Saga, XP Factory, Shepherd Neame, Chapel Down, Flutter, trading & other:

A DAY IN THE LIFE:

Here’s something of a morality puzzler you.

Picked up my phone, slapped on my thumb print & it didn’t work.

Tried forefinger; same story.

Tried a few more times – surely Einstein wasn’t right when he said to try to do the same thing more than once and expect a different outcome was the height of stupidity – only to be told ‘Too Many Attempts, Fingerprint ID Disabled’ and, at that point, found out that it wasn’t my phone.

Do I a) fess up immediately and cement in person (daughter)’s mind that I’m a washed up old dinosaur who wouldn’t know Tik Tok from Hip Hop?

Or do I b) sympathise with the phone’s owner and blame the tech, saying ‘it always lets you down’ and that sort of fluff etc.?

Well, I’m on b) at the moment and, the more time that passes, the more difficult it will be to move back to a). On to the news:

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PUBS & RESTAURANTS:

Property (and office occupancy):

Interesting to note that Meta Platforms (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) has paid £149m to surrender a lease on one of its London offices despite having never occupied the property. The company is cutting costs but leaving such a space unoccupied could reduce anticipated footfall in the area concerned…

COMPANY NEWS:

Shepherd Neame has reported full year numbers for the 52wks to 24 June saying that revenue for the year ‘grew by +9.7% to a record £166.3m (2022: £151.5m).’ it adds that ‘underlying profit before tax grew by +3.8% to £7.6m (2022: £7.3m)’ and says that underlying basic earnings per share was 41.1p (2022: 39.4p).’ Shepherd Neame points to a NAV of £12.05 (2022: £11.94) and it is announcing a full year dividend of 20.00p (2022: 18.50p), an increase of +8.1%….’

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XP Factory (Boom Battle Bars & Escape Hunt) reports H1 numbers to end-June saying that revenue rose by 130% to £18.7m with site level EBITDA of £5.04m and adjusted corporate level EBITDA of £2.36m (2022: £1.07m). The reported loss per share is £2.22m (2022: loss £3.31m)…

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Chapel Down has reported H1 numbers to end June saying revenues grew by 21% to £8.4m. PBT was £685k against £539k last year…

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The MCA reports that Comptoir Group plans to roll out its new Shawa QSR brand in 2024 and expand Comptoir Libanais by 1-2 sites per year, with a flagship London site in negotiation. Comptoir reported 2.1% revenue growth to £14.8m in H1 2023, though this was offset by cost increases and disruptions like rail strikes….

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Premium restaurant operator Permanently Unique, owner of the Tattu brand, grew revenues by 76% to £26.8m in 2022 following strong performance from new openings, while adjusted EBITDA increased 23% to £4.7m….

Inception Group, the experiential bar operator, grew turnover by 80% to £22.7m in 2022 and profit before tax to £3.1m. EBITDA improved to £4.6m in 2022, up from £2.4m in 2021. The 14-strong group secured a £6.7m loan from OakNorth Bank earlier this year to support further expansion.

Premium bar operator Arc Inspirations will open BOX bar on Thurland Street in Nottingham city centre this November, marking the group’s first site in the East Midlands. BOX will be able to hold 650 guests in a ‘dramatic’ space with touches of the Grade II-listed building’s original architectural features.

Arc Inspirations has also suggested that it will open its first ever site in London next year as one of four openings planned for 2024.

Some £12.3m in levelling up funding has been promised for pubs, museums and sports clubs across the United Kingdom. That may not be a large amount of money in the scale of things.

Joe & the Juice has opened a second site in London, this one on Paradise Street.

Interactive games bar Spinners is set to open in Plymouth on 12 October following a £1.2 million investment. The bar will feature an interactive ‘clayshot’ concept using the latest technology.

North Brewing has launched ‘Automatic’, its newest core range 4.5% Pale Ale, available in Tesco nationwide.

The Federal Trade Commission is alleging that Amazon is illegally maintaining monopoly power. It says it uses ‘a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies’ to keep prices high and keep competitors out of the market. Amazon denies the charges.

HOTELS & LEISURE TRAVEL:

Saga has reported H1 numbers to end-July saying that revenues rose by 15% to £355.3m with underlying PBT down 4% at £13.4m (pre-IFRS16). The company says that its it is reporting a statutory loss before tax of £77.8m (2022: loss £261.8m). The loss per share is 50.9p but the company adds that underlying earnings were 1.7p against 4.5p in 2022…

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Saga has separately announced that ‘after almost five years with the business, James Quin will be standing down from his role as Group Chief Financial Officer.’ It says ‘James informed the Board of Saga in April that he wished to leave to focus on a portfolio career.’ The company has announced the appointment of Mike Hazell as Group CFO.

PPHE updates on its capital returns policy saying that, following feedback, ‘the Board has taken the decision to approve the payment of an interim dividend of 16 pence per share, for the period ended 30 June 2023.’ It says ‘this represents a year-on-year increase of 13 pence per share…..’

The European Commission has blocked Booking Holdings’ proposed €1.63bn acquisition of Swedish OTA Etraveli Group over concerns it would strengthen Booking’s dominance in hotel OTAs and reduce competition….

“The remedies offered by Booking did not adequately address the Commission’s competition concerns so that it could be concluded that competition would be preserved on a lasting basis,” it ruled.

December ski flight departures are nearing 2019 levels, signalling a rebound in winter sports travel. Operator Ski Solutions reports a 10% annual rise in reservations, defying the cost of living crisis.

A judge in New York has held former President Donald Trump and his family business to be liable for having inflated the value of its properties, including hotels, in order to secure loans…

OTHER LEISURE:

Flutter has announced that acquisition of MaxBet, the #2 sports betting operator in Serbia, for a cash consideration of €141m….

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Hollywood writers have agreed to end their strike today after nearly five months…

The UK’s small music venues face a ‘full-blown crisis’ with 125 closing in the past year, the Music Venue Trust says, threatening the future of emerging artists….

American billionaire Ken Griffin is in talks to back a transatlantic takeover bid for The Telegraph by fellow hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall ahead of an auction expected to start within weeks.

The European Commission has said that X (was Twitter) has the largest proportion of disinformation across the six big social networks (the others being Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, X, and YouTube). The EC says of X ‘we’ll be watching what you’re doing.’

Artificial intelligence:

Amazon is investing $4bn in Anthropic, an AI startup founded by former OpenAI researchers including British ex-journalist Jack Clark, as it seeks to compete with ChatGPT. The team quit OpenAI in 2021 over safety concerns and aims to take a more prudent approach to developing AI at Anthropic.

Meanwhile, Sam Altman-run OpenAI is reportedly set to raise funds off a valuation of $80-$90 billion. Some second hand stock will be sold, netting a windfall to founders and early investors.

FINANCE & MARKETS:

German business morale dropped again in September, hitting a 12-year high on government borrowing costs, signalling recession risk. Germany is the only G7 economy forecast to contract this year.

Sterling weaker at $1.2147 and €1.1501. Oil higher at $94.91. UK 10yr gilt yield unchanged at 4.32%. Most markets lower yesterday and London set to open around 12 points lower as at 6.30am.

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