Business

UK electrical goods retailer AO World is launching a review in to its German business after bosses revealed the division took a heavy hit in sales. The company suffered a 24% fall in sales in the country in the three months to the end of 2021. Business in the UK also took a hit, with a drop in sales of 12% when compared with a year earlier, although on a two-year basis sales were up 47%. AO said: “Our German business is being significantly impacted by a number of recent material changes to the local trading environment: competition in the online market has intensified whilst online penetration has returned to pre-pandemic levels; digital marketing costs have substantially increased against pre-pandemic levels; and supply remains constrained. Recommended EasyJet to operate record number of flights to beach destinations this summer Fullers takes sales hit from Omicron restrictions Diageo toasts jump in sales as Britons turn to Guinness … [Read more...] about AO World launches review into underperforming German business

High street bank TSB has revealed that record mortgage lending helped it returned to profit in 2021, but warned over pressure on households and businesses from soaring inflation. The Spanish-owned lender posted annual pre-tax profits of £157.5 million against losses of £204.6 million in 2020. It comes after TSB notched up its highest-ever gross mortgage lending at £9.2 billion for the year, up 46% on a year earlier, with results also boosted by the recovering UK economy last year. But bosses at the group said 2022 will see household and business finances hit hard by inflation and rising interest rates, which could affect mortgage demand. Financial markets are expecting the Bank of England to increase rates from 0.25% to 1.25% by the end of the year as it looks to cool rampant inflation. Recommended CMA deepens probe into Morrisons takeover Dr Martens shares slump as wholesale sales drop after supply disruption Britvic and … [Read more...] about TSB swings to back to profit but warns over inflation hit to borrowers

Dr Martens has revealed a slowdown in sales for the past quarter after a drop in its wholesale business, which caused its shares to plunge. The company saw its shares drop to its lowest since the company floated on the London Stock Exchange a year ago after it updated investors on Thursday morning. The boot-maker reported that sales increased by 11% to £307 million for the quarter to December 31 against the same period last year, although this represented a slowdown from 16% growth across the previous half-year. Dr Martens said it was impacted by factory closures in Vietnam and global shipping delays. Chief executive officer Kenny Wilson said there has been “improvement in factories, shipping and ports” but admitted that disruption over the quarter impacted its wholesale revenues. Recommended Britvic and Fever-Tree warn over bubbling cost pressures AO World launches review into underperforming German business EasyJet to … [Read more...] about Dr Martens shares slump as wholesale sales drop after supply disruption

The competition watchdog has deepened its probe into the takeover of Morrisons by a US private equity giant. The Competition and Markets Authority on Thursday launched a so-called phase one inquiry into the £7 billion deal, which was completed in October. The CMA said that it is considering whether the deal “has resulted, or may be expected to result, in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom”. Within days of Clayton Dubilier & Rice Holdings (CD&R) taking Morrisons off the public stock exchange last year the CMA slapped the companies with an order to not combine their businesses. The order buys officials time while they look into whether the deal might break competition rules. Recommended Dr Martens shares slump as wholesale sales drop after supply disruption Britvic and Fever-Tree warn over bubbling cost pressures AO World launches review into underperforming German … [Read more...] about CMA deepens probe into Morrisons takeover

No 10 has sought to dismiss reports that Boris Johnson is “wobbling” over increasing National Insurance, saying the Government is “fully committed” to introducing the tax rise in the spring. The Prime Minister is under pressure from some Conservative MPs to scrap or at least delay the increase to win back support as he awaits the findings of Whitehall and police inquiries into claims of lockdown-busting parties held in Downing Street. The Times cited a Government source as saying Mr Johnson is “wobbling” over the rise, which is designed to tackle the Covid-induced NHS backlog and reform social care, with the newspaper suggesting he is considering delaying the policy for 12 months to appease critics on the right of the party. But, pressed on the reports on Friday, a spokesman for the Prime Minister replied affirmatively when asked whether Downing Street could say that the manifesto-breaking policy will come into force, “no ifs, no buts”. The spokesman said: “The … [Read more...] about Government ‘fully committed’ to National Insurance increase, says No 10

Ofcom is to investigate Channel 4 after an extended outage of its subtitle services last year. The broadcaster experienced a number of major problems from September, caused by issues at the centre which handles its playout services. Its subtitling, signing and audio descriptions were among those affected – prompting the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) to call for regulatory action to be taken. Ofcom said Channel 4 had fallen short of its subtitling quota on Freesat, a subscription-free satellite TV service offering more than 170 TV and radio channels. Recommended Ocado’s court battle with AutoStore in Germany put on hold Capita sells software division for £115m Cineworld Canadian court battle heats up with new counter-claim A statement from the media watchdog said: “We have found that Channel 4 managed to meet the statutory requirement to subtitle 90% of its programme hours over 2021 on most programmes. It also … [Read more...] about Channel 4 facing Ofcom probe over subtitles outage

Despite the ongoing supply chain challenges, HP India is ‘very bullish’ about business growth in India driven by continued strong demand for personal computers due to work-from-home, online learning and the emerging creator community. “In the last two years, there has been a massive surge in demand for our products because products like PCs became essential devices without which you could not work, learn or play,” Ketan Patel, MD, HP India told The Hindu . “It has completely changed the landscape of the industry, especially in India, where the penetration of computing was relatively lower than in a lot of other economies,” he pointed out. He added that despite semiconductor shortages and other challenges in the supply chain over the last two years, the company was able to garner 30% market share in the computing business and 40% market share in the printing segment. “It’s very difficult for me to say I want to go to this particular percentage market share, but given our … [Read more...] about ‘Work-from-home, online learning driving PC demand’

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government has approved and decided to implement Regulatory Period 3 (RP3) under the incentive base regulation framework (IBR) for the period of February 2022 to December 2024. In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Tenaga Nasional Bhd said the Government had approved and decided via a letter from the Energy Commission (EC) to implement the RP3. “The Government has decided to maintain the current electricity tariff schedule for all customers in Peninsular Malaysia. This decision complies with the rules and regulation under the Regulatory Implementation Guidelines (RIGs),” it said. The Government has also approved the continued implementation of the imbalance cost pass-through (ICPT) mechanism for the period of Feb 1 until June 30, 2022. It said the decision was made to address the additional generation costs due to the higher fuel prices used for the supply of electricity during the period of July 1 until Dec 31, 2021. “TNB also wishes to inform that the … [Read more...] about TNB gets nod for RP3; electricity tariff remains

KUALA LUMPUR: RHB Banking Group hosted its second RHB Small Cap Corporate Access webinar to provide insight to investors on the investment potential of small cap companies. The two-day webinar featured 24 small cap companies from across the region with market capitalisation of below US$500mil, RHB said in a statement. It said various discussion and knowledge-sharing sessions were conducted by corporate representatives throughout the event, benefitting about 200 participants. “We have witnessed the astounding adaptability of small cap companies in managing a fluid business environment and in outperforming the broader market. “This year, we continued to provide investors with an avenue to enhance and expand their investment opportunities within this segment by continuing to unearth even more under-researched gems in the small cap market,” group wholesale banking principal officer and managing director Mohd Rashid Mohamad said. The second installment of the virtual event … [Read more...] about RHB hosts webinar on small cap investment

KUALA LUMPUR: KLCC Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) swung to a net profit of RM70.32mil in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2021 (4Q21), from a net loss of RM41.83mil. Its revenue during the quarter stood at RM348.17mil, up 14.3% from RM304.7mil a year ago. For the full financial year, the group posted a net profit of RM495.85mil against RM432.16mil. Revenue, however, fell 5.5% to RM1.17bil from RM1.23mil a year earlier. The board of directors has declared dividends comprising 5.77 sen and 6.83 sen relating to KLCCP and KLCC REIT respectively in respect of the quarter ended Dec 31, totaling 12.60 sen per stapled security. The dividend and income distribution for KLCCP and KLCC REIT will be paid on Feb 28. The book closure date in respect of both the aforesaid interim dividend and income distribution is Feb 16. “Whilst the directors foresee that the consumer market will still be influenced by the Covid-19 development, the directors opine that the group’s effort in … [Read more...] about KLCC REIT returns to the black in 4Q