THE DAILY BRIEFING
BELL QUITS Lord Tim Bell, the former spin doctor to Margaret Thatcher, has resigned as chairman of London-based PR giant Bell Pottinger. It follows 30 years at the head of the firm in a career which saw the 74-year-old advise clients such as Oscar Pistorius after his murder charge and governments including Belarus and Saudi Arabia. BUDGET BOOST Budget retailers have bolstered their takings by nearly a fifth to £4.9bn as millions of firsttime shoppers flock to their stores, a new report has revealed. Bargain stores such as Poundland and B&M saw a 17pc rise in sales in the year to July, according to retail performance data by Nielsen.
BRICK ROW A furious row has erupted after the National Association of Estate Agents suggested builders were 1.4bn bricks short of solving the housing crisis. Brick Development Association chief executive Andrew Eagles said the ‘lazy analysis’ was 15 months out of date and there was no shortage.
TAX BATTLE The European Union has rejected concerns raised by the US government that it is unfairly targeting American firms as part of investigations into sweetheart tax deals. The commission opened tax probes into Apple in Ireland, Starbucks in the Netherlands and Amazon in Luxembourg as part of a crackdown on EU governments offering low corporate tax rates to multinationals.
JEWELLER WOE The owner of H Samuel has reported a 2.3pc fall in sales for the second quarter of the year amid weak demand for its jewellery ranges. Analysts were expecting sales at Signet to rise 1pc and shares fell sharply in New York.
BILLS RISE Millions of EE mobile customers are facing steep price hikes from September 28 for calls and messages made outside their pay monthly price plans. The increases will see the cost of standard UK calls jump from 40p to 50p a minute, but the biggest hike is for international calls which will cost £1.60 a minute instead of £1.
ZOMBIE PROFITS Profits at insurer Phoenix rose £12m to £60m in the first half of 2016 as the zombie insurer – known because it owns life assurance funds closed to new customers – said it was looking for acquisitions to beef up its portfolio. Its dividend was unchanged at 26.7p. Shares fell 1.9pc, or 16p to 829p. SPECIAL DIVIDEND Investors in gambling software firm Playtech are cashing in with a £128m special dividend. Profits fell 40.5pc to £44m after it was hit by the fall in the pound, but it said there was enough spare cash to make a special dividend of €0.46 per share while the regular dividend was raised 15pc to €0.11.