THE DAILY BRIEFING
SALE SCRAPPED
The billionaire Barclay brothers have scrapped the sale of Shop Direct, citing uncertainty created by the general election. David and Frederick Barclay, who also own the Telegraph newspapers, had been reviewing their options, one of which was a sale of the business for a reported £3bn.
US EXPANSION
Wound dressings maker ConvaTec Group has bought US incontinence specialist and catheter supplier Woodbury Holdings from MTS Health Investors for £92.9m. It plans to create a new home distribution business for catheter and incontinence-related products for its US business.
OUTSOURCER OFFER
Outsourcing firm Bunzl has made an offer for cleaning and hygiene product distributor Hedis, after already buying tableware distribution firms Comptoir de Bretagne and Generale Collectivites – all based in France. In the UK, it has bought Pixel Inspiration, which provides digital signs to retailers and financial institutions.
BOARD NEWCOMER
Vimtomaker Nichols has appointed a Domino’s Pizza senior independent director to its board. Helen Keays, 53, will be an independent nonexecutive director and chair of the remuneration committee.
DIGITAL STAKE
A subsidiary of advertising giant WPP has bought a majority stake in French digital agency Extreme- Sensio, which counts ice cream giant Haagen-Dazs among its clients.
GOLD SLOWDOWN
AIM-listed gold miner Pan African Resources said production over the year was hit due to the slower-than-expected restart of its Evander gold mine in South Africa.
GLASGOW SHIP
The first of the new Type 26 global combat ships for the Royal Navy has been named after the city where it is being made. Sir Michael Fallon visited the Govan shipyard in Glasgow yesterday for a ceremony to mark the start of the vessel’s production.
ORDERS STRONG
Banknote maker De La Rue said its order book remained strong and expectations for the year are unchanged. It expects performance to be weighted towards the second half.
It plans to pay a final dividend of 16.7p per share, making the full-year dividend 25p per share.
SHARES DIP
Shares in Moneysupermarket fell by 2.5pc yesterday after the company warned profits would come in at the lower end of expectations following a slowdown in energy switching. Revenues fell by a third in the six months to June to £16.9m.
MOTHERCARE GROWTH
Retailer Mothercare has notched up further UK sales growth thanks to turnaround efforts, posting a 1.9pc rise in UK like-for-like sales for its first quarter to July 8, although total sales fell 1.8pc as it axed more stores under a sweeping overhaul.
The group said it was knocked by ongoing woes in the Middle East, where consumer confidence has been affected by low oil prices and fears of an economic slowdown.