BUSINESS LIVE: Thames Water cash raise ‘progressing’; Ashtead listing switch; Games Workshop film deal

Savvy Britons looking to nab free cash ahead of Christmas will need to act fast if they want to get a payout before 25 December.

Two banks are wrapping up their switching bonuses within the next two days, but customers can still bag them if they act now.

The owner of Poundland will explore ‘every strategic option’ for the discount retailer after the British unit took a €775million annual impairment charge amid flagging sales.

Poland’s Pepco said the non-cash impairment, worth around £640million, reflected Poundland’s weak performance and outlook after its underlying earnings slumped 21.5 per cent over the 12 months to 30 September.

The owner of Poundland will explore ‘every strategic option’ for the discount retailer after the British unit took a €775million annual impairment charge amid flagging sales.

Poland’s Pepco said the non-cash impairment, worth around £640million, reflected Poundland’s weak performance and outlook after its underlying earnings slumped 21.5 per cent over the 12 months to 30 September.

New Pepco boss Stephan Borchert told the Reuters news agency Poundland ‘continued to face headwinds’ in its new financial year.

Rupert Murdoch’s efforts to entrench his son Lachlan as primary heir to his media empire have been dealt a legal blow in the US after a $15billion Succession-style courtroom battle with three of his other adult children, it was revealed today.

Nevada’s commissioner has ruled that an attempted amendment to the family’s trust opposed by James, Prudence and Elisabeth Murdoch was a ‘charade’ and made in ‘bad faith’.

British job vacancies contracted faster than in other similar nations over the past year, fresh data suggests, as signs of faltering economic momentum pile up.

There were 23 per cent fewer jobs advertised on recruitment platform Indeed across Britain compared to a year ago as of 29 November.

This represents a sharper drop than the 14 per cent slump shown in official data, which covered the period from August to October.

While France did only slightly better with a 22 per cent year-on-year decline, other comparable countries including the US, Germany, Ireland, Canada and Australia saw job vacancies contract by 5 to 15 per cent.

UK job vacancies are around 12 per cent lower than before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Indeed.

As Bitcoin hits a new record price of $100,000 (£78,500), the big question is: what happens now?

Two years ago, the original cryptocurrency was worth less than $17,000 (£13,300) a coin. By last week it had broken through the $100,000 barrier and is now just shy of that amount.

Games Workshop and Amazon have agreed ‘creative guidelines’ for adapting Warhammer 40,000 into films and television shows.

The two companies struck a deal in principle in December 2022 to make films and TV series of Games Workshop’s intellectual property.

A year later, Games Workshop gave Amazon exclusive rights to develop projects set within the Warhammer 40,000 universe, along with the associated merchandise rights.

The billionaire co-founder of British engineering firm Renishaw has died.

Sir David McMurtry, who set up the group in 1973, was 84.

Equipment rental firm Ashtead is set to become the latest British business to shun the London Stock Exchange with plans to switch its primary listing to New York.

Ashtead, which makes 98 per cent of its operating profits and 86 per cent of its revenues in the US, said it would discuss the proposal with shareholders and expects the plan to be implemented in the next 12 to 18 months.

The proposal would see the group retain a secondary London listing in the international companies arm.

Nvidia’s value tumbled more than £80billion after Chinese regulators launched a probe into the tech business.

The computer chip giant’s stock dropped 3 per cent on Wall Street after China’s state media reported the country’s competition watchdog has opened an investigation into whether Nvidia broke anti-monopoly laws.

The Rothschild family history is littered with drama and feuding to rival Succession, the black-comedy television series about a fictional billionaire business dynasty.

The fifth baron, better known in the City as Nat Rothschild, is to some an aristo playboy with a racy business past, and an even more colourful love life.

Adam Vettese, market analyst at eToro:

‘Ashtead has warned on profit this morning citing difficulty in its primary market of North America. The construction market has seen weakness driven by the higher interest rate environment lasting longer. This has in turn hurt used equipment sales and higher depreciation costs have hit Ashtead’s numbers.

‘Most notably in the update is the long rumoured intention to switch to a US listing. The firm does almost all of their business in North America, they report in dollars and the vast majority of their staff are in the region. Despite this making sense on many levels, it is still a huge blow for the UK to see the 25th largest firm in the benchmark FTSE100 index leaving. Amid London’s campaign to be attractive to upcoming IPOs, it’s far from the best time to see one of their stalwarts leave for pastures new.

‘After a bit of a stuttering start to the year, Ashtead shares had been making a play towards the record high levels we saw post pandemic but have been set a few steps back this morning.’

The French production firm behind the Paddington films will list in London this month after investors approved the break-up of its parent company.

In a boost for the City, Vivendi shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of the spin-off of Canal+ and other parts of the business at a meeting in Paris.

Shares in the newly independent Canal+ will start trading in London on Monday next week.

UK grocery price inflation edged higher last month, industry data shows, piling pressure on shoppers’ already stretched Christmas budgets.

Research firm Kantar said annual grocery price inflation was 2.6 per cent in the four weeks to 1 December, having been 2.3 per cent in the previous four-week period.

Prices are rising fastest in products such as toothbrushes, chilled smoothies & juices, and fragrances and falling fastest in items including household paper products, dog food and ambient savoury meals, Kantar said.

Britain’s biggest supermarket Tesco led sales with 5.2 per cent growth over the 12 weeks to 1 December as its market share hit its highest level since December 2017 at 28.1 per cent.

UK supermarkets have warned that tax rises in the new Labour government’s first budget in October, together with another rise in the national minimum wage, will be inflationary.

Official data published last month showed overall UK inflation jumped to 2.3 per cent in October. Data for November will be published next week.

Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown:

‘The FTSE 100 opened lower this morning, handing back some of yesterday’s 0.6% gain.

‘Yesterday’s rally was powered by mining stocks and fuelled by China’s promise of economic stimulus, including looser monetary policy and support for property prices.

‘But as we’ve seen with mini-China rallies in the past, it seems the buzz is fading as investors take a step back to reassess the bigger picture.’

Games Workshop has agreed creative guidelines and reached a final agreement with streaming giant Amazon for the adaption of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe into films and television series.

The deal, which includes associated merchandising rights, sees Games Workshop grant exclusive rights to Amazon in relation to films and television series set within the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

It gives Amazon the option to license equivalent rights in the Warhammer Fantasy universe following the release of any initial Warhammer 40,000 production.

‘Production processes in respect of films and television series may take a number of years,’ the FTSE 100 newbie said.

BP is spinning off its offshore windfarm business into a joint venture with a Japanese rival.

The deal comes as the energy giant’s boss Murray Auchincloss dials down the focus on renewable energy to move back towards its traditional focus on oil and gas.

BP has previously said that it ‘aims to be a world leader in offshore wind’ and is developing sites in the UK, US, Germany, South Korea and Japan.

Ashtead is proposing to move its primary listing from London to the US, where the equipment rental group makes 98 per cent of its operating profits and 86 per cent of revenues.

Its board told shareholders the move would align its primary listing location ‘with the majority of the group’s business activity, leadership team and employee base’.

The switch would also increase Ashtead’s exposure to US investors and enhance overall liquidity in the group’s shares given access to deeper US capital markets, the group said.

Ashtead, which will retain a secondary listing in the UK, said it would enjoy an ‘improved Group profile and go-to-market strategy’ by rebranding as Sunbelt Rentals;

It came as Ashtead also warned of lower annual profit due to a weak commercial construction market in the US.

The company said adjusted pre-tax profit fell 2 per cent to $682million for the three months ended 31 October, hurt by higher depreciation costs and lower used-equipment sales amid weakness in commercial construction market in North America.

Thames Water’s planned £3.25billion equity raise is ‘progressing’ with ‘considerable interest’ from buyers, the debt riddled utility’s boss said on Tuesday, as the group’s battle to remain solvent rumbles on.

The equity raise marks the next stage of a rescue plan after Thames Water secured a £3billion facility to help it survive into the new year,

Thames Water, the country’s biggest water supplier, has close to £18billion of debt and is fast running out of cash after its current owners refused to stump up new money earlier in the year, putting the government on standby for nationalisation.

Chief Executive Chris Weston said the company was making progress with its turnaround plan and its posted an improvement in profit, but its environmental performance was worse.

‘We’ve reached key milestones in establishing a more stable financial platform, agreeing a liquidity extension transaction proposal and progressing our equity raise process,’ he said on Tuesday.

While the £3billiom lifeline offered to Thames by a group of creditors in October will temporarily stabilise its finances, its long-term future depends on it securing new equity and restructuring its debt.

A competitive process is underway aimed at raising the £3.25billion of equity Thames Water needs to fund investments to 2030. British financial investor Covalis Capital and France’s Suez Group are amongst the bidders.

The group has seen ‘considerable interest’ from potential equity investors, Weston said.

The owner of Cadbury is said to be eyeing rival chocolate maker Hershey’s.

If Mondelez’s move succeeds, it would create one of the world’s largest confectioners and bring favourites such as Dairy Milk and Reese’s Pieces together.