Market insight: What price quality shares?
High-quality companies have been good investments since the 2008 crisis. Many investors bought their shares, or added to existing holdings. So did I. And, increasingly, so has everyone else, with…
Sly Bailey joins sandwich-maker’s board
©Reuters Sly Bailey has joined the board of one of the UK’s largest sandwich-makers, her first job since stepping down as chief executive of Trinity Mirror amid last year’s shareholder…
Nestlé has time to deal with L’Oréal stake
Making wasabi-flavoured KitKats for the Japanese market is one thing. Cashing in a 29.6 per cent shareholding in one of the world’s iconic cosmetics and beauty companies would be quite…
Walmart suffers as US sales drop
Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer by sales, reported an unexpected drop in US sales that pointed to pressure on low-income consumers and sent its shares falling. The discount chain said…
Ethanol: Logic of circular biofuel trade comes into question
©AFP Cane crop: market skewed Despite having the world’s biggest ethanol industry, the US imported 9.6m barrels of the biofuel from Brazil last year. Brazil, the ethanol pioneer, imported 2m…
Peltz raises stakes in PepsiCo and Mondelez
Nelson Peltz, the activist investor, raised his stakes in PepsiCo and Mondelez during the first quarter as he met with management to discuss his ideas for the companies, according to…
Compass profit up 8% on US catering
The growing appetite from Silicon Valley companies helped Compass post an 8 per cent rise in first-half profit, driven by its North American business. The catering group, which has contracts…
Chinese austerity hits Diageo’s sales
Sales of Diageo’s baijiu, a clear grain spirit popular in China, slumped 40 per cent in the first quarter of this year as the world’s biggest distiller became the latest…
Business finds capital markets capital
©Reuters Last month Apple raised $17bn in a bond issue. Not because it needs the money; the company currently has reserves of $145bn, and the eye-watering margins on its products…
Danone buys US baby food maker
Danone, the French foods group, has entered the US baby food market with the acquisition of 92 per cent of Happy Family, an organic foods business set up in 2006.…
Northern Ireland enjoys artisan food boom
Mike Thomson stands at the cheese counter at Arcadia Delicatessen in Belfast surveying the shop’s extensive range of artisan and speciality food products. “Many of these cheeses are made abroad,”…
Week in review, May 11
©Reuters Tom Mockridge’s move to Virgin Media will put him in direct competition with his former employer’s BSkyB A round-up of some of the week’s most significant corporate events and…
Record US corn crop forecasts curb prices
©Bloomberg US farmers will overcome soggy planting conditions to grow their largest corn crop on record, the government said in a report that knocked buoyant grain markets. The US Department…
Wilmar joins the sugar big league
©Reuters Among the commodities trading houses which took delivery of the largest amount of sugar on record on the ICE futures exchange in New York last week, one name stood…
Sainsbury gives solid performance
Food retailing is a tough and challenging business. And that’s just for investors. Of the three major quoted grocers, Tesco and Wm Morrison have gone into reverse in terms of…