The Business Matrix: Thursday 23 April 2015

Chelsea cheer is Ladbrokes’ woe

Punter-friendly football results, including the 5-0 win by Chelsea at Swansea in January, hit profits at the troubled bookie Ladbrokes. New chief executive Jim Mullen said he plans to bring forward the results of his strategic review to June from September after first-quarter earnings fell by 22.3 per cent to £14.3m.

Eurozone to ‘pick up’, Bank says

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee expects the eurozone economy to “pick up”, according to minutes from this month’s meeting. It said growth from the UK’s largest trading partner should offset the impact of sterling’s rise against the single currency. It left interest rates unchanged.

Cartier owner frank about franc

Richemont, the Swiss-based company that owns luxury brands such as Cartier and Dunhill, blamed losses from derivatives and investments in its cash pile of €5.4 bn (£3.9bn) as it warned full-year profits this year would be down 36 per cent. Analysts said the losses could be related to the Swiss franc revaluation this year.

Punch toasts its debt swap success

Punch Taverns signalled it is getting to grips with its debt problems following last year’s debt for equity swap which saw its borrowings cut by £600m to £1.5bn. The 3,600-strong pub company said half-yearly operating profits fell from £108m to £105m adding that it was on target to make £195m to £200m for the full year.

Ex-GCHQ boss joins StanChart

A former director of GCHQ has joined Standard Chartered as a member and senior adviser to its Financial Crime Risk committtee. Sir Iain Lobban was head of GCHQ from 2008 until last year and has more than a decade’s experience of counter-terrorism and cyber-security.

Bowling kingpin picks up rival

The UK’s largest ten-pin bowling business, The Original Bowling Company, has snapped up smaller rival Bowlplex. The deal, at an unnamed price, comes just months after private equity firm Electra invested £51m in TOBC, which operates under the Hollywood Bowl and AMF brands.

Travis Perkins builds its sales

Building supplies firm Travis Perkins said underlying sales rose 5.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year, with its general merchanting and Wickes consumer divisions performing well. Their progress was offset by a decline in plumbing and heating.

Metro celebrates half a million

Metro Bank, which has 34 outlets, said it had opened its 500,000th customer account after year-on-year growth of 56 per cent in the first quarter. Deposits increased to £3.3bn, and almost half of total lending was to business customers.Losses narrowed to £8.5m.

BHP Billiton slows plans on iron ore

BHP Billiton is slowing down its expansion plans in iron ore, the first big miner to pull back as a glut sends prices tumbling. It said it would delay an Australian port project meant to boost output to 290 million tonnes, up 20 million a year.

Aviva Investors hires fund boss

The asset manager Aviva Investors has named Simon Young as UK equities fund manager. Mr Young, who joins from Black Rock, will be based in London and report to Trevor Green, the group’s head of UK equities.