Cocktail bar shaken by 7pc fall in its share price
A profit warning punished
Revolution Bars shares yesterday as the cocktail chain blamed both the snow and sun for keeping drinkers out of its bars.
in a downbeat trading statement, the 72-strong bar chain said that March’s cold snap and the unusually hot recent weather led to ‘challenging and volatile’ trading as it reported a 1.7pc slump in sales in the six months to June 9.
fending off two takeovers – one from Slug & Lettuce owner Stonegate and another from Deltic – and losing chief executive Mark McQuater, also contributed to the poor performance, it said.
New chief executive rob pitcher will join from ftSE 250 pub chain Mitchells & Butlers on June 25.
Shares fell 7.4pc, or 11.6p, to 145p. But Douglas Jack, an analyst at peel Hunt, said: ‘this is a company that should eventually maximise shareholder value.’
the FTSE 100 rose 0.81pc or 62.08 points to 7765.79 while the
FTSE 250 ticked up 0.43pc or 91.15 points to 21324.02.
on the ftSE 250, soap specialist
PZ Cussons warned full-year profit would be at the lower end of its £80m-£85m forecast because of falling sales in the UK and Nigeria, its two main markets.
in a trading update, the imperial Leather soap maker warned that UK consumers were being more cautious with their cash, while the usual peak had failed to materialise in Nigeria because of wage pressure. Shares dropped 5.4pc, or 12.6p, to 220.2p.
Go Comparebased swooped on Scottish energy comparison site Energylinx in a £10m deal.
Energylinx also provides comparison services to consumer champion Which? and Citizens Advice. the deal is part of Newport- Go Compare’s attempts to gain a bigger portion of the energy comparison market. Shares hopped 6.4pc, or 8.2p, to 137p.
on AiM, Audioboom shares plunged 34pc, or 1.22p, to 2.38p on its first day of trading in four months. the on-demand podcast provider’s shares were suspended in february while it searched for desperately needed funding.
Separately, the firm revealed a deal with formula 1 to co-produce a new weekly podcast about the motor sport.
Shares in Savannah Resources spiked 15pc in early trading before settling down after a scoping exercise revealed its portuguese lithium project has the potential to be one of the biggest in Europe.
Demand for lithium, a critical component in car batteries, is expected to boom as drivers switch to electric vehicles.
its shares ended the day up 0.9pc, or 0.12p, at 13.38p.
AB Dynamics won its first order for an advanced vehicle driving simulator from an unnamed Chinese testing house. the order is worth more than £2m and will be delivered in early 2019. AB’s shares ticked up 1.6pc, or 17.5p, to 1140p. Shares in clean fuel company
ITM Power dipped after it warned of a potential cash loss of £5m in the year to April 30.
it was hit by a number of one-off costs, which saw shares fall 1.1pc, or 0.35p, to 32.5p.
Waste- to- energy firm Eqtec signed a memorandum of understanding to supply its technology for a power plant in Vietnam. Shares flew 43.7pc, or 0.28p, to 0.9p.
Shares in agricultural distribution firm NWF darted higher following a bullish trading update.
it said trading in the year to May 31 was significantly ahead of expectations, boosted by strong performance in its fuel delivery business. its shares motored to a 6.8pc gain, rising 13.5p to 212.5p.
Biomedicine firm Motif Bio revealed it had completed its application to the US drugs regulator for iclaprim, an antibiotic for bacterial skin infections.
Motif shares edged up 0.6pc or 0.2p to 32.6p.