Spire by St Brides

Laura Ashley – A Great British Brand Name Is Not enough

Ashley (Laura) ALY Blames demanding trading conditions for having to warn that full year net profit before tax will fall below market expectations. Like for like retail sales in the 6 months to the end of December fell by 3.5% and profit before tax fell from £11m. to £7.8m.  As a sign of the times […]

Hargreaves Services; Profits Down 75%, Divi Up 58%

Hargreaves Services HSP warned in December that the half time figures would be bad and they are. Although like for like revenue for the 6 months to 30th November fell by only 2.2%, like for like profit before tax was down by 75% and underlying diluted earnings per share by 95.7%.  As is usual in […]

Rolls Royce Wants to Become Trusted

Rolls Royce Holdings RR is to try and become a more trusted company with high standards of business conduct in an attempt to remedy past misbehaviour which produced disastrous  2016 results including a 49% fall in underlying profit before tax at constant exchange rates.  On a reported basis that became a loss of £4.6b after […]

Fidessa Shareholders Benefit from Sterling Weakness

Fidessa Group FDSA claims solid growth for the year as a whole but then admits that most of it was due to the weakness of sterling rather than the success of the company and its management. At constant exchange rates revenue rose by 3% and profit before tax by a lowly 1% compared to the […]

Quoted Micro 13 February 2017

NEX EXCHANGE Investment vehicle Indigo Holdings (INGO) is seeking acquisitions in the consumer, financial and technology sectors in the Middle East and it joined NEX on 10 February. An initial 15 million shares were issued at 1p each and in January a further 26.5 million shares were placed at 3p each. The market capitalisation is […]

Reckitt Benckiser Expects Challenges & Headwinds; Dividend Increased

Reckitt Benckiser RB is increasing its final dividend from 88.7p to 95p making a 10% rise for the year but it has been forced to delve deep into the jargon drawer to try and explain its patchy geographical performance in 2016. Full year like for like net revenue did rise by 3% and in quarter […]

Smith & Nephew Raises Dividend 20% as Growth Slips

Smith & Nephew plc SN. proposes to increase its full year dividend by about 20% at current exchange rates following  a fourth quarter fall in reported revenue of 3%. The CEO admits that 2016 growth of 1% in reported revenue was lower than the company wanted and blames market conditions in China & the Gulf […]

Rio Tinto Slashes Final Dividend.

Rio Tinto RT claims, after slashing its final dividend by 21% that at least its balance sheet is robust and that it enters 2017 in good shape. Basic earnings per share moved from 2015’s loss of 47.5 cents per share to a positive 256.9 cents. Consolidated sales revenue for the year fell by $1billion to […]

The Danger of Abusing Judges

For the elected leader of one of the worlds largest and strongest democracies to start personally vilifying and abusing a judge, is not a good sign. Attacks on the judiciary are always the first sign of a dictator in waiting, determined not to let the rule of law get in his way. Trumps attack  is […]