Bunzl FY operating profits slip, AB Foods H1 sales seen strongly ahead of 2020
London pre-open
The FTSE 100 was being called to open 108.50 points lower ahead of the bell on Monday after wrapping up the previous session 3.91% stronger at 7,489.46.
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Distribution and services giant Bunzl said on Monday that adjusted operating profits had slipped year-on-year in 2021 despite a modest uptick in reported revenues.
Bunzl said reported adjusted operating profits were down 3.3% on 2020 at £752.8m, while adjusted pre-tax profits were 2.4% lower at £698.2m and adjusted earnings per share were 1.5% softer year-on-year at 162.5p. The FTSE 100-listed firm stated that the fall in profits comes as full-year reported revenues inched ahead 1.7% to £10.28bn, with recovery in its base business and acquisitions more than offsetting declines in Covid-19 related sales. Revenue at constant exchange rates was 17.1% higher than 2019's pre-Covid comparative.
Primark owner AB Foods said on Monday that it expects first-half sales and adjusted operating profits to be strongly ahead of last year and higher than its 2020 pre-Covid interims.
AB stated interim sales at Primark were expected to be well over 60% ahead of last year at constant currency, with an operating profit margin of around 11% as stores remained open throughout the period.
Newspaper round-up
The EU has announced it will ban the Russian state-backed channels RT and Sputnik in an unprecedented move against the Kremlin media machine. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said: "Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin's war and to sow division in our union. So we are developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe." - Guardian
The Kremlin is scrambling to stave off a run on Russian banks after Western nations announced a barrage of punishing sanctions. Russia's central bank was also reportedly bringing in new measures to prevent a sell-off of Russian securities. According to Reuters, central bank documents showed that it had ordered market players to reject foreign clients' bids to sell Russian securities from early Monday morning. - Telegraph
The new chief executive of Arm has ordered a leadership clear-out that will see half of the British microchip company's top executives leave ahead of a blockbuster float in the next year. Arm's chief technology officer Dipesh Patel, legal chief Carolyn Herzog and chief strategy officer Jason Zajac have left the company in a reshuffle orchestrated by Rene Haas. - Telegraph
Britain is preparing to launch "the most generous visa system in the world" for company founders and high-skilled workers in an attempt to drive up productivity and economic growth. Government officials are due to open a "scale-up visa" scheme for applications in the next few months that will allow fast-growing companies to automatically hire overseas workers if they have a headcount of at least ten staff and are growing by 20% a year for three years in terms of revenue or employee numbers. - The Times
A pension fund managing the nest-eggs of 10.0m savers has joined a campaign pressing Unilever to make its food products healthier. The National Employment Savings Trust, which runs pension plans for a third of the British workforce, said that it planned to back a resolution expected to be put to Unilever shareholders in May. - The Times
US close
Wall Street stocks closed higher on Friday despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.51% at 34,058.75, while the S&P 500 was 2.24% firmer at 4,384.65 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.64% stronger at 13,694.62.