Oct 27, 2021
FirstGroup squeezes out activist via a share sale
FirstGroup set out plans to return up to £500m to shareholders via a tender at 105p a share, a 9.2 per cent premium to Tuesday's closing price of 96.15p. It said that Coast, a 12.8 per cent shareholder, had given an irrevocable undertaking to support the resolutions and tender its full holdings. Sales last quarter moderated by 1.6 per cent against the pandemic-inflated 2020 result but were up 16.3 per cent versus the same period in 2019, Wickes said in a trading update. The book publisher reported a half year pre-tax profit of £11.1m, from £3m the year before, on revenue up 29 per cent to £100.7m. Bloomsbury noted continued supply chain problems but reiterated guidance for its financial year ending February 2022, saying that its non-consumer titles would provide insulation from what was likely to be a competitive Christmas. Banco Santander reported a €2.2bn of profit for the third quarter, 24 per cent ahead of the same period last year, as the Spanish lender benefited from its relative strength in the US and UK markets as well as from digitalisation. Deutsche Bank's third quarter net profit attributable to shareholders rose by 7 per cent to €194m, beating analyst expectations of €135m. The boom in mergers and acquisitions and a sharp year-on-year reduction in provisions for credit losses helped offset a drop in trading revenues.
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