Three things you need to know in the financial markets this morning from investment writer, Tony Cross
Aviva
There’s a new CEO for Aviva. Following news from last October that Mark Wilson was to step down, 26 year company veteran Maurice Tulloch has been appointed to the role – on £975,000 a year. He takes the job with immediate effect and shareholders will be hoping he can continue to help keep pushing the company’s share price higher.
Ted Baker
More CEO news, this time from Ted Baker. The allegations of misconduct against its founder Ray Kelvin may still be under investigation but he has decided that it’s time to step aside. The share price has largely recovered from the slump it faced before Christmas in the wake of the misconduct news breaking, but with the internal investigations still ongoing, it may be too early to draw a line under the matter.
Wizz Air
Eastern European low cost airline Wizz Air has published its traffic figures for February and yet again they paint an encouraging picture, although they don’t give any idea of profitability. A number of businesses in the sector have been struggling of late so that level of detail is important but in terms of passengers carried, there has been a 13% uplift from last February against a 9% increase in the available number of seats. That has pushed the load factor up by 3% to over 94%, suggesting planes approaching capacity.
