BUSINESS LIVE: Aston Martin losses speed up; Informa buys Ascential

Just before close, the FTSE 100 was 0.17% down at 8,153.60.

Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 was 0.43% lower at 21,001.33.

Chip is now accepting transfers into its top 5.1 per cent easy-access cash Isa.

Prior to this, Chip did not accept transfers in from other Isas, with a notification on its website saying customers could sign up to be notified when Chip is ready to accept Isa transfers.

(PA) – Pub group Marston’s has revealed the Euro 2024 tournament delivered a boost to sales as fans flocked to venues to support the England football team in the final.

The company, which runs about 1,370 pubs across the UK, said the football lift came after a period of wet weather put a dampener on summer sales.

It said like-for-like sales during the week of the semi-final and final matches jumped by 8%, compared with the same period last year.

This helped to lessen the impact of unseasonably wet weather, and following particularly strong sales this time last year, Marston’s said.

The extra support for the hospitality sector during the European Championships generated nearly £1 billion in additional revenue for local pubs and venues, according to estimates by the Night Time Industries Association.

Pubs and supermarkets benefited from a bumper weekend of sales before England’s defeat against Spain in the final, which was watched by some 24 million across the BBC and ITV.

Savers are losing more than £1.2billion from their retirement pots each year by inadvertently moving their pensions out of their workplace schemes into ones with higher charges, new research finds.

Hidden fees and complicated charges on pension funds are wiping up to a fifth off retirement savings, provider People’s Partnership warns.

EasyJet anticipates a record-breaking summer this year after the airline posted higher profits on soaring demand.

The low-cost airline – Europe’s second-largest after Ryanair – on Wednesday revealed it had sold 1.5 million more peak season seats than at the same time last year in the three months ending June.

Thames Water has suffered yet another blow in its battle to avoid re-nationalisation after credit ratings agency Moody’s downgraded its highest-ranked bonds to junk.

Moody’s downgraded Thames Water’s long-term corporate family rating to Ba2, which is considered junk, from an investment grade rating of Baa3.

(PA) – Santander UK has seen half-year profits slump by almost a third after being knocked by shrinking mortgage lending and higher savings rates, but is hoping for a boost from “tailwinds” over the final six months.

The Spanish-owned high street lender reported a 31% drop in pre-tax profits to £804million in the first half of 2024.

Mortgage loans slumped by £4.4billion over the half year, while its net interest income – the difference between the interest it generates from loans and pays out to savers – fell 11%.

This came after it forked out more to savers in the first three months of the year following interest rate increases.

But the group said it had since taken “pricing” action to make savings rates less attractive, which has seen customer deposits fall by £5.6billion.

This also helped profits increase by 6% quarter-on-quarter to £413million in the three months to June 30, although the out-turn was 52% lower than a year earlier.

Mike Regnier, chief executive of Santander, said: “Our first half financial results were in line with our expectations, with a more positive trajectory reflecting improvements in the second quarter.”

The Magnificent Seven tech stocks – Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla – have risen to heady heights thanks to excitement over the AI (artificial intelligence) revolution.

The question for investors as they report their latest results in the next few days is whether they can continue at such a clip.

The Government faced its first rebellion on Tuesday as seven MPs voted against keeping the two-child benefit cap.

The policy, introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, limits the amount of Universal Credit given to families with more than two children born after April 2017.

British business activity has returned to growth, bolstered by the fastest manufacturing growth in two years and the strongest inflow of new orders since April 2023.

It come as prices charged inflation slowed to its weakest since February 2021 in July, driven by a softer increase in output charges at services companies, according to data from S&P Global.

Some areas of London and the East of England would have no ATM machines within the next two years if the current trend of closures continues, a report has warned.

South Cambridgeshire and the London suburbs of Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner would have none by June 2026, according to worrying projections from portable card machine company Merchant Machine.

Monaco Yacht Show organiser Informa has agreed to acquire fellow events company Ascential for around £1.2billion.

Under the proposed deal, Ascential investors will receive £5.68 per share, a premium of around 53 per cent to the FTSE 250 firm’s closing share price on Monday.

Reckitt has revealed plans to sell a portfolio of major home care brands as part of strategy shake-up that will also see it explore all strategic options for Mead Johnson.

The consumer group plans to offload its £1.9billion home care portfolio, which includes brands like Air Wick and Cillit Bang, Calgon and Mortein, as it pivots towards a focus on health and hygiene.

Customers of digital bank Monzo will soon be able to merge all of their old pension pots in the Monzo app.

Monzo has launched Monzo Pension, a tool which will allow customers to round up all their existing personal and workplace pensions and hold them in one place in their Monzo app.

A neobroker is offering small businesses access to money market funds in a bid to boost their savings, This Is Money can reveal.

Aston Martin reported a bigger loss for the first half of the year, as the luxury car maker made fewer vehicles and its debts continued to climb.

The group, which has launched several new cars over the past year including its next generation sports cars the DB12 and Vantage, stopped making old models ahead of a ramp-up in the production of fresh models this year.

Three of the five highest-earning legal practices for UK corporate work are American, new research suggests.

US law firms Kirkland & Ellis and Lathan & Watkins have today been named as the top earners for UK corporate instructions, beating off their English rival Linklaters.

Rolls-Royce has taken a major step in its return to the market for short-haul aircraft by beginning work on a smaller version of its new Ultrafan engine.

Boss Tufan Erginbilgic said the company was working on a ‘demonstrator’ of the engine at its main headquarters in Derby – alongside the larger version designed for long-haul planes.

Like it or not, Kamala Harris is hot right now. In the first 24 hours after President Biden was forced out of the race, the Democratic frontrunner to replace him had pulled in $250m in online donations and big donor promises for her campaign.

It’s one of the largest amounts ever received in such a short space of an election cycle – twice what Biden raised in the first two months of his campaign – and shows no sign of letting up.

Reckitt Benckiser is to sell off a slew of household name brands including air freshener Air Wick and cleaning product Cillit Bang, as part of an effort to focus the company on health products.

The London-listed firm said it would sell its portfolio of home care brands that are ‘no longer core’ to the business, and which brought in £1.9billion in combined revenue last year, by the end of 2025.

Instead, it will focus on its most profitable health products including Strepsils cough sweets, Nurofen painkillers and Durex condoms.

It comes as operating profit fell 4.3 per cent year on year to £1.68billion for the first half of 2024, while revenue fell 3.7 per cent to £7.17 billion

Kris Licht, chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser, said:

‘Today I am pleased to announce a set of actions to significantly sharpen our portfolio and simplify our organisation for accelerated growth and value creation.’

Informa will buy Cannes Lions Festival owner Ascential for £1.2billion, with the group adding the prominent advertising industry conference to its portfolio of events.

Ascential, which also owns the Money20/20 fintech events, said on Tuesday after the market closed that it had received the cash offer, which it was minded to recommend.

Informa said it would expand both events into more sectors and accelerate growth, helped by its first-party data platform and understanding of both the marketing and fintech sectors.

It has agreed to pay 568p per share, representing a 53 per cent premium on the closing price of 371p on Monday.

Informa announced the deal alongside its first-half results that showed underlying operating profit growth of 18.8 per cent and revenue growth of 11 per cent.

The strong performance enabled it to upgrade its expectations for the full year.

Aston Martin has posted a pre-tax loss of £216.7million for the first half of 2024, up from £142.2million the previous year, after the carmaker made fewer vehicles.

The group, which has launched several new cars over the past year including its next generation sports cars the DB12 and Vantage, stopped making old models ahead of a ramp-up in the production of fresh models this year

Revenues fell 11 per cent year-on-year to £603million, while net debt climbed 41 per cent to just shy of £1.2billion.

Aston Martin said the results were in-line with expectations and reflected its core portfolio transition.

Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin executive chairman, added:

‘As we commence an exciting second half of 2024, Aston Martin is at a pivotal moment in its journey, with our immense product transformation supporting volume growth and sustainable positive free cash flow generation later this year, of which we have full confidence in achieving.

‘In line with prior guidance, our execution in the first half of the year focused on the successful delivery of our new Vantage and upgraded DBX707 and we remain on track to deliver a strong second half performance. This will be underpinned by a significant ramp up in wholesale volumes including both the new V12 flagship Vanquish and ultra-exclusive Valiant Special, which we recently unveiled at Goodwood with Fernando Alonso’.’