Langton Capital – 2022-09-27 – SSP, AG Barr, DOM, JDW, SAGA, continued Mini-Budget fallout & other:
SSP, AG Barr, DOM, JDW, SAGA, continued Mini-Budget fallout & other:A DAY IN THE LIFE: Watching the squirrels busily burying acorns in the garden, it looks as though they’re paid by the local oak trees as they couldn’t possibly be doing a better job of infesting our garden with saplings if they’d made a career of it. And indeed they are being paid in a way though the oak trees don’t know or care what a squirrel is and nor do the latter think that they’re propagating something that’ll provide food and predator-free shelter some twenty or thirty years down the line for their offspring. The ghastly rodents are just burying what they can’t eat in the moment but, as it seems to work for everyone and everything – except for the blades on my lawnmower – who am I to try to upset the balance. Enough of that, though. On to the news: LANGTON EMAIL: The Free Email is now written in short form. Extended versions of many stories are in the Premium Email. Reply to this email if you would like to upgrade. Prices for the Premium at time of writing are £345 for one subscription, £595 for multiple, both plus VAT. Or sign up for easy in, easy out monthly option HERE https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=87YUG2Z5W7PSN PUBS & RESTAURANTS: Consumer squeeze: CEO of Aldi UK, Giles Hurley, claims that consumers are trading down to the discounter as the cost of living crisis bites. Mr Hurley said shoppers from ‘all of the traditional full-price supermarkets’ were coming to Aldi. Trading down vs premiumisation: A number of food manufacturers have come under a bit of pressure recently for fear that their customers are trading down. And here we have Aldi, though it would doubtless deny that it is downmarket in many ways, saying broadly the same thing… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. Taking second jobs. Royal London has produced a report that suggests millions of workers have needed to take on second jobs in order to cope with the cost of living crisis. It suggests as many as 5.2m workers have second or multiple jobs… Labour issues: A major review into Britain’s visa systems aims to tackle the acute labour shortages in industries such as hospitality, with Prime Minister Truss set to make changes to the shortage occupation list. The review could endorse a loosening of the requirement to speak English, in some sectors… Government: The Bank of England has commented on the turmoil in the markets following the mini-Budget on Friday saying ‘the role of monetary policy is to ensure that demand does not get ahead of supply in a way that leads to more inflation over the medium term.’ It says it will not hesitate to take action… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. James Watt, CEO of BrewDog, comments on the mini-Budget saying it was ‘nothing short of a startling display of incompetence which has massively handicapped businesses who are already fighting for their lives.’ He says ‘the UK does not need recklessly uninformed tax cutting – it needs stable and disciplined fiscal responsibility…’ WFH: Analyst Peter Backman comments on working from home saying that the ‘one of the longer lasting impacts of covid is more working from home.’ He adds ‘the picture is not yet clear as to the extent of this and how long it will last – it’s probably some time between not very long and forever…’ • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. Interest rates, currency & the impact on inflation: Sky reports the Bank of England was ready to intervene in the currency markets yesterday to support Sterling. Sky said ‘City economists’ were looking for up to a 150bp hike in rates to protect the pound… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. Footfall: Springboard reports that footfall in the week to 24 Sep 2022 was down 0.5% on 2021 and down by 23.3% on 2019. Given that this was the week of the Queen’s funeral, the data are likely to be atypical… Other news: 30 September is the last day the Bank of England’s paper £20 and £50 banknotes will have legal tender status, having been replaced by new polymer versions. According to the Bank, there are still more than £5bn worth of paper £20 and nearly £6bn worth of £50 notes in circulation. Notes will still be changeable at high street banks. COMPANY NEWS: AG Barr has reported H1 numbers for the 26 weeks to 31 July saying that revenue was up by 16.7% at £157.9m with adjusted PBT of £25.3m against £20.6m in the same period last year. Basic EPS is 18.98p per share vs 12.78p and the H1 dividend is to be 2.5p against 2.0p in H1 last year… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. SSP Group has this morning updated on trading for its year to end-September saying that the ‘strong recovery in SSP’s performance continues during the fourth quarter…’ SSP says ‘we have had a strong fourth quarter, with revenues expected to be c.91% of 2019 levels, driven by a continued recovery of passenger numbers, notwithstanding some disruption to the travel sector over the summer. The revenue performance includes the benefit from net contract gains and price increases compared to the same period in 2019…’ • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. Domino’s Pizza Group today announces that Elias Diaz Sese, currently a non-executive director of DPG, will become Chief Executive Officer on an interim basis… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. JD Wetherspoon to sell more pubs. The MA reports that CBRE and Savills are marketing a number of properties on behalf of JD Wetherspoon. The sites, which comprise a mix of 10 freehold and 22 leasehold units, and are offered either individually or in small packages… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. Centerbridge Partners, Metric Capital Partners, and OpCapita have made a significant, minority investment in Soul Foods Group, a leading multinational quick-service restaurant franchisee. Soul Foods plans to use the investment to double the number of restaurants it owns and manages to almost 800 sites in the next five years. AB InBev is looking to enter the spirits market in India, with ranges of whisky and gin ‘ready to be launched’. HOLIDAYS & LEISURE TRAVEL: SAGA has reported H1 numbers saying that revenues are up 65% on last year at £258.3m with an underlying PBT of £14.0m against a loss of £2.8m last year… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. Peel Group, owner of Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA), has said the airport will close after it received ‘no tangible proposals’… Tour operator TUI says re the closure ‘we’re incredibly disappointed about the decision to close Doncaster Sheffield Airport to passengers.’ The CBI comments saying ‘the closure of the Doncaster-Sheffield Airport will be a serious blow for the economy in our region. Whilst we continue to hold out hope that a buyer can still be found, we must plan for other eventualities to safeguard South Yorkshire’s future prosperity…’ Canada is to remove all Covid entry restrictions from October 1. Clia UK & Ireland chair Ben Bouldin predicts that cruise lines could welcome more than two million UK cruise passengers on their ships next year. This follows comments from Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings CEO Frank Del Rio, who said 2023 ‘could be the best year in the history of the cruise industry’. OTHER LEISURE: The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has handed TikTok a £27m fine for failing to protect children’s privacy when they’re using the platform. The ICO claims that the social media giant had been processing the data of under-13s without appropriate consent for more than 2 years, until July 2020. LA-based video game studio Theorycraft has raised an additional $50m in Series B Funding. The gaming startup will use this new funding to boost the development of its first game called Loki. The company says its goal is to make ‘deep, 10000-hour long games that are just better when played with friends’. FINANCE & MARKETS: The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has said that the global economy will be $2.8trn smaller as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The OECD is forecasting 3% growth this year with a slowdown to 2.2% in 2023. The OECD forecast 2.8% growth as recently as June… The CBI has welcomed business-friendly comments made by the Labour front bench at the party’s conference in Liverpool… Elsewhere, the friendly reception continues with the British Chambers of Commerce welcoming Labour comments on a National Wealth Fund… The Times reports that first time buyers are shying away from the housing market because of rising mortgage rates. Rightmove nonetheless reports that UK house prices rose 0.7pc in September, albeit after a 1.3pc drop in August. A number of mortgage lenders have withdrawn offers due to the volatility in the markets yesterday. If the financial institutions are unable to price, say, 2yr or 5yr money, then they will be reluctant to lend. Commenting on the turmoil in the markets yesterday, The Times reports that ‘Trussonomics could not have got off to a more shambling start’. Sterling up from its lows yesterday on hopes / fears of a rate rise as soon as this week. Sterling at $1.0769 and €1.1173. Oil lower at $84.81. UK 10yr gilt yield up another 34bps at 4.15%. Markets mixed yesterday with London set to open up around 32pts as at 6.30am. RETAIL WITH NICK BUBB: • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. |
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