MORE than a dozen FTSE companies dumped their figures on the City yesterday to comply with rules to report within three months of their annual results.
The “Super Thursday” trend started because boards and advisers do not want to ruin their weekends by reporting on Mondays or Fridays.
Here are the best and biggest of yesterday’s results:
ROLLS-ROYCE
Shares in the jet engine-maker soared yesterday by as much as 21 per cent after an impressive turnaround. Two years after boss Tufan Erginbilgic said the firm was on a “burning platform”, it has restored its dividend for the first time in five years and announced a £1billion share buyback.
Rolls-Royce is now confident it will hit its profit targets two years earlier than planned, while its value has increased almost eight-fold since Mr Erginbilgic took over.
OCADO
Tech player Ocado did not deliver for investors yesterday, with its shares dropping by 17 per cent following losses of £374.5million.
Ocado is cutting 500 of its own staff to trim costs. Boss Tim Steiner claims the robots and software at its automated warehouses have become even more efficient and it will use more AI.
He firmly ruled out rumours Ocado would be selling its stake in its Marks & Spencer grocery delivery joint venture.
WPP
The advertising giant’s shares hit a four-year low amid signs clients are spending less on marketing.
But chief executive Mark Read did signal that advertisers were coming back to Elon Musk’s social media site X (Twitter) in droves.
In the UK WPP’s revenues have dropped by 5 per cent after firms were spooked about the wider economy by the Budget.
HALEON
The maker of household-name goods such as Sensodyne and Panadol posted softer sales growth, as there was not as much demand for its cold and flu medicines this winter. But it still increased its dividend and put £500million towards buybacks.
Boss Brian McNamara yesterday ruled out switching its London listing to New York, saying: “We are happy being listed in London.
“It’s more about how we get to our full potential, that’s what will drive our value.”
DRAX
The wood-pellet-burning power station owner posted record earnings yesterday of £1.06billion, weeks after it emerged it would get a further £2billion in government subsidies. It has had a total of £6.5billion of subsidies since 2002.
Drax says its biomass is essential for “keeping lights on for millions of homes . . . when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining”.
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE GROUP
Boss David Schwimmer (not the one who played Ross in Friends) has a big job trying to stop his FTSE peers ditching London listings for New York, where there is the promise of higher valuations.
Mr Schwimmer said that London was still the “number one venue in Europe” for raising cash, with £25billion raised for 274 firms last year.
Profits at LSEG rose by a tenth to £2.97billion but its stock exchange makes less than 3 per cent of the group’s revenues after a big shift to being a data provider instead. Mr Schwimmer dismissed any plans to sell off the 233-year-old exchange yesterday.
TAYLOR WIMPEY
The housebuilder plans to build up to 10,800 more homes this year, in a welcome boost for the Government’s ambitions.
Boss Jennie Daly called out a skills shortage and squeezed local housing authority finances as a big burden to a housebuilding boom.
But the firm said it was encouraged by more stability in the mortgage market.
Taylor Wimpey completed 8,972 properties in 2024 — almost 4,000 below its levels two years ago when mortgage rates started to climb.
HISCOX & AVIVA
Insurer Hiscox yesterday said it would be taking a £134million hit from the LA wildfires and put the cost for the wider insurance industry as high as £31.6billion.
Despite this the Lloyd’s of London insurer said profits rose by a tenth to £541.5million. Elsewhere in insurance, Aviva posted a 20 per cent rise in profits to £1.77billion ahead of its takeover of Direct Line completing later this year.
HOWDENS JOINERY
The FTSE 100 trade kitchen supplier often goes under the radar but it is a good barometer of how Brits are feeling.
It reckons the kitchen installation market will continue to shrink this year as cautious consumers put off big projects.
That was enough for its shares to drop 6 per cent despite saying it was running the business efficiently to overcome £18million of extra staffing costs from the Budget.
METROBANK
The challenger bank returned to profit in the second half of the year after cutting costs by £80million — but for the full year it still made a £212.5million loss.
That includes a £101million hit from selling its mortgage loan book to NatWest and a £16.7million fine from the regulator.
The bank is now focusing on small business customers, rather than personal accounts, which boss Daniel Frumkin said was “higher-margin”.
BUSTING COMPANY JARGON
WITH such a huge number of companies comes a truckload of industry jargon.
Sometimes firms become so used to industry acronyms and specific corporate speak that it becomes a second language.
Other times, the boardroom gobbledygook seems like a deliberate strategy to avoid plain English about their company’s performance.
Here’s just some of the choice examples:
- Automated Frameload — Ocado: A moving robotic grid which brings crates up and down warehouses for human packers to put groceries in.
- Cross Docking (XDC) Network — Howdens: Warehouses that have less frequently ordered items but can still do daily deliveries.
- EFH — Rolls-Royce: Short for “engine flying hours” and Rolls-Royce is paid based on the time engines are in flight.
- MREL — Metro Bank: Stands for “minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities”, which is a buffer in case a financial firm fails.
- Power Hedges — Drax: Contracts that set the top and bottom rate of energy prices it is exposed to.
- Renewal Binder — Hiscox: Temporary contract that can be renewed until a policy is issued.
- Ultimate Biting Power Technology — Haleon: An extra-strong denture paste in its Poligrip brand.
