotel chain with small pod-style rooms as the company seeks to refocus its business after the sale of its cafe chain Costa Coffee to Coca-Cola. Called Zip by Premier Inn, the new hotels will be located on the outskirts of major towns and cities. Rooms will cost from £19 a night and be less than half the size of a standard Premier Inn room, at 8.5 square metres. Premier Inn prices typically start at £49 while its more upmarket brand, hub, starts at £69 a night. Premier Inn is Britain’s biggest budget-hotel chain. Whitbread’s chief executive, Alison Brittain, said the spin-off would cater for the “ultra-price-sensitive customer looking to zip in and out”.
An agreement brings to an end a dispute between Misra, who was a co-founder of double-glazing retailer , and who at the end of last year set up Safeglaze. It is alleged he had been poaching Safestyle’s employees, hurting its performance. Misra is expected to step down as Safeglaze boss this week. Misra has signed a five-year non-compete agreement with Safestyle and in return will receive four million shares and £2 million cash, subject to how Safestyle performs. The cash and share payments will only be made in the fourth quarter of 2020 and are based on Safestyle’s trading performance in 2019 exceeding existing market expectations. “The five-year non-compete agreement is likely to halt the momentum of Safeglaze and could lead to agents and employees returning to Safestyle, in our opinion,” analysts at Liberum said in a note. “In recognition of improving visibility in Safestyle’s recovery we upgrade our rating to Buy from Hold and our price target from 50p to 80p.”
– the Aladdin’s cave of cut price homewares, food and garden products – is among the FTSE 350’s top risers so far today. Its shares have jumped by more than 5% after it announced on Friday that it had snapped up French retail chain Babou. It will takeover its 90-or-so shops, which are mostly in retail parks. B&M bought Heron Foods last year and has used the acquisition to expand its food offer
, the largest private healthcare company in the United Arab Emirates, upgraded its guidance for the full-year, sending shares 7 per cent higher and making it the biggest riser on the FTSE 100. The company said that, thanks to ‘positive developments’ in the second half, it expected revenues and profits to come in higher than expected. It now expects revenue growth of 24%, up from 22%, and profits to increase by 18-20%. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell said the forecasts were ‘impressive’
The Serious Fraud Office is pressing its case for criminal charges to be reinstated against in the High Court over its £11.8bn emergency fundraising at the height of the financial crisis. Two charges of conspiracy to commit fraud against the bank were dismissed by a more junior court in May, in a blow to the SFO which has spent more than five years on the investigation. The fraud watchdog applied to reinstate the charges over the summer and arguments will be heard on whether it has a valid indictment in the High Court this week.
Defence and technology group has bought military training business Inzpire in a £23.5m deal set to land major payouts for its ex-military founders and management. QinetiQ, which provides services such as test pilot training and missile test ranges for the MoD, is paying £23.5m for Inzpire. Under the terms of the agreement, QinetiQ will take control of 85pc of privately-held Inzpire’s shares, and the remaining 15pc in two years’ time.
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