Pets at Home upgrades FY profit outlook, BAT cuts number of business units

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was called to open 18 points lower at 7,767.

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British American Tobacco said it was cutting the number of business units it operates and restructuring its regional set up as part of a strategic review.

The number of regions will be reduced from four to three, and the number of business units from 16 to 12, the maker of Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes said.

BAT's new structure will consist of three regions: USA (Reynolds American Inc.), Americas & Europe and Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa.

Pets at Home lifted its full-year profit guidance following record third-quarter consumer revenues.

The pet retailer said in an update that trading momentum remained robust into the fourth quarter, and with eight weeks of the year left to trade, it now expects FY 23 group underlying pre-tax profit to be towards the upper end of the consensus range of £126m to £136m. This is ahead of previous guidance of around £131m.

The company said group revenues rose 8.8% in Q3 to £347.5m, while consumer revenue was up 9% on the same period a year earlier, with growth underpinned by a record number of consumers and “pleasing” volume growth. Compared with pre-pandemic levels, consumer revenues were ahead more than 30%.

Newspaper round-up

As the US legislative battle over TikTok continues to escalate, Shou Zi Chew, the chief executive of the video-sharing app, will make his first appearance before Congress to testify next month. Chew will testify before the House energy and commerce committee on 23 March, Republican representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers confirmed in a statement on Monday, as scrutiny of the Chinese-owned app over data privacy concerns grows. – Guardian

The British electric vans startup Arrival is cutting 800 jobs, about half its remaining workforce, to reduce costs as it seeks extra funding and plans US expansion to take advantage of green energy subsidies. The troubled electric vehicle maker said “approximately 50%” of the company’s 1,600-strong global workforce would leave the company. Arrival told investors that the job cuts, and other measures to trim spending, would results in a halving of its operating costs to “approximately $30m (£24m) per quarter” following a review of its operations. – Guardian

Elon Musk is going head to head with his old company PayPal as Twitter gears up to become an online payments business. The social media company has been applying for payments processing licences across the US as well as hiring people to start building a payments system. – Telegraph

Britain's electric car market risks being left behind as the EU ramps up a transatlantic subsidies war with the US, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been warned. Brussels is preparing to unveil a package of measures on Wednesday aimed at supporting renewable energy, electric vehicles and other green technologies, in response to similar measures in Joe Biden’s $430bn Inflation Reduction Act. – Telegraph

The UK is on course to be the world’s worst-performing big economy this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. In an update to its growth outlook, the IMF delivered a hefty blow to Britain’s prospects despite brightening global conditions, with a 0.9 percentage point downgrade to the UK’s annual growth projection year. – The Times

US close

Major US indices were in the red at the end of trading on Monday as market participants gear up for a busy week of earnings season and await the Federal Reserve's latest policy decision.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.77% at 33,717.09, while the S&P 500 slipped 1.30% to 4,017.77 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.96% weaker at 11,393.81.