66 K1 Saturday December 18 2021 | the timesBusiness
Jessica Newman Market report
Morses Club abandons
U Money rebrand plan
Morses Club, the London-listed
doorstep lender, has scrapped a
plan for a revamp of its corporate
structure and rebranding after
deciding it would take too long.
The company had been planning
to create a new quoted holding
company for the group, which
would have been called U Money
Plc. It announced the overhaul in
August and had set itself a long-
stop date of December 31 to
complete the reorganisation,
which has involved a legal
scheme of arrangement.
However, the lender said
yesterday it was abandoning the
revamp as it would not meet the
cut-off date. It told investors:
“The decision was taken after it
became apparent that there was
no certainty that the work
required to complete the process
could be achieved within the
remaining timescales which had
already been extended.” Morses
shares fell ½p to 56½p.Helical buys City office
building for £160m
Helical, the property group, has
bought the office building at 100
New Bridge Street in the City of
London for £160 million. The
building was completed in 1992
and is let to Baker McKenzie, the
law firm, whose lease expires in
December 2023. The passing
rent, including ground floor retail
units, is about £7.3 million a year.
The proposed acquisition will
need shareholder approval at a
general meeting due to be held in
early February. Helical was
founded as the Helical Bar and
Engineering Company in 1919.
Gerald Kaye, chief executive, said
the building “provides us with the
opportunity to carry out a major
refurbishment, which will have
less impact on the environment
than a ground-up development,
and which we will be able to
deliver more quickly.” Shares in
Helical were up 17p, or 3.97 per
cent, at 445p.Ryanair departs City of
London over EU rules
After more than two decades on
the London Stock Exchange, the
last share in Ryanair was traded
yesterday as the Irish airline left
the City over Brexit. Shares in
Europe’s largest carrier by
passenger numbers never
qualified for the FTSE 100,
because since 2012 Michael
O’Leary, its cash-conscious chief
executive, had refused to pay for
“premium” status on the London
market. The decision to leave
London followed Brexit. EU rules
state that EU airlines need to be
majority-controlled by EU
citizens. That effectively barred
UK investors from buying shares
and London trading volumes
declined. Its shares will still be
traded on the Euronext exchange.
Originally floated at a value of
£300 million, Ryanair, up 22 cents
at €14.42, leaves London with a
market value of £13.3 billion.
Saturday interview, pages 48-49Company Change
Cineworld Continues to rebound after Wednesday’s plunge 8.2%
Micro Focus International Recovers some losses 7.6%
Capita Shares start to revive after recent underwhelming trading update 7.1%
Syncona Shares gain momentum after last week’s sell-off 6.8%
Restaurant Group Concerns over Omicron variant ease 6.2%
Kainos Group Positive sentiment grinds to a halt -2.5%
Weir Group Profit taking after recent run higher -2.9%
Synthomer Follow through disposals after last week’s sell-off -3%
Croda International Loses momentum after recent rally -3.2%
Trustpilot Retreats after global tech sell-off -7.5%The day’s biggest movers
S
hares in Focusrite fell as it
became the latest company to
flag the impact of supply
chain disruptions as well as
higher freight and shippingcosts on its operations. The company,
which sells studio equipment and was
set up in 1985 by Phil Dudderidge, a
sound mixer for Led Zeppelin, gave
up 67½p, or 4.3 per cent, to £15.15 afterSong remains same for Focusrite
as strong demand boosts takings
its brief trading statement ahead of its
annual meeting yesterday.
However, it wasn’t all bad news as
the loyalty of music nerds helped
demand to remain strong in the first
quarter leading to revenues in line
with management’s expectations.
“In our view it speaks to the quality
of management that Focusrite is able
to navigate the global component
supply chain issues,” Peel Hunt, thebroker, said as it reiterated its “buy”
recommendation.
The tune was flat elsewhere in the
market. The FTSE 100 edged up
9.31 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 7,269.92
but a recent six-day losing streak
meant that London’s index of leading
companies ended down 20.14 points,
or 0.3 per cent, on the week. The
more UK-biased FTSE 250 improved
132.42 points, or 0.6 per cent, to
22,780.38, taking it to a weekly fall of
141.70 points, or 0.6 per cent.
There was a last-minute rally
among travel stocks as investors
shrugged off their concerns about the
Omicron variant. IAG ascended 5p, or
3.9 per cent, to 132p; easyJet rose 13p,
or 2.6 per cent, to 508½p and
Trainline added 8¼p, or 3.1 per cent,
to 272¾p. Cineworld continued to
rebound after Wednesday’s
pummelling, up 2½p, or 8.1 per cent,
to 33¾p.
Among the top gainers was
Fresnillo, the Mexican precious
metals miner, which advanced 24¼p,
or 2.8 per cent, to 914¾p and
Polymetal International, which put
on 25½p, or 2 per cent, to £13.02 as
gold and silver prices rose. However, a
decline in oil futures resulted in Shell
falling 34p, or 2.1 per cent, to £15.93
and BP losing 5¼p, or 1.5 per cent, to
333¾p.
It is fair to say Boohoo didn’t have
a great week as its shares fell to theirlowest level in five years after
sounding a second profit warning in
four months.
Like many online retailers facing
supply chain challenges, Boohoo’s
decision to slash its forecasts may not
come as a surprise. But the City didn’t
show any signs of forgiveness as a
string of powerful investment banks
cut their estimates with brokers
including Deutsche Bank, Jefferies
and HSBC trimming their
expectations on the stock.
“There are some transitionary
effects in this reset but we find it hard
to build confidence on how this
rebuilds in the near term,” argued
Andrew Ross, an analyst at Barclays,
who downgraded the stock from
overweight to equal weight and
slashed its target price from 395p to
135p.
Battle-weary investors spent most
of the session staying away from the
stock, with the shares falling by more
than 5 per cent at one point. But
some last-minute renewed optimism
turned things around with the shares
closing up 1¾p, or 1.7 per cent, to 108p.Wall Street report
The more hawkish tone of central
banks in tackling inflation and fears
over rising cases of Omicron pushed
indices lower. The Dow Jones
industrial average shed 532.20
points, or 1.5 per cent, to 35,365.44,
for a weekly drop of 1.7 per cent.