Three things you need to know in the financial markets this morning from investment writer, Tony Cross
IAG
British Airways’ owner IAG has this morning issued a statement to the market, following the theft of customer data late last year. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has said that it intends to levy a fine of 1.5% of the airline’s worldwide turnover for the financial year ending 31st December 2017. That equates to over £183 million and assuming it can’t be overturned then it could well be that a dividend cut will be needed to absorb the impact. IAG is to contest the ruling, but the market may well react anyway.
Unite
Student housing group Unite has issued a quarterly valuation summary this morning, which provides some interesting context in terms of property prices across the UK. The company splits its portfolios into ‘London’ and ‘Rest of UK’, with the former seeing a 1.1% increase in value, whilst the latter has ticked higher by 1.3%. The company believes it can keep increasing rents at around 3-3.5% a year – bad news for students but good news for investors.
Photo-Me International
It’s a bit of a quiet start to the week, so the third point today is Photo-Me International’s news that it will delay publication of its results by up to three weeks. The company, which operates photo kiosks, a range of laundrette services and provides a number of ID solutions, cites the time needed by the newly appointed auditor and their enhanced internal regulatory scrutiny measures as being responsible for the delay. It also notes that the accounts are substantially complete and the auditor hasn’t raised any material issues. This all seems fair enough and numbers are expected to be no more than two weeks late, but will investors be as understanding?
