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.”
Chemring profits dented after fatal factory explosion. Defence firm Chemring Group (CHG) saw 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) rose 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%.
Premier Inn owner Whitbread warns of flat profits ahead. Investors were left disappointed on Thursday as hotels giant Premier Inn’s owner Whitbread (WTB) warned profits will be flat next year amid market “uncertainty”. The FTSE 100 firm expects underlying pre-tax profits in the year to February 2020 to “be consistent with” the £444 million analysts have pencilled in for the current financial year, which ends next month. Shares in Whitbread fell 85p, or 1.8%, to 4688p. In early trading the shares dropped almost 5%. Whitbread, which this month completed a £3.9 billion sale of its Costa Coffee arm to Coca-Cola, revealed the outlook as it updated on its remaining Premier Inn business. Chief executive Alison Brittain said total sales rose 2.5% in the third quarter to November 28, but comparable sales were down 0.6%.
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), 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.
