the times | Monday February 21 2022 37Business
hand car inflation is running at 29 per
cent. Showing how far the market has
disconnected, it says about 25 per cent
of all “nearly new” models are now
changing hands at more than the rec-
ommended retail price of the brand
new equivalent.
Yet during the pandemic, dealers
have also been cutting costs, making
thousands of employees redundant and
closing showrooms permanently, using
the initial trading hiatus to acceleraterequests for comment gave mixed ac-
counts of why they were not repaying
the taxpayer support packages that
have helped them to make record
profits in 2021.
One chief executive, who declined to
be named, argued that the furlough
support was in the 2020 accounting
period and therefore had no bearing on
the 2021 financial year, so his company
would not be repaying the money.
Another chief executive, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said that while
his group had retained an open mind
about repaying the substantial
amounts of furlough money it received,
it was difficult to make the case to his
board and shareholders for repayment
when they knew rivals would not be
paying back theirs.
A spokesman for Lookers said it had
not repaid its furlough money because
in 2020 “the pandemic resulted in the
complete closure and severe disruption
to our normal business operations and
trading patterns throughout much of
the year [and] had a material impact on
our financial performance”.
A spokesman for Marshall Motor
Holdings, which has not repaid £30 mil-
lion of support it received in 2020, ex-
plained why: “No director bonuses for
2020 were paid despite financial targets
being met. The company gave staff en-
hanced furlough payments in 2020 and
there was a voluntary management re-
duction in salaries. The company can-
celled its final dividend for 2019 and
there was no dividend for 2020.” With
the company saved and the share price
rising, the wealthy Marshall family,
whose interests are also in aerospace,
subsequently sold their 64 per cent
stake in the company to Constellation
Automotive for over £200 million.
During the pandemic more than
£69 billion was paid out to British com-
panies from the Treasury’s Covid-19 job
retention scheme to 11.7 million em-
ployees, about a third of the nation’s
workforce. Just a fraction, £1.3 billion at
the last count, has been repaid. Rishi
Sunak, the chancellor struggling to bal-
ance the nation’s books, called that
“heartening”.
Meanwhile in the bailed-out motor
trade with its record 2021 results on the
way, Vertu said trading is “robust”,
Pendragon said it has “performed
strongly” and Lookers said business is
“exceptional”. No statements on
furlough repayments are expected in
the upcoming reporting season.moves towards more efficient, less la-
bour-intensive and asset-intensive
business models.While “disruptor” new
businesses such as Cazoo were showing
how you could sell used cars to stay-at-
home internet buyers, so the trade has
belatedly followed them down the on-
line click-and-collect road, which
before the pandemic many old school
dealers standing on their forecourts
simply did not think would work.
Dealership groups who responded togeneral managers for North America
and the EU, will be announced in the
coming months.
Founded in 2015, PrimaryBid allows
retail investors to participate in new
equity issuances on the same terms as
institutional investors via a phone app.
It takes orders through the app from
thousands of retail investors, pools
them and within a couple of hours is in
a position to put in a single big applica-
tion to the placing brokers.
The platform has been used for
public listings of companies including
Deliveroo and the fintech group Pen-
sionBee, as well as the listing of Soho
House’s parent company the Member-
ship Collective Group in the US.
“Our ambition is to democratise
public market offerings through a
combination of technology, data and
advocacy,” Anand Sambasivan,
PrimaryBid’s co-founder and chief
executive, said. “This fundraising will
enable us to deliver PrimaryBid’s
infrastructure to companies interna-
tionally, expand our product portfolio,
and attract best-in-class technology
and capital markets talent.”
In September Sir Donald Brydon was
appointed chairman.Mystery bidder for Clipper is
revealed as US logistics giant
Tom HowardAn American logistics giant last night
outed itself as the bidder for Clipper Lo-
gistics after weekend reports that there
were talks over a near-£1 billion deal.
In a joint statement, GXO Logistics, a
multibillion-dollar delivery group
based in Connecticut, confirmed that it
had reached agreement over a possible
£943 million deal to buy Clipper.
The announcement confirmed
reports in The Sunday Times that a pro-
spective buyer was circling Clipper.
The American group is completing
due diligence and securing the debt fi-
nancing before formalising its bid,
which would come in a mix of cash and
GXO shares. It equates to 920p a share,
49 per cent above what Clipper shares
were trading at on January 27, a day
before the offer was tabled.
Clipper, which handles orders for
chains including Asda, Asos and John
Lewis, floated in London in 2014, sellingshares for 100p as part of the listing.
Steve Parkin, 61, its founder and execu-
tive chairman, explored taking Clipper
private again for £300 million two years
ago but his private equity partner, Sun
Capital, decided against it.
Parkin, who owns nearly 15 per cent
of Clipper, supports the GXO deal.
Should it go through, he will retain a
smaller stake in the group. The rest of
the Clipper board also recommended
accepting the offer should it be made.
GXO, spun out off XPO Logistics last
summer, is listed on the New York
Stock Exchange where it is valued at
more than $9 billion. It is a big supplier
of beer in the UK but also counts Gucci,
Nike and H&M among its customers.
A tie-up with Clipper, it said, would
link “two natural partners with a very
strong cultural fit”. The American
group is also understood to have been
attracted by Clipper’s experience in re-
turns and repairs, which are increasing-
ly important as shopping moves online.The week ahead
tomorrow
The earnings season for Britain’s
banks continues in earnest after
results last week from Standard
Chartered and NatWest, which both
reported big profits.
Lenders are receiving a boost as
the Covid crisis recedes and they
release money set aside earlier in
the pandemic, when a wave of loan
defaults had been feared.
Analysts expect HSBC, Europe’s
biggest bank, to post a jump in
annual pre-tax profit tomorrow to
$19.1 billion from $8.8 billion in- Barclays is, on Wednesday,
forecast to report profits of
£8.1 billion, up from £3.1 billion —
the bank’s first results under
CS Venkatakrishnan, who took
charge after Jes Staley abruptly
stepped down in November amid
the fallout from the Epstein scandal.
Lloyds Banking Group, Britain’s
biggest domestic lender, follows on
Thursday. Its pre-tax profit is
expected to have grown to a record
£7.2 billion from £1.2 billion — the
first annual figures under its new
boss, Charlie Nunn. As with
Standard Chartered and NatWest,
the trio are expected to report a big
rise in their bonus pools, which is
likely to draw public scrutiny.
Finally Metro, the smaller lender,
reports its earnings on Wednesday,
which will give investors an
opportunity to press management
over the departure of the finance
chief earlier this month.Analysts expect HSBC to post a jump
in annual pre-tax profit to $19.1 billionWhile shares of
Marriott and Hilton
have hit new highs,
InterContinental
Hotels Group is still
below its 2019 peak —
yet the FTSE 100
owner of Holiday Inn
and Crowne Plaza is
expected to report
similar trading to its
US peers. Ivor Jones
at Peel Hunt reckons
that IHG has an
opportunity to take
market share from
independents and
speed up its growth,
but believes the share
price is up with events.He is forecasting
full-year revenue per
available room down
35 per cent on 2019,
albeit getting closer in
the final quarter.
Interims Benchmark,
Blancco Technology,
Bluefield Solar Income
Fund, Hargreaves
Lansdown, McBride,
Oxford Cannabinoid
Technologies, Petra
Diamonds, Springfield
Properties, Transense
Technologies
Finals Antofagasta,
Coca-Cola HBC,
InterContinental
Hotels, HSBC,Smith & Nephew,
Synecticswednesday
Interims Avingtrans,
Cap-XX, Netcall,
Seraphim Space
Investment Trust
Finals Aston Martin
Lagonda, Barclays,
Capital & Counties
Properties, Heathrow,
Hochschild Mining,
International Personal
Finance, Metro
Bank, Photo-me
International,
Rio Tinto, Unite
Trading update
Ted Bakerthursday
friday
Rolls-Royce is expected to reveal
an improved but not entirely
encouraging full-year performance.
Its aerospace division continues to
be hit by the slow recovery
of aviation, according to
UBS, which forecasts
second-half group
sales of £6.3 billion,
equating to a 27 per
cent rise on the
preceding six
months or an 8 per
cent rise on last
year. “We retain a
cautious view on the
recovery of long-haul
and corporate travel that
Rolls-Royce is overexposed to,”
the bank’s analysts said.
The British Gas owner Centrica
will run the political gauntlet when
it is expected to report a jump in
annual profits — just weeks beforehouseholds on the standard variable
tariff are hit by a record increase in
their energy bills. The FTSE 250
group could see adjusted operating
profits rise by 45 per cent to
£649 million in 2021.
Profits in its oil and gas
business could treble,
according to analysts
at Investec.
Interims Genus,
Hays, Ricardo
Finals Anglo
American, BAE
Systems, Centrica,
Conduit Holdings,
Derwent London, Drax,
Hikma Pharmaceuticals,
Howden Joinery, Inchcape,
Lloyds Banking Group, MacFarlane,
Morgan Sindall, Rathbones, Rolls-
Royce, Serco, Spectris, St James’s
Place, Tremor International, WPP
Trading update ASA InternationalShares in the British Airways owner
International Airlines Group are
positioned for the company to enjoy
a better 2022, according to analysts
at UBS. The broker anticipates
improved traffic levels for the fourth
quarter against the previous three
months, which equated to 56 per
cent of the pre-pandemic level. UBS
forecasts fourth-quarter revenue of
€3.5 billion, up almost three times
from the same period a year earlier,along with smaller losses of
€306 million before interest and
taxes and a €398 million net loss,
compared with the €4.2 billion and
€1.3 billion losses a year ago.
Interims European Opportunities
Trust
Finals Evraz, IMI, International
Airlines Group, Jupiter Fund
Management, Pearson, Rightmove
Trading updates Babcock
International, On The Beachprofits rise
£ 649 m
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22 22Vertu Motors
refusing to pay back £30m
of taxpayer support; made
£70m in 2021, more than
double any annual profit
previously made