Three things you need to know in the financial markets this morning from investment writer, Tony Cross.
Kingfisher
Full year results are out from retailer Kingfisher LON:KGF this morning, covering the 12 months to January 31st and the figures make for impressive reading. Sales rose by 7.2%, but a particularly impressive performance by B&Q following the end of the first lockdown has evidently provided some meaningful upside to profitability. Retail profits for the year added 27.4%, a figure which was bolstered further by non-recurring cost savings and significantly lower exceptional items for the year. That bounce in sales has continued in the first few weeks of the new trading period, although it’s boosted by the weak comparatives from a year ago and there’s a degree of caution amongst management over the business outlook. With continental Europe still battling COVID and some tough comparatives to come up soon, low double digit sales growth is expected in H1, before this slips to contraction in H2.
Deliveroo
Deliveroo has this morning issued a note to the market ahead of its IPO. The company is expecting to see shares list between £3.90 and £4.60 each, giving a valuation of £7.6 billion to £8.8 billion. For comparison, Just Eat has a valuation of around £10 billion.
Tekcapital
Slim pickings from the main board as is often the case on a Monday, but AIM listed Tekcapital LON:TEK have been on our radar recently in the afternoon round up so this morning’s note about a portfolio company signing a distribution agreement for its Bluetooth e-glasses in North America seemed notable. The Lucyd Lyte e-glasses are said to be “positioned at the intersection of the eyeglass, hearables and voice assistant markets” and “enable wearers to seamlessly play music, take phone calls and use voice assistants such as Siri® and Alexa®, while maintaining situational awareness with open-ear audio, and optional vision correction with expert-cut prescription lenses made by Lucyd.” Things you never knew you needed, or an outright game changer?
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