Three developing stories at the UK stock market open.
1. Wetherspoons anticipates reasonable year despite rising costs
Pub operator JD Wetherspoon LON:JDW has interim results out this morning with like for like sales up 4.8%, operating profits down by 4.3% and a doubling of the interim dividend to 4p per share. The note highlights that the change in national insurance and minimum wages will cost each of the company’s pubs on average £1,500 per week, but despite that Chairman Tim Martin expects a reasonable outcome for the full year – subject to future sales performance.
2. ASOS eyes significant improvement in H1 profits
There’s a trading update out from ASOS LON:ASC this morning which reiterates comments from last year that the business expects a significant improvement in H1 profitability, despite continued volume deleverage. Gross margins are improving, driven by lower markdown activity, increased full-price mix, and continued cost discipline. Interims will be published in late April.
3. Energean sale of assets to Carlyle cancelled as deadline expires
Energean LON:ENOG has this morning thrown the towel in on its attempted disposal of assets in Egypt, Croatia and Italy. As we noted in the small cap column earlier in the week, the counterparty had failed to achieve the required regulatory status to complete the deal and yesterday marked the long stop date on the transaction. Energean note their renewed commitment to these territories and with shares having already been marked down when the issue was initially reported by the company, that may provide a degree of insulation today.
