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Smith & Nephew Raises Dividend 20% as Growth Slips

Smith & Nephew plc SN. proposes to increase its full year dividend by about 20% at current exchange rates following  a fourth quarter fall in reported revenue of 3%. The CEO admits that 2016 growth of 1% in reported revenue was lower than the company wanted and blames market conditions in China & the Gulf States with headwinds and foreign exchange movements also getting their fair share of criticism. 2017 is expected to produce stronger growth, with  reported revenue anticipated to rise by between 1.2% and 2.2%.

Thomas Cook Group TCG describes its first quarter performance to 31st December as solid, with revenue up 1% helped by growth in holidays to Spain and long haul destinations and Greece showing particular strength with a rise of 40%. Summer bookings are 9% ahead of last year with 31% already sold and digital is spurting ahead with growth of 20%. There is however some caution about the uncertain economic and political outlook for the rest of the year.

Boohoo.com BOO has agreed to acquire he assets of Nasty Gal, who/which, it says offers exciting opportunities to accelerate its international offering. The deal is due to be concluded on the 28th February.Watch Full Movie Online Streaming Online and Download

Enterprise Inns ETI is to change its name by removing the Enterprise and becoming plain Ei Group which sounds like it was dreamed up by a committee of accountants who hadn’t a clue as to the importance of enterprise in a company. In the 18 weeks to the 4th February, like for like net income rose by 1.6%

Tate & Lyle plc TATE Expects that its full year performance in constant currency will be modestly ahead of expectations at the half year mark. The quarter to 31st December saw profit in both divisions ahead of the previous year.

DFS Furniture DFS Gross sales rose by 7% in the half year to 28th January as the good times continued. The company expects to be able to announce a  a proposed special dividend at the end of March but warns that the furniture industry faces increased risk of a market slowdown in 2017 because of the uncertain outlook for consumer confidence.

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Thomas Cook Hit Hard in Continental Europe

Thomas Cook TCG has been hit hard in Continental Europe with prices down 3% compared to last year on top of a 9% fall in bookings. Belgium is down significantly following the Brussels terror attacks and Germany is showing a 6% fall compared to 2015. Overall today’s pre close update shows strong demand for most destinations except Turkey which remains volatile. Winter sales are in line with last year despite the work the company claims it has done in trying to improve customer satisfaction.

Next Fifteen.com NFC is raising its interim dividend by 25% to 1.5p per share after revenue rose by 30.3% for the six months to 31st July. Sales in the US were particularly strong with a like for like growth of 17.2% compared to 12.8% overall. Profit before tax was up by 47.2% and EBITDA by 50.6%.

Legal & General LGEN In the three months since 30th June the Retirement Division has written sales of over £1.4 billion compared to £2.9 billion for the whole of 2015.  The Divisions full year sales are expected to be double those of last year.

Card Factory CARD is paying a special dividend of 15p per share and increasing its interim dividend by 12% for the half year to the 30th July. Profit before tax rose by 7.3% and basic earnings per share by 7.1%. Sales growth has been lower than normal, following what the company describes as softer footfall, which presumably means that customers are treading more carefully.

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Mothercare Delivering at Last

Mothercare MTC The turnround in the UK is continuing apace with group underlying profit before tax up by 51% and statutory profit before tax of £9.7m, being the first after four years of losses.  Like for like UK sales rose by 3.6%

Internationally the picture is much blacker and having set the UK on a path to growth, the company is now turning its attention to the problems there and intends to export the lessons it has learned at home to bring recovery and profits back to the international side of the business. The aim is to become world leader in its markets and it is many a long year since anybody at Mothercare dared to even dream of that.

Thomas Cook Group TCG claims it  has fundamentally changed its attitude to its customers. Not before time many would say. This must be one of the best pieces of news to come out of the travel industry for years where customers seem to be regarded as a necessary evil.

It claims that group revenue for the half year to the end of March rose slightly whereas the figures seem to show that it actually fell – a minor matter in the world of TCG. Both operating loss and loss before tax showed good falls of 13% and 15% respectively.  excluding Turkey, summer bookings are up by 6%  or if you include Turkey they are down by 5% overall. Bookings for Spain are strong and the US is leading the way with a rose of 29%

Shanks Group SKS. Tough market conditions have not prevented both revenue and profit growth for the year to the end of March. The weak spot was the municipal division which was impacted by unspecified headwinds with the result that trading profit in that division was down 15%.

Trading profit rose by 4% and last years loss of £12.4m was turned into an operating profit of £9.8m and the previous basic loss per share of 4.6p was reduced to 1p. The loss after tax has been substantially reduced from £18.2m to a more acceptable £4m.  The company claims it has the vision, strategy and organisation, to deliver growth.

Mitchells & Butler MAB claims strong earnings growth for the half year to 9th April, with profit before tax growing to £83m from last years £75m. and earnings per share up from 14.4p to 18.4p.  Total revenue, however, was down by 1.5% and the company admits that there is much to do for it to acclerate its trading performance.

National Grid NG has had a strong year and is raising its dividend by 1.1%. Operating profit for the year to the end of March rose by 6%. profit before tax by 9% and earnings per share by 10%.

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Naked Wine on Cloud Nine

The CEO of Majestic Wine (WINE) is very excited about Naked Wines record sales of £100 m., already achieved in the year to 31st March 2016. For those who like their wine clothed and in a glass, Naked Wine is an online crowd funding platform and apparantly one of the best things since sliced bread.

Enterprise Inns (ETI) Reinvigoration of leased and tenanted pubs is continuing, leading to like for like net income growth of 1.5% in the 25 weeks to the 19th March.Its quality commercial property portfolio has seen rapid expansion and a new share buy back programme of up to £25 million is being initiated.

Science in Sport (SiS) is still running up losses despite revenue growth of 18% in the 9 months to 31st December. The underlying operating loss came in at £0.25m as against £0.19m for the previous 12 months due to investment in brand awareness and market entry costs in Australia and the US.

888 Holdings (888) has been hit by a triple whammy of Duties, VAT and adverse currency movements. Despite that it puts a brave face on things and claims that 2015 was a very good year with a like for like revenue rise of 12%, casino revenue leading the way with a rise of 18%. Unless one adjusts it, profit before tax has been halved from $67.9m to $32,5m and similarly with earnings per share which are down to 8.3 cents from the previous years 16.1 cents – gain, unless one adjusts it.  Total dividends for the year are being increased from 15 cents to 15.5 cents

Thomas Cook (TCG) claims to be going for margins rather than volume, which is perhaps as good an excuse as any whilst times are hard and summer bookings are falling. Conditions are challenging and volatile and confidence has been affected by disruption in key destinations.

Winter UK bookings are down 3%, continental Eurrope by 8% and only Northern Europe shows a rise.

Summer holidays are 40% sold which is 2% down on last year =, whilst summer bookings are down 5%.

Hang on to those margins Mr Cook at least until you have to start discounting later in the year, if things get worse.

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Lies, Damned Lies and Thomas Cook’s Headline Statistics

“Lies, damned lies and statistics”  a phrase often attributed to Disraeli, is used to describe the persuasive power of numbers, particularly the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments. Some of the headlines used in Thomas Cooks third quarter results last week seemed to lend some strength to the adage.
“The 12th consecutive quarter of improved profitability”, trumpeted Cooks, whereas;
1. Underlying operating profit fell by 9% from Q3 2014 to Q 3 2015
2. The 2014 Q3 loss from operations was £42m.  So how can 2015 have seen the 12th consecutive quarter of improved profitability.
3. The loss before tax in Q3 2104 was £81m. in Q3 2015 it was  £44m. Can even the near halving of a loss, be in any way described as an improvement in profitability
Even comparing the 12 month figures, rather than just Q3 figures, Cooks made a loss before tax of £137m.in the 12 months to June 2014 as against a loss before tax of £14m. in the 12 months to June 2015. That again represents a reduction in losses, not an improvement in profitability, or am I missing something.
“Operating profit  improved by £53m for the quarter.”  
 
Did it really? Q3 2014 operating loss was £42m which improved to an operating profit of £3m in Q3 2015.
 Hang on, do I hear you say, 42 + 3 = 45. How does TCG get 42 plus 3 to equal 53. It doesnt.  It adds it up correctly to get £45m. and that is the real total improvement  but then it uses a like for like figure to make what appears to be a false comparison and a better headline, by claiming a “profit improvement” of £53m for the quarter.
That 53m is not the improvement in TCGs total profitability for the quarter. It is its improvement purely on a like for like basis but it does look better than the real total of £45m
And Cook admits that it uses like for like figures, “to improve the comparability of prior year data”. It certainly does, especially if it uses them to make the wrong comparison.
There may be some explanation somewhere but just at the moment I can not think of one.
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