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William Hill Surges in Australia and US

William Hill WMH has made a positive start to the year with group net revenue rising by 9% and online revenue up by 16%, for the 17 weeks to 25th April. Australia and the US  both surged by 41% after producing double digit “wagering” growth. Spirax- Sarco SPX Organic sales growth for the quarter to […]

Quoted Micro 8 May 2017

NEX EXCHANGE Mechan Controls (MECP) is selling its main subsidiary to its technical director and intends to sell its other business and return cash to shareholders. The core business is being sold for up to £2m, with a minimum of £1.64m, including £1.24m initially, payable. The final £360,000 is dependent on the buyers selling the […]

Archie Norman Will Need More Than Singles Nights To Save Marks

Archie Norman made his name, not as the boss of ASDA but as the man who saved ASDA, and he was brilliant enough to do so virtually overnight. ASDA had taken the established supermarkets by storm  and given them hard lessons in retailing. Then, all of a sudden for no apparent reason, shoppers were deserting […]

Boom Time For London Hotels

Intl. Con. Airlines IAG saw first quarter profit after tax fall by 74% as passenger revenue declined by 4.2% and total revenue by 2.8%. But this did not stop it being a record breaking first quarter if you decide to select operating profit before exceptionals as your measure That comes in at £170m. compared to […]

Next Celebrates Falling Profits With a Special Dividend

Next NXT Celebrates its weak trading performance by announcing a special dividend of 45p per share to be paid on the 1st August. Total sales for the 13 weeks to to 29th April fell by 3% as mayhem on the high street continued. On a like for like basis, new space which added 1.6% to […]

Sainsbury Slashes Dividend – Clear Growth Strategy Succeeds

Sainsbury J. SBRY slashes its final dividend by 18.5% for the year to 11th March, sees profit before tax fall by 8.2% and basic earnings per share by 26.8%.  And the CEO has the cheek to trumpet it as a pivotal year with a clear growth strategy which has made significant progress. If it did […]

Quoted Micro 1 May 2017

NEX EXCHANGE Cyber security technology developer and consultancy Crossword Cybersecurity (CCS) continues to scale up its business and there is a product launch planned for this summer. In 2016, revenues jumped from £21,000 to £345,000 but the loss increased from £755,000 to £950,000 – even after £78,000 of R&D tax credits. There was £1.55m in […]

Lloyds Admits To “Positive Operating Jaws”

Lloyds Bank LLOY admits to having “positive operating jaws” which helped it to produce a strong first quarter financial performance and a significant improvement in statutory profit before tax, despite disagreeing with the house builders (see below) about the state of the UK economy, which the bank says still presents a challenging operating environment. As […]