An upgrade to full-year sales forecasts following recent volatile trading at Reckitt Benckiser has caused a sharp rise in the consumer goods company’s share price.
The FTSE 100 group raised full-year net revenue forecasts to above 4 per cent from its previous guidance of 3-plus per cent to 4-plus per cent in “core Reckitt”.
That excludes a portfolio of homecare brands, such Air Wick fresheners and Cillit Bang cleaners, in which Reckitt agreed to sell a majority stake to the private equity firm Advent International last week for up to £3.6 billion. It also excludes Mead Johnson, Reckitt’s infant nutrition business, which is subject to a strategic review in the face of costly safety lawsuits in the United States.
Reckitt shares rose 9 per cent, or 454p, to £54.94.
The bank posted a 71.5 per cent increase in profits but branch closures are expected if a sale to Santander goes through
BETTY LAURA ZAPATA/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
British consumers remain resilient despite the slowing economy, according to TSB, which chalked up record profits in the six months to June.
The high-street bank, which is the subject of a £2.9 billion bid from Santander, reported a 71.5 per cent increase in pre-tax profit to £191.4 million.
Lower costs, higher income and a fall in provisions for bad debts produced the improvement in profit, which was also 7 per cent higher than in the second half of 2024.
TSB is owned by the Spanish group Sabadell and has five million customers, 5,000 employees and 175 branches. Job cuts and branch closures are expected if the purchase by Santander goes through.
“The UK consumer remains resilient in the face of slower economic growth and uncertainty about the global outlook,” TSB said in an outlook statement.
Howden Joinery shares rise 10%
Howdens plans to open about 25 new depots and reformat 60 existing ones in the coming year
ALAMY
Shares in Howden Joinery have jumped 10 per cent this morning after the FTSE 100 kitchen and joinery supplier reported a rise in first-half pre-tax profits in a challenging trade-led refurbishment market.
Pre-tax profits rose to £117.2 million in the 24 weeks to June 15, up from £112.3 million in the same period last year.
Howdens put the rise down to price increases, which lifted gross profit margins by 130 basis points to 61.2 per cent, and a strong mix towards kitchens.
The company, which reiterated its full-year guidance, plans to bring out more new kitchen ranges and open about 25 depots in the UK and reformat about 60 existing depots over the year.
The shares rose 87½p to 923p.
FTSE 100 hits intraday high
London’s leading share index has risen to a new record intraday high buoyed by strong corporate results and optimism of trade deals with the United States.
The FTSE 100 rose 43 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 9,102.53 and is on track to beat yesterday’s record closing high of 9061.49.
Reckitt Benckiser, BT and Lloyds Banking Group, which all reported results this morning, rose by 11 per cent, 3.5 per cent and 1.14 per cent respectively.
The British Gas owner Centrica was the biggest faller after reporting a halving of profits, down 2.52 per cent. The gold miners Endeavour and Fresnillo also fell after a dip in the gold price and were down 1.37 per cent and 0.68 per cent respectively.
In the FTSE 250, the biggest riser was ITV, which also reported results. The shares gained 6 per cent. The molten metal flow engineering company Vesuvius fell 11 per cent after a trading update that was cautious about the outlook for the second half.
FTSE 250 results: IG, AJ Bell, Wizz Air
IG: The online trading group announced a £125 million share buyback after it reported a better-than-expected 17 per cent rise in headline profits to £535.8 million, up from £456 million last year, in the 12 months to May 31. This was driven by a rise in trading volumes during the recent market turbulence. Statutory pre-tax profit rose 24 per cent to £380.4 million. Revenue over the period rose 9 per cent to £1.07 billion.
AJ Bell: The broker and investment platform has reported that assets under administration rose to £96.1 billion in the three months to the end of June, up 15 per cent over the past year and 6 per cent in the quarter, as the number of customers rose by 27,000 in the quarter to 620,000.
Wizz Air: The budget carrier reported worse-than-expected first-quarter profit as it struggled with plane groundings and forecast a key revenue metric for the second quarter to be flat year on year. Operating profit fell to €27 million for the three months to June 30, compared with analysts’ forecasts of €87 million and down 38 per cent from a year ago.
FTSE 100 results: Vodafone, BT, Reckitt
Vodafone: The telecoms group reported a 5.5 per cent rise in organic service revenue, its key performance metric, during the June quarter, as the UK, Turkey and Africa offset a further decline in its troubled German business. In its first trading update since the merger of its UK business with Three, Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone’s chief executive, said that the group was “well positioned for multi-year growth across both Europe and Africa”.
BT: The former state monopoly said Simon Lowth, its finance chief, was to retire after nine years in the job and would be replaced by Patricia Cobain, who is in the same role at Virgin Media O2, one of BT’s main rivals in the mobile and broadband market. The telecoms group reported a 3 per cent decline in revenue for its first quarter but said that it was on track to achieve full-year guidance. Analysts had forecast a 2.1 per cent decline in revenue over the three months.
Reckitt Benckiser: The Dettol and Lysol owner has announced plans to buy back £1 billion of its own shares as it announced that like-for-like sales rose by 1.5 per cent in the first six months of the year. The company sold a majority stake in homecare brands such as Air Wick and Cillit Bang for £3.6 billion last week.
British Gas owner’s profits halve
Lower gas prices hit profits at Centrica
AFP
Lower gas and power prices drove a halving of profits at the British Gas owner Centrica in the first six months of the year.
The FTSE 100 energy group said that adjusted operating profits fell 47 per cent to £549 million, as its North Sea oil and gas, nuclear and commodities trading divisions all reported sharp drops in earnings and its gas storage business swung to a loss.
Its British Gas household energy supply business also reported a slight drop in profits as warmer weather hit energy usage, offsetting an increase in customer numbers.
At a statutory level, the company made a £69 million loss, down from a £1.67 billion profit in the same half last year, as it wrote down the value of its nuclear investments and closed its Morecambe gas field. The company described the performance as resilient.
Despite the lower profits, Centrica said it would pay an interim dividend of 1.83p per share, up from 1.5p per share this time last year.
ITV cuts spending on content
Carolyn McCall, ITV chief executive, said its studios business “continues to see positive momentum”
HOLLIE ADAMS FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES
The broadcaster and studios business ITV said it would cut an extra £15 million in costs this year, on top of the £30 million already outlined, and reduce content spending to £1.23 billion, from a previously expected £1.25 billion.
The FTSE 250 group recorded a 7 per cent decline in advertising revenue over the first six months of the year, which offset a better performance for its studios arm, where revenue rose by 3 per cent.
Carolyn McCall, ITV chief executive, said: “ITV Studios continues to see positive momentum, with strong growth in external revenues in H1, driven by content for the global streaming platforms, including The Devil’s Hour for Amazon Prime Video and Run Away for Netflix.”
Lloyds Banking increases dividend
Lloyds Banking Group has declared a bumper half-year dividend that will return about £730 million to its stock market investors after posting a surprise rise in interim profits.
Britain’s biggest mortgage lender said that pre-tax profits in the six months to the end of June had increased to £3.5 billion, up from £3.3 billion a year earlier and better than the dip to £3.2 billion that City analysts had been expecting.
It said it was increasing its interim dividend by 15 per cent year-on-year to 1.22p a share, a distribution to its shareholders that is the equivalent of £731 million.
Profits were helped by a smaller-than-expected impairment charge for bad loans. City analysts had forecast a £591 million provision, but the actual impairment was £442 million, although this was still up from £101 million at the same point in 2024.
FTSE 100 to extend record run
The FTSE 100 is expected to open about 39 points higher, putting it on track to hit a new record high after shares in Asia rallied on optimism about trade following the US-Japan deal and reports that the European Union is close to an agreement with President Trump.
Sentiment will also be driven by the large number of FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies reporting this morning as executives and advisers clear their desks before heading to the pool in Provence or Tuscany.
The Nikkei rose 1.65 per cent to 41,815.90, its highest level in more than a year as it edges nearer its closing high of 42,224.02 on July 11. Shares in China and South Korea were also higher.
This followed record closing highs for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average on Wall Street last night. The tech-heavy Nasdaq also made gains before the second-quarter results from Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Nasdaq and S&P futures are higher after Alphabet beat estimates to kick off the “Magnificent Seven” earnings season.