Electrical retailer Currys issued interim results this morning which received a warm welcome from investors. Despite sales only increasing fractionally, margin improvements and efficiency savings have helped bolster the outlook. Management expect momentum to build from here and falling interest rates to provide further cover, too. However it’s not all upbeat with the company calculating changes from the recent UK government budget as costing it an additional £32m a year and only half of this has been accounted for so far. Price rises for consumers are seen as an inevitable consequence but the Currys share price is up almost 9% in early trade.
The specialist science and technology recruiter SThree is down at the opposite end of the FTSE-100 this morning after issuing a trading update. This flagged macroeconomic headwinds as persisting and likely to last into the new year, with group revenues down 9%. FY25 profits have been downgraded as a result and despite news of a further £20m share buyback – which management stress is prudent given the capital position of the business – this doesn’t appear to be cutting much slack in the market. The SThree share price was down by as much as 36% shortly after the open before finding some support.
Down into the small caps and the multi-faceted energy group Parkmead has seen its shares surge this morning off the back of news that it had agreed the disposal of a subsidiary, Parkmead (E&P) which holds various offshore licenses. That’s for an initial cash consideration of £14m, payable in instalments over the next two years. Contingent payments of a further £120m are also in the deal and given the company’s market cap last night was just £15m, this has the potential to be truly transformative. However it’s far from risk free and the Parkmead share price being up by ‘only’ 65% in the first hour of trade is reflective of this.
Most read news on Investegate this morning
Sale of Parkmead (E&P) Ltd - - Parkmead Group (The) (PMG)
Appointment of Chief Executive Officer - - C&C Group (CDI) (CCR)
Acquisition of assets from Parkmead Group - - Serica Energy (SQZ)
