British American Tobacco to axe 2,300 jobs, Energean revenue rises
London open
The FTSE 100 was called to open 37 points higher at 7,375.
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British American Tobacco said it was axing 2,300 management jobs as it looked to simplify its structure and reinvest the savings in developing new products such as vapour, tobacco heating and oral tobacco.
The company said more than 20% of senior roles would be affected with the redundancies expected to be completed by January 2020.
Energean Oil & Gas reported a 52% leap in interim revenue to $40.0m but cut full year production guidance from between 4,300 and 4,800 barrels of oil per day to between 3,400 and 3,600 bopd after its Greek wells were forced into temporary shutdown during July.
The company also cut capital expenditure guidance from as high as $120m to between $70m and $80m after being unable to perform well maintenance operations or intervention activities to maintain or alter production.
Newspaper round-up
Strengthening local economies will do more to revive Britain’s struggling high streets than sprucing up city centres or changing the tax system to help retailers, according to a report. The Centre for Cities thinktank said the government should help towns and cities improve skill levels among local workforces in order to attract businesses and generate well paid jobs. Without the spending power these jobs provide, attempts to make high streets more attractive to consumers will fail, the report said. – Guardian
Politicians and businesses in the Midlands have urged the prime minister to back a £3.5bn plan to overhaul the region’s railways with “long-overdue investment” in better connections between its cities. Following the success of Transport for the North in securing Boris Johnson’s support for parts of its strategic plan, including significant rail investment, a coalition of local authorities, universities and companies is hoping for a similar endorsement for the Midlands Engine Rail scheme, which would be integrated with HS2 to directly benefit 60 towns and cities in the region. – Guardian
British consumers have expressed their fury at a price hike on the latest iPhone 11 that means they could be left out of pocket compared to some of their US counterparts. Apple's flagship phone, the iPhone 11 Pro, is marketed at $999, before US state sales taxes which can vary from zero to 10pc, but priced at £1,049 in the UK, which includes VAT. – Telegraph
Estate agents and surveyors are pessimistic about London’s housing market, with sales expectations falling to their lowest level since last November. Buyer inquiries and instructions to sell fell in August as political uncertainty hit the market, according to a survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. – The Times
KPMG has appointed two women to its board as it tries to improve its image after a row over the handling of bullying complaints. The Big Four accountancy practice said that the firm’s partners had elected Melissa Geiger, head of international tax and tax policy, and Linda Main, head of UK capital markets, to join the British board. The appointments mean that half the board will be female for the first time. – The Times
US close
Wall Street stocks closed higher on Wednesday as the focus shifted between Apple's product launch a day earlier and trade relations between China and the US.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.85%% at 27,137.04, while the S&P 500 gained 0.72% at 3,000.93 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.06% firmer at 8,169.68.