BUSINESS LIVE: BT fined over 999 failings; Entain names CEO; UK dividends hit record high

Luxury brands are quietly slashing the prices of designer handbags after getting ideas above their station.

Brands including Burberry and Yves Saint Laurent have spent years ramping up the cost of their sought-after accessories in a bid to improve their cachet.

Just before close, the FTSE 100 was 0.75% up at 8,217.18.

Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 was 0.51% higher at 21,176.14.

(PA) – Price comparison site Moneysupermarket’s parent firm enjoyed an 8% bump in profit to £73million over the first half of this year, amid surging revenue from its insurance business.

Mony Group, which owns the website as well as Moneysavingexpert, saw 14% growth in its insurance comparison segment, which brought in £120million in the six months to June 30.

It said insurance switching had seen “exceptional growth” in 2023 which has carried over into the first part of this year, but it expects the trend to taper off in the second half of 2024.

The insurance business made up for weaker results across other areas. Revenue in its home services arm, which includes energy switching and broadband, was down 10% to £16.7million.

In recent months it has seen “continued weakness in broadband and a softening of mobile switching, driven by lower levels of conversion as providers increased focus on customer retention”.

“In energy, there were a few switching deals available but market uncertainty remains and energy revenues were immaterial,” the company added.

Premium French TV channel Canal+ is set for an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange, marking a rare vote of confidence in the City.

It comes as part of plans to break up parent group Vivendi in efforts to boost the value of its business units and help them to grow.

Only one in eight potential first-time buyers can afford the average starter property in their area, new analysis has revealed.

High house prices, increasing living costs, insufficient savings, rising rents and mortgage rates have all combined to push home ownership out of reach for many young people, according to the study by the owner of Skipton Building Society and analysts at Oxford Economics.

Last week, another life sciences company declared its intention to leave the junior market, citing better opportunities for raising capital privately than on AIM.

Destiny Pharma, if its shareholders vote for the delisting, will join the likes of Redx Pharma, C4X Discovery, e-therapeutic, and the antimicrobial specialist Byotrol in retreating from the market.

Carpetright has been saved from crashing into administration by rival firm Tapi, as part of a multi-million pound rescue deal set to be finalised in a matter of hours.

The struggling chain, set up by Peckham ‘carpet king’ Lord Harris, was on the brink of collapse with about 1,800 jobs at risk of being lost.

(PA) – French TV business Canal+ is gearing up to list on the London Stock Exchange amid the break-up of its parent company Vivendi.

In plans announced on Monday, Vivendi will split its three main subsidiaries, Canal+, Havas and Lagardere, into separate companies.

“Canal+ would be listed on the London Stock Exchange to reflect the company’s international dimension, particularly as part of the ongoing combination with (South African TV giant MultiChoice),” the company said.

Vivendi said a London listing “would represent an attractive solution” because nearly two thirds of Canal+ subscribers are outside of France.

Canal+ listing in the UK is contingent on approval from shareholders, but it would be a boon to London markets, which have seen several companies either opt against listing in Britain, or move their listings abroad.

Notably, the Cambridge-based computer chip maker Arm listed in New York last year, in a mammoth $54billion flotation.

Gambling giant Entain has appointed its next chief executive seven months after its former boss announced her resignation.

Gavin Isaacs will join the Coral and Foxy Bingo owner on 2 September, having spent more than 25 years in the sports betting, gaming and lottery sectors.

Filing a self-assessment tax return can be very confusing and frustrating.

Generally, anyone who receives an income that isn’t taxed at source, like PAYE, needs to complete a tax return.

The CrowdStrike outage continues to wreak havoc around the globe, four days after the issue first began.

Millions of shops, airports, railways and GP surgeries are still experiencing issues thanks to a ‘buggy’ security update to Falcon, CrowdStrike’s antivirus software that protects Microsoft Windows devices from cyberattacks.

Ocado’s key tech business has been handed another boost after US retailer Kroger placed a ‘wide-ranging’ order to automate processes in its warehouses.

The FTSE 250 firm’s technological solutions business, which provides third-party retailers with robotic order fulfilment tech, has been under the spotlight amid delays to its roll-out and disappointment with its growth rate.

Ryanair profits almost halved over the last quarter as the budget airline faced a more ‘frugal’ consumer environment.

Europe’s largest airline revealed profits were down 46 per cent year-to-year for the three months to the end of June to €360million (£303million), despite a 10 per cent increase in passengers to 55.5 million.

The profit figure was considerably lower than analysts’ forecasts of €538million (£453million).

Regulators have fined BT £17.5million for being ‘ill-prepared’ when its emergency call handling service suffered a major disruption last year.

The telecoms giant, which manages the 999 system, sustained a network fault on 25 June last year, which lasted more than ten hours and led to almost 14,000 unsuccessful call attempts from 12,392 callers.

London-listed stocks are on the up this morning amid broader gains as investors digest corporate updates and assess the potential impact of US President Joe Biden quitting the reelection race.

Rentokil has surged 12.3 per cent to the top of the FTSE 100 after a report said that Philip Jansen, former chief of BT Group, is working on a private equity-backed takeover bid for the pest-control firm.

It has driven the broader industrial support services sector 2.6 per cent higher, which lead gains. Most sub-sectors trended higher as the market recovered from Friday’s declines.

On the other side, travel and leisure stocks have slipped 1 per cent, weighed down by airlines like Wizz Air and IAG Group that are down between 3 to 5 per cent after Irish peer Ryanair missed quarterly profit estimates.

All eyes will now be on the gross domestic product and crucial inflation data out of the US, that could shed some more light on the Federal’s Reserve monetary policy path.

Investors will also parse through corporate earnings in the US and the UK, with companies like Alphabet and EV maker Tesla on the radar.

Entain has climbed 4.2 per cent after the sports betting and gaming group said Gavin Isaacs has been appointed as its new CEO.

Ocado has jumped 6.3 per cent to top the FTSE 250 after the online supermarket and technology group said its US partner Kroger had placed an order for a wide range of new automated technologies.

Hammerson has advanced 6.5 per cent after the shopping centre owner said it has entered into an agreement to dispose its interest in Value Retail to Silver Bidco Limited for an enterprise value of £1.5billion.

In the hit movie The Intern, Robert De Niro plays the role of Ben Whittaker, a 70-year-old widower and retired marketing executive.

Ben decides retirement is not all it’s cracked up to be so he applies to be a senior intern at About The Fit, a trendy online fashion start-up in Brooklyn, run by the workaholic CEO Jules Ostin, played by Anne Hathaway.

Rentokil shares will be in focus when the stock market opens today amid reports it has become the City’s latest takeover target.

The FTSE 100 pest controller is at the centre of a £15billion swoop by the former boss of BT.

Philip Jansen, who left at the start of this year, is seeking private equity funding for a deal that would see him become executive chairman.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor:

‘This week will… herald the beginning of the company reporting season in earnest, with a raft of updates expected from the likes of BT, Vodafone, Unilever, AstraZeneca and ITV.

‘Of particular interest will also be half-year numbers from Lloyds Banking and NatWest, where investors will be looking to the usual metrics of Net Interest Income, Net Interest Margin, capital cushion levels and cost/income ratios for clues on the current state of trading.

‘At the same time, shareholder returns will also be in focus, with further share buybacks a possibility in addition to the current generous dividend yields which the banks are delivering.

‘In addition, any increase in the level of customer defaults will also receive attention, although both banks have thus far been taking an intelligent approach to risk.’

Gambling giant Entain has named Gavin Isaacs, former chief of US-based lottery games and betting firm Scientific Games Corp, as its new CEO, effective 2 September.

Entain said Isaacs has over 25 years of experience across the global sports betting, gaming and lottery industries, and has handled roles with companies including DraftKings Inc , SB Tech, Bally Technologies Inc and Aristocrat Technologies.

Issacs was a former board member at sports betting firm DraftKings, which in 2021 walked away from its $22 billion buyout bid for Entain to focus on its core U.S. market.

In the midst of a challenging past year marked by penalty settlements for alleged bribery in its former Turkish operations and the sudden departure of Nygaard-Andersen, the company has now proceeded with a new appointment.

The company announced in April that its Chair Barry Gibson could potentially leave before September, ending his over four-year tenure, if a CEO was appointed sooner, leaving interim CEO Stella David to succeed.

Entain’s former CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen resigned in December 2023, following reports that certain shareholders were unhappy with her leadership.

In April, the group reported a smaller-than-expected fall in online gaming revenue for the first quarter, as an increase in active customers helped it offset stiff competition and regulatory pressures in its main markets.

Gambling firms, which gained from a rise in online betting during the pandemic, are dealing with stiffer regulations and a cost-of-living crisis.

One-off special payouts pushed dividends paid by UK-listed companies to a new record high, but the mining sector dragged down regular payments.

Headline figures show dividends rose 11.2 per cent to £36.7billion in the second quarter, according to Computershare’s Dividend Monitor.

Underlying growth was significantly slower, with regular dividends growing just 1 per cent thanks to a large cut in mining payouts, but still reached a record £32.5billion over the quarter.

BT Group has been fined £17.5million by Britain’s communications watchdog after the telecoms firm suffered network disruption that affected 14,000 emergency calls in June last year.

Ofcom said: ‘We found that BT did not have sufficient warning systems in place for when this kind of incident occurs, nor did it have adequate procedures for promptly assessing the severity, impact and likely cause of any such incident or for identifying mitigating actions.’