Marshalls H1 profit up, Segro sells Heston industrial estate

London’s FTSE 100 was set to open flat at 6,817.

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Landscape products group Marshalls said it remained confident of meeting full year expectations after delivering a 21% rise in half year pre-tax profits to £25.1m.

The company said underlying medium to long-term market indicators remained supportive “notwithstanding the heightened economic and political uncertainty since the EU referendum”.

Revenue rose 2% to £202.4m, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation jumped 9% to £32.4m. The interim dividend increased by 29% to 2.90p a share.

SEGRO said it has exchanged contracts to sell the Heston & Airlinks Industrial Estate near Heathrow Airport to Capital Industrial Four BV for £79.5m.

Heston Industrial Estate is a multi-let industrial estate comprising 481,000 sq ft of warehouse space across 47 units. The estate has a vacancy rate of around 1 per cent and a weighted average lease length to break of 5.4 years.

The disposal price reflects a topped-up net initial yield of 5.1% and a small premium to the book value at 30 June 2016. Completion is expected by the end of September.

Restaurant Group swung to a pre-tax loss in the first half on the back of restructuring costs, while like-for-like sales fell but the company said trading remains in line with its full-year expectations.

Chairman Debbie Hewitt said: “This has been a challenging trading period for our Leisure brands, albeit with a good performance from our pubs and concessions businesses. The board has moved quickly to undertake a review of the operating strategy and we now have clarity on the issues facing our Leisure brands, particularly Frankie & Benny's.

“The brand remains relevant and popular and we are confident that improved performance will be achieved by being more customer-focussed and data-driven, and through better operational execution.”

In the press

NHS bosses throughout England are quietly drawing up plans for hospital closures, cutbacks and radical changes to the way healthcare is delivered in an attempt to meet spiralling demand and plug the hole in their finances, an investigation by the Guardian and campaign group 38 Degrees has revealed. Without the changes, the NHS at local level could be facing a financial shortfall of about £20bn by 2020-21 if no action is taken, the research suggests. -The Guardian

A shift in house price momentum is underway in the UK, as southern cities start to slow down with the north taking their place at the top of the leaderboard. Glasgow has emerged as the city with the fastest growing quarterly house prices, according to Hometrack's monitor of the biggest 20 cities in the country. Prices there rose 5.2pc in the three months to July. - The Daily Telegraph

The UK’s burgeoning independent energy supply market is braced for a heavy hit as rocketing market prices make it harder for the smaller companies to compete against larger energy rivals. This summer energy markets have shown their steepest climbs in half a decade, which is already putting pressure on smaller companies to raise their prices while big six suppliers are able to delay price hikes, which are often responsible for an exodus of customers. - The Daily Telegraph

The US has been accused of “behaving like a tax haven”, in an escalating war of words between Washington and Brussels over the European commission’s anti-trust cases against Apple, Amazon and Starbucks. On Wednesday, the US Treasury threatened retaliation if Europe continues its tax crusade against American multinationals. - The Guardian

US close

US stocks ended a touch weaker on Thursday as traders weighed up mixed economic data and some disappointing earnings ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s speech at Jackson Hole.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended 0.1% lower.

At the same time, oil prices settled higher, with West Texas Intermediate up 1.2% at $47.32 per barrel and Brent crude up 1.2% at $49.64.