Today we look and learn from Astrazeneca, Amazon, Volkswagen, Sports Direct and FCUK.
The Times reminds us that the aftermath of the AstraZeneca drugs trial failure puts the company at risk from a hostile takeover, as well as casting the future of the CEO and the dividend payout into doubt. In what has to be regarded as something of a failure for the journalistic and analytical professions, no one previously suggested that in the leaked CEO job at Teva, Pascal Soirot was at least hedging his bets regarding the outcome of the key Mystic drug trial. The Financial Times suggests that Soirot stay and finish his work – punishment indeed for rebuffing Pfizer a couple of years back.
The Financial Times reports on how Amazon’s profits hit a seven quarters low and forecasts a drop in profits after revealing a new wave of company infrastructure spending on items such as new warehouses and data centres.
In The Guardian we read how everyone’s favourite pub crawler and CEO of Sports Direct Mike Ashley has increased his stake in French Connection. This move is part of an apparent ongoing strategy to bet on “legacy” High Street plays that are the type of asset most hedge funds are actually short of.
The Daily Telegraph writes on how Liberal Metropolitan Elitist Luvvie Sir Richard Branson is set to become even more Elite on the occasion of his Virgin Group selling part of its stake in Virgin Atlantic. The joint venture deal is said to include the likes of Air France – KLM and Delta Airlines.
The Daily Mail tells us that Lloyds Banking is to put aside another £1.1bn to cover PPI mis-selling, taking the total so far to over £18bn. One wonders whether the money comes from? Well, actually, it is just Lloyds’ retail clients who remarkably do not either notice or complain about this gargantuan figure.
Just to offer a pie in the face to the draconian types who caught it out on emissions, and to show that car buyers do not care about pollution, Volkswagen improved its sales and raised its quarterly profits.
Normally one would feel sorry for company’s whose profits had plunged. However, in the case of Foxtons and Countrywide, as reported in The Times, we do not as they are estate agents suffering the current housing market slowdown.
The Times also reported on how Snap Inc. the owner of Snapchart is to have its shares excluded from a major index off the back of its ownership structure. If only it was a $2tln Saudi oil company, then such considerations would not matter.
