Kingfisher cuts profit guidance, Sage Group posts strong results

Stocks to watch

Home improvement retail conglomerate Kingfisher has cut its profit guidance for the second time owing to continued market weakness in France. The company, which owns B&Q and Screwfix in the UK along with a host of other DIY brands across Europe, said adjusted pre-tax profit for the year ending January 2024 will now come in at around £560m, compared with £758m the year before. In September, the company had slashed its guidance from £634m to £590m.

The Sage Group reported strong financial results for the year ended 30 September on Wednesday, with underlying recurring revenue increasing 12% to £2.096bn, driven by Sage Business Cloud growth of 25%. Underlying operating profit grew 18%, and EBITDA increased 16%. The firm also announced a proposed final dividend increase of 5% and a share buyback programme of up to £350m, reflecting confidence in its future prospects and strong financial position.

Newspaper round-up

Tax officials are understood to be examining whether David Cameron failed to fully disclose taxable perks such as flights on private planes when he worked for the collapsed lender Greensill Capital, the Guardian can reveal. In particular, officials are said to be looking at a number of flights that took off or landed near his house in Oxfordshire and also in Cornwall, where the foreign secretary has a holiday home. They are also examining an offshore trust that it is understood was created by Greensill to pay him extra benefits. – Guardian

A London council has rejected plans to build a new 8,000-seat stadium and 38 further tennis courts on a Grade II*-listed park in Wimbledon. Wandsworth council’s planning committee on Tuesday night voted unanimously to reject the All England Lawn Tennis Club’s plans to almost triple the size of the tennis championship grounds from 17 hectares (42 acres) to 46 hectares. – Guardian

Civil service bureaucracy is acting “like a tax” on the economy and must be overhauled to close a £50bn-a-year investment gap between the UK and other rich nations, according to a major government review. Lord Harrington, who was commissioned by Jeremy Hunt to lead a report into UK foreign direct investment (FDI), will warn on Wednesday that a revolving door of senior ministers and “willing amateur” civil servants are holding back the economy. – Telegraph

The boss of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange has pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges and will pay a $50 million fine as part of a $4 billion-plus settlement to resolve a lengthy inquiry by American prosecutors. Changpeng Zhao, 46, the co-founder and chief executive of Binance, will step down from the company and will plead guilty to breaking criminal laws in a deal with the US justice department as part of a large settlement between the exchange and other agencies, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the US Treasury. – The Times

Investors in Nvidia cashed in profits last night despite the chip producer’s third-quarter results impressively beating forecasts on Wall Street. The stock, which has risen by almost 250 per cent since the start of the year, dipped 4 per cent immediately after the company said its revenue had risen to $18.12 billion in the three-month period, outstripping analysts’ predictions of $16.18 billion and representing an increase of 206 per cent from only a year ago. The selling spree was brief, however, and the shares pared early losses. They were down 0.8 per cent, or $3.69, at $495.55 in after-hours trading last night. – The Times

US close

US stocks declined on Tuesday with the S&P 500 snapping a five-day winning streak after minutes of the latest monetary policy meeting showed that officials are in no rush to start cutting interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 0.18% lower, the S&P 500 fell 0.20% while the Nasdaq dropped 0.59%.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on 1 November revealed discussions about leaving policy "at a restrictive stance for some time" until inflation moves down sustainably to the 2% target.

"The Fed has not completely ruled out additional rate hikes, noting that further tightening would be appropriate 'if' progress towards the 2% inflation target was 'insufficient', said Michael Pearce, economist at Oxford Economics.

"However, the minutes made clear that the Fed is taking a cautious approach, with participants generally judging that the risks had 'become more two-sided'."