BUSINESS LIVE: Underperforming water firms to pay compensation

AG Barr’s half-year earnings soared thanks to recent takeovers and a rise in soft drinks sales.

The Cumbernauld-based company, best known for manufacturing Irn-Bru, posted pre-tax profit growth of 12.6 per cent to £27.8million for the 26 weeks ending 30 July.

The boss of JPMorgan has warned that the worst of the interest rate pain may still be ahead for businesses and families already scarred by an historic round of hikes.

The Federal Reserve held the rate at 5.5 percent earlier this month following 11 successive increases in an aggressive attempt to cool the economy, overheated after being flooded with easy money during the pandemic.

(PA) – Soap maker PZ Cussons has said that its financial performance could be at the mercy of the Nigerian economy this year as it warned that profit will likely drop.

The business said on Tuesday that a recent devaluation of the Nigerian naira is expected to have a “material adverse impact” on its financial performance in the near term.

The hit from the movement in the currency would have wiped more than £100million from the Imperial Leather company’s revenue for the last financial year, had it happened a year earlier.

In the course of around a week in June, £1 went from being able to buy around 580 naira to being able to buy around 1,040 naira. It came after the government abandoned a policy which propped up the currency’s value, a move which many market watchers praised.

The business said that if the naira to sterling exchange rate had been as bad in the year to the end of May as it was between July and August this year, adjusted operating profit would have been £58.6million rather than the £73.3million that the company made.

The company said that revenue from Africa would have been around £103million lower.

Unsurprisingly therefore, this year’s profits are expected to be hit by the devaluation as well. Adjusted operating profit is expected to be within the range that the markets expect of between £61.5 and £68.2 million, a drop of up to 16%.

Revenue rose 10.7% in the year to the end of May, the business said, with pre-tax profit falling 4.2% to £61.8million.

Smiths Group achieved forecast-beating performance last year as turnover eclipsed the £3billion mark and operating profit more than tripled.

The engineering firm revealed a record 11.6 per cent uptick in headline organic sales for the 12 months ending July, while it also benefited from £146million in positive foreign exchange fluctuations.

Staff at supermarket chain Aldi are to be given body-worn cameras as the German discounter becomes the latest retailer to bring in more security measures amidst rising rates of shoplifting across the country.

UK boss Giles Hurley said that the company had not been ‘immune’ to reported rises in people stealing from shops – a rising pattern of behaviour seen nationwide, with some brazen thieves simply filling up carrier bags with items and leaving.

Shares in AIM-listed Videndum were hammered after the film set supplier revealed the devastating impact strike action in the US had wrought on its bottom line.

The London-based firm slumped to a £44.3million operating loss in the first half to 30 June, compared to a £19.7million profit the previous year, and revenues fell 25 per cent to £165million.

A 146-day strike by the Writers Guild of America was brought to an end this week after the union came to an agreement with an alliance of studios, streaming services and production companies.

(PA) – Britain’s smaller music venues will collapse if a business tax relief measure is taken away next year, a charity representing the sector has warned the Chancellor.

The Music Venue Trust (MVT) published an open letter to Jeremy Hunt urging him to extend the existing business rates relief for the retail, hospitality, and leisure sector next year.

The measure means that eligible businesses in the sector can get 75% off their tax bill, capped at £110,000 per firm each year.

But the one-year support is due to expire at the beginning of April 2024.

“The grassroots music sector is in the middle of a full-blown crisis,” the letter reads.

Some 125 venues have shut their doors for live music in the last 12 months, more than 15% of all such spaces in the UK, the MVT said.

It said that 76 of those venues have closed permanently, and the closures have resulted in the loss of 4,000 jobs.

Music venues have been hammered by the Covid-19 lockdowns, soaring energy prices and supply costs, fewer visitors and rising operational costs, and other factors like noise complaints, the MVT found in its annual survey of members.

The CBI has called for ministers to launch an independent review of the hated tourist tax, arguing that axing it could boost Britain’s international competitiveness.

It is one of a number of recommendations put forward by the business group ahead of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement in November.

Asos has warned full-year profits are set to be towards the bottom end of guidance after weaker-than-anticipated summer sales.

The online fashion retailer, which has struggled in recent times with sliding demand, anticipates underlying earnings of £40million to £60million for the 53 weeks ending 3 September.

Shares in the Canadian company, which listed on the London Stock Exchange at 410p in May 2021, fell another 12.2pc, or 18p, to 129p after another bleak update.

Facebook owner Meta has surrendered the lease on a building in London’s Regents Place, which has been earmarked by its landlord for a major new development.

Meta’s departure from the Regent’s Park-adjacent 1 Triton Square building, which is one of two buildings it has leased in the area, and analysts suggest the move is an indication of skittishness about real estate exposure among tech companies amid an uncertain economic outlook.

Aldi’s boss declared that the cost of living crisis has ‘changed the way Britain shops’ after sales at the supermarket chain hit a record high.

Giles Hurley said ‘a new generation of savvy shoppers’ are ‘flocking’ to Aldi and buying more own-label goods in a bid to trim their grocery bills.

Over the last year, Britain’s workers have taken on average 7.8 days off sick – two days more than before the Covid pandemic and the highest for more than a decade.

It’s a shocking increase, and particularly perturbing because of the sheer number of employees citing mental health and stress as the reason for their absence.

Mark Crouch, analyst at eToro:

‘Smiths Group has got momentum, with the engineering firm reporting another year of record revenue and earnings growth. With the firm’s operating profit, margin, cash conversion ratio and dividend also growing, there is plenty to like about these results.

‘The industrial technology firm is running very efficiently and effectively, with operating cash conversion and return on capital soaring over the past 12 months. Despite this, the firm’s balance sheet is actually a little weaker than it was a year ago, although it is still very robust.

‘Looking forward, while the economic outlook looks challenging, Smiths has proven adept at hitting its medium-term targets for revenue and profitability. With the firm continuing to benefit from the shift to decarbonization, we believe it can carry on doing so.’

London-listed stocks are in the red again this morning as worries of tighter macro conditions dampened sentiment, while Asos has fallen to a more than two-month low after reporting grim results and outlook.

ASOS reported a 15 per cent decline in fourth-quarter sales and said second-half earnings were expected to be around the bottom of its guided range.

The FTSE 250 is weighed down by a 4.3 per cent loss in Close Brothers. The banking firm said its financial results for the full year were significantly impacted by provisions in relation to Novitas.

AG Barr has added 2.7 per cent after the Irn-Bru maker posted a rise in its first-half profit, helped by strong demand for its cocktail mixes, soft drinks and price hikes of its products.

Amazon has become the latest tech giant to enter the AI arms race by pouring billions into the start-up behind a popular chatbot.

The online shopping firm said it will invest up to £3.3bn into San Franciscobased Anthropic, the developer of AIpowered chatbot Claude, a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Irn-Bru maker AG Barr saw a marginal rise in its first-half profit, helped by strong demand for its cocktail mixes, soft drinks and price hikes of its products.

The beverage maker said its adjusted profit before tax came in at £27million for the six-month period ended 30 July, compared with £25.3million a year ago.

Roger White, chief executive, said:

‘We have made significant financial and strategic progress in the first half and have exciting plans in place for the balance of the year to sustain our growth momentum.

‘We remain confident in delivering a full year profit performance in line with our recently increased market expectations and are well positioned to deliver strong shareholder returns for the long-term.’

Nissan’s boss said the world ‘needs to move on’ as he confirmed plans to build electric cars in Britain.

Speaking just days after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushed back the ban on new petrol and diesel engines from 2030 to 2035, Makoto Uchida said: ‘There’s no going back. The world needs to move on from internal combustion engines. We have a responsibility to be part of the solution.’

Citigroup’s British boss has delivered an uncompromising message to staff as she overhauls the US bank – telling them to ‘get off the train’ if they are not committed to the restructuring.

Jane Fraser has been chief executive of the lender – valued at £65bn – since March 2021, making her the most powerful woman among Wall Street’s banking heavyweights.

Joshua Warner, market analyst at City Index:

“ASOS has kept on the right track since escaping the red back in June as it tries to turnaround the business by becoming more agile, simple and efficient and remained profitable and cash generative in the second half.

‘However, earnings came in at the bottom-end of its target range and cashflow will be much lower than hoped as sales remain under pressure. ASOS blamed this on “timing effects”, but it will ultimately lead shareholders to think it will take longer for ASOS to turn its fortunes around.

‘ASOS remains a recovery play as it prepares to shift to its new commercial model once inventory levels have returned to a more normal size and its shift to a faster stock model is proving successful as its test case shows products turn around three times faster than usual.

‘Accelerating the turnaround in stock will not only be key to improving profitability and cashflow, but also paving the way for ASOS to reduce net debt.’

Meta Platforms has surrendered one of the two buildings it leases from FTSE 250 Britihs Land at London’s Regent’s Place, as tech companies turn cautious about office real estate due to prevailing macroeconomic uncertainties.

The property firm said the lease surrender would lead to an earnings per share dilution of about 0.6 pence for its half-year period.

British Land said it was ‘comfortable’ with current market expectations for the 2024 fiscal year despite the move by the Facebook-owner, as it saw a better-than-anticipated collection of historic Covid-19 arrears.

British industrial technology company Smiths Group has posted a 20 per cent rise in operating profit for the 12 months to the end of July as demand for scanners, valves and connectors soared, helped by decarbonisation trends.

The FTSE 100 group, which makes airport security scanners as well as specialist products used in the oil and gas and hydrogen sectors, made a profit of £501million for the year and said it expected more growth next year.

Paul Keel, chief executive, said:

‘We had another strong year of progress in fiscal 2023 as we further accelerated our growth, sharpened our execution, and developed our talented people. We delivered year-on-year improvement against all five of our medium-term financial commitments, including record organic sales and EPS growth.

‘Innovation is central to our purpose of improving our world through smarter engineering, and new product launches contributed more than three percentage points to our growth.

‘We continued to invest in R&D as artificiaI intelligence and other digital technologies are playing an increasingly important role in enabling us to support our customers more effectively. We are also further building our capabilities to capitalise on the growing megatrends we are exposed to across the major markets we serve, including energy transition and the world’s ever-increasing need for better security.’

Asos sales slumped 15 per cent in the fourth-quarter sales and the group has warned second half earnings are expected to come in at the bottom-end of its guided range.

However, the retailer has said its turnaround plan is making progress.

Asos announced an overhaul of its business model last October after the economic downturn and a string of operational problems hammered its profits and shares.

The strategy is to prioritise profit over top-line growth by reducing the amount of stock Asos carries, cutting costs and improving its cash position.

Underperforming water firms including Thames Water will be forced to return £114million to customers next year, industry regulatory Ofwat said on Tuesday.

David Black, Ofwat CEO, said:

‘The targets we set for companies were designed to be stretching – to drive improvements for customers and the environment.

‘However, our latest report shows they are falling short, leading to £114m being returned to customers through bill reductions. While that may be welcome to billpayers, it is very disappointing news for all who want to see the sector do better.

‘It is not going to be easy for companies to regain public trust, but they have to start with better service for customers and the environment. We will continue to use all our powers to ensure the sector delivers better value.’