Afternoon Financial Press Updates

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.

Britain on nuclear alert after Hitachi shelves £20bn plant. The future of the UK’s nuclear supply was in doubt on Thursday when Hitachi pulled a £20 billion project after government talks collapsed. The Japanese conglomerate confirmed it was suspending plans to build the Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant in Anglesey, North Wales and would take a multi-billion pound writedown. Hitachi has been in talks with the UK government since June about funding the equity portion of the project, known as Horizon Nuclear Power, to make the deal more economically viable but both sides failed to reach agreement. “The decision was made from the viewpoint of Hitachi’s economic rationality as a private enterprise,” the company said. Business Secretary Greg Clark said: “Despite extensive negotiations, the Government and Hitachi are unable to reach agreement to proceed at this stage.”

Whitbread kicks off £500m share buyback scheme with Costa sale cash but Premier Inn owner’s shares still fall. Whitbread (WTB) has kicked off a £500million share buyback scheme as it ploughs ahead with its plan to return a ‘significant majority’ of the proceeds it raked it from the sale of Costa to Coca-Cola for £3.9billion earlier this month. The FTSE-100 listed group, which is now focused on its Premier Inn hotel operations, has seen its share price fall over 4% this morning. The firm has warned that it remains cautious about its performance within the UK due to ‘increased uncertainty and continuing high inflation.’

Chemring profits dented after fatal factory explosion. Defence firm Chemring Group (CHG) FOLLOWsaw a £17 million dent to profits last year after the factory explosion in August which left one man dead. The fighter jet flares supplier said that underlying operating profits were flat at £31 million after taking into account the temporary factory closure. Work will gradually be increased at the site this year, it added. A 29-year old man died after an explosion at the flare mixing factory in Salisbury on August 10, named by local media as Piotr Zukowski. The group, which has equipment on the Curiosity Mars rover programme, said revenue for the year ending 2018 was down by 3% to £297 million. The order book rose to £394 million from £325 million.

Investors breathe sigh of relief on Primark trading. Primark joined the list of Christmas retail winners on Thursday after a bumper festive period, offering relief to investors spooked by a warning late last year. The discount fashion brand’s finance chief John Bason said: “We’ve had a great Christmas, it’s as simple as that. It’s a testing time [for the High Street], but we’ve had good growth.” Primark was buoyed by a spike in animal print clothes and teddy bear — or Borg — coats, Bason added. The retailer’s 4% rise in total sales in the quarter to January 5, was mostly down to new store openings. The growth was partly offset by a “modest decline” in same-store sales, it admitted. But investors seemed pleased and shares in parent Associated British Foods (ABF) FOLLOWrose 112p, or 5%, to 2290p. ABF spooked the City in November, saying there had been a dip in sales at Primark — one of the High Street’s most resilient names. Overall revenue for the group was up 1%.

Home loans slump as Brexit jitters darken the housing picture. Demand for mortgage loans has slumped amid Brexit uncertainty, the Bank of England’s latest snapshot of credit conditions warned on Thursday. Lenders reported that demand for home loans “decreased significantly” in the three months to December, showing the steepest drop since the immediate aftermath of the referendum vote in 2016. More falls in demand are expected in the quarter to February, it added, despite lenders slicing profit margins to entice buyers. The gloomy findings tallied with a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors warning that the housing market faced its bleakest outlook for 20 years over the next three months.

Brexit has Brits flocking to the cinema. Britons have been heading to the cinema to escape Brexit, bosses said on Thursday. Crispin Lilly, the chief executive of upmarket chain Everyman Media Group (EMAN) FOLLOW, said: “Cinema is about escape and turning off for a couple of hours. I think there’s a halo effect there [from Brexit].” The boss of bigger rival Vue, Timothy Richards, added: “When things are really dire, we see an uptick in admissions.” He added that recessions actually drove consumers to the cinema. Last year appears to have been the strongest in history for cinemas, attracting a record number of customers, Lilly and Richards agreed.

Premier Foods reports Christmas sales slip as ‘sweet treats’ stumble and firm stockpiles raw ingredients for Brexit. Premier Foods (PFD) FOLLOWsaw its ‘sweet treat’ revenues fall by 6.9% in its third quarter, but has opted to maintain its full-year profit forecast. The Mr Kipling owner, maker of Bisto gravy and Oxo-cube saw its sales hampered by logistics issues, while oversupply dented overall sales in the third quarter. Non-branded sweet treat sales plunged by 20.7% in the quarter as the group pulled out of a number of lower margin seasonal and non-seasonal cake contracts

‘Signs of recovery’ at Sage after year of change at the top. Software provider Sage Group (SGE)FOLLOW has rebounded in 2019 as it focuses on subscriptions growth amid “signs of recovery” in its UK business. The FTSE 100 company pushed up sales 7.6% after a year of executive change in 2018, which saw chief executive Steve Hare step up from the company’s finance director post. The Newcastle-headquartered business increased revenues for the first three months of the year to £465m, while recurring revenues grew 10.5% as subscriptions to its software rose by 28%. Mr Hare said that the first half of the year was likely to appear stronger in comparison to the previous year, due to a weak period in early 2018. “I would urge you not to get too carried away,” he said. Mr Hare took up the chief executive post in November after a choppy start to the year brought about the resignation of former boss Stephen Kelly in August.