Business news in brief
Sought-after Heathrow slots secured by Loganair
Loganair, Britain’s biggest regional airline, has been handed lucrative take-off and landing slots at Heathrow following sanctions against Russian flag carrier Aeroflot. The allocation means the airline no longer needs to lease slots from other carriers to operate its only current route from Heathrow, to the Isle of Man. The privately-owned carrier is up for sale. It currently flies to Dundee from London City and Derry from Stansted. State-owned Aeroflot was stripped of its slots as part of
sanctions against Russia and is banned from landing at UK airports.
WH Smith swings back to profit
Retailer WH Smith has registered a healthy annual profit thanks to a rebound in the global travel market and a resurgent performance on the high street. The group posted headline pretax profits of £61m for the year to 31 August against losses of £104m the previous year, when Covid restrictions impacted its retail chain and network of sites based at travel hubs worldwide. WH Smith said total sales across its travel business surged past levels seen before the pandemic struck, at 130 per cent of 2019 revenue in the second half, or 92 per cent on a like-for-like basis. Its high street arm traded at 82 per cent of 2019 levels in the final six months, or 83 per cent on a comparable store basis.
WH Smith is rolling out 150 new stores across 16 countries, including 70 in North America and across airports such as Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Brussels, Oslo and Melbourne. Its chief executive Carl Cowling said the group is eyeing further global expansion to further bolster its position in the market. PA
Co-op Bank hails turnaround progress
The Co-operative Bank has surpassed £100m in profits after its turnaround plans gathered steam and higher mortgage rates boosted its margins. The once-flailing bank reported its seventh consecutive quarter of profits after being rescued by a group of hedge funds in 2017, posting pre-tax profits of £103m in the first nine months of the year.
Chief executive Nick Slape said the bank has seen its profits bolstered by higher interest rates. He said that higher rates are the real leverage for lenders because they can generate earnings on the back of them. “It is very hard for banks to make money when interest rates are running at 0.1 per cent, which they were for many years. Interest rates have now started to move up and
steepen, and therefore you can get benefits from your customer base.” PA
Failed takeover of FTX sees Bitcoin price plummet
Bitcoin is hovering around its lowest price in more than two years following a failed attempt to rescue the crypto exchange FTX. The world’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume is suffering a liquidity crisis following billions of dollars worth of withdrawals in recent days. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried sought help from investors and then from Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao, who pulled out of a rescue deal following due diligence. FTX now risks collapsing, resulting in a major loss of confidence from investors in the crypto space.
The overall market has lost more than $200bn since the troubles with FTX began, with bitcoin briefly plummeting below $16,000 on Wednesday evening, a price not seen since November 2020. Despite the losses, some analysts remain adamant that bitcoin’s underlying value remains the same.
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