Source: Sharecast
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Tool hire provider Speedy Hire reported a drop in full-year profitability on Wednesday, with adjusted underlying earnings falling to £85.4m from £97.1m and the group swinging to an adjusted pre‑tax loss of £9.8m, compared with an £8.7m profit a year earlier. Speedy Hire said margins were hit by lower volumes, wage inflation and higher interest costs following accelerated fleet investment and its partnership with ProService transaction. Adjusted losses per share came to 1.71p, while operating profits also turned negative. Revenues were broadly stable at £416.1m, with growth in national accounts and services offsetting softer general hire activity.
Caledonia Investments said it was investing around £60m garden centre operator Blue Diamond. The investment will be made up of £40m to support future growth initiatives and the rest to facilitate shareholder liquidity. Following completion, Caledonia will hold a fully diluted minority shareholding of approximately 16%. Caledonia and Blue Diamond have also agreed a framework to make up to £40m of extra capital available to Blue Diamond over the next five years, for acquisitions, investment in the existing garden centre estate and shareholder liquidity.
White goods retailer AO World posted a spike in earnings on Wednesday and reiterated its full-year outlook, despite an uncertain backdrop. AO World saw revenues jump 11.4% in the year ended 31 March, to £1.27bn, while adjusted pre-tax profits surged 16.1% at £50.5m on an improved gross margin. Looking to the current year, AO acknowledged that the external environment remained "uncertain", including inflationary pressure, but confirmed that pre-tax profits for the current year remained on track to meet estimates.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
John Lewis is to spend £20m on a revamp of its Glasgow store in the city centre's Buchanan Galleries in a vote of confidence in the shopping mall not long ago scheduled for demolition. It is the largest cash injection within a wider plan to spend £50m this financial year on refreshing its shops, with department stores in Reading, Cambridge, Leicester and Liverpool all earmarked for an upgrade. – Guardian
British taxpayers are subsidising the energy bills of French households – with the payments expected to surge under Sir Keir Starmer's EU reset deal. France can buy cheap wind power from the UK that is subsidised by British taxpayers, because of "wasteful" rules that allow suppliers to sell surplus energy abroad. Octopus, Britain's biggest gas and electricity supplier, estimates that the problem will cost between £16bn from 2030 to 2050, or £770m a year on average. – Telegraph
Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out tax rises as pressure mounts to find billions of pounds more for defence. At an event with bond investors on Tuesday, the Chancellor said she planned to achieve an uplift in defence spending by cutting other budgets. However, she declined to rule out further tax rises. Asked whether she could avoid putting up taxes this year, Ms Reeves said: "I very much hope so." – Telegraph
British American Tobacco's US business donated $18m to a Trump-aligned campaign group before a relaxation of restrictions on flavoured vapes and nicotine pouches by the administration. Reynolds American has donated $8m to Maga Inc since last year, via a subsidiary RAI Services Company, analysis of Federal Election Commission data shows. It included $5m in April, shortly before the reforms, and followed $10m of donations from the tobacco group in the 2024 presidential election cycle. – The Times
Ministers are considering whether parts of a clampdown on low-value imports used by Shein and Temu could be introduced sooner after lobbying from British retailers. The government said last year that reforms to the so-called de minimis regime, which allows goods worth less than £135 to be imported into the UK without customs duties, would not be fully implemented until 2029 due to the complexity of building a new customs system. – The Times
US CLOSE
Major indices delivered a mixed performance on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones building on its record close.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.64% at 51,999.67, while the S&P 500 shed 0.57% to 7,511.35 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.15% weaker at 26,376.34.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com