Company
LON:MTC
The Mothercare group is comprised principally of two iconic retail brands with international appeal; Mothercare and Early Learning Centre. The group's brands operate through three distinct channels to market; UK stores, Direct (being the in-home and in-store internet-based businesses and catalogue mail order), and International, under which the group franchises (or participates in joint venture) operations delivering the Mothercare and Early Learning Centre brand retail operations in overseas markets. The Mothercare is traded in the ISDX Exchange HERE
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UK like-for-like sales declined by 11.4% during the quarter, reflecting a combination of the difficult consumer backdrop and aggressive discounting activity undertaken in the prior year
Mothercare said the UK retail environment remains "very challenging"
The UK blue-chip benchmark closed down nearly 90 points at 6,960, while the FTSE 250 shed nearly 55 points
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Aside from Centrica, the Day Ahead includes updates from the likes of water firm Severn Trent, booze retailer Majestic Wines, and pubs operator Mitchells & Butlers
Chief executive Chris Griggs said Britsh Land remains "alert to potential uncertainties as the Brexit process unfolds"
The mother and baby products retailer is targeting £19mln in cost savings under a rescue deal struck with creditors earlier this year.
Karen Millen has bought some parts of Coast, including the brand’s website and UK department store concessions
Homebase - which is owned by restructuring group Hilco Capital – will now go ahead with plans to close 42 stores and cut rents on others as part of a planned Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA)
Hilco, which bought the troubled DIY chain from Australia's Wesfarmers for £1 in May, is expected to shut 42 stores, putting about 1,500 jobs at risk, according to the BBC News website
The sofa retailer said its LFL order intake in the second half had declined by 2.6%, compared to a growth of 2.2% in the first half, but it grew by 0.2% in the full year
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Footsie closed up around seven points, or 0.10% at 7,683 on Thursday
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The day ahead includes full year results from Sports Direct, a first quarter trading update from SSE and UK retail sales data
Mothercare will shut 60 stores by June 2019 and has negotiated reduced rents for 19 stores as part of an insolvency process known as a company voluntary arrangement
Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index, said the UK was now at a crossroads..
The retailer has been pulling investment from its high street stores and putting it into the ‘travel’ side of its business, which is benefitting from an increase in plane and rail passengers
Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said: ‘Marks and Spencer looks like it’s going to avoid relegation from the FTSE 100 by the skin of its teeth”
The struggling retailer will ask creditors and stakeholders to approve its turnaround strategy at a meeting in July
Investments and investor services
FTSE 100 closed at a new all time high on Thursday, up 0.70% to 7,787
Investments and investor services
As Moya Greene's last set of Royal Mail results are released analysts expect the attention will be on guidance for 2019.
There's an argument to be made that BT would have been better off tapping the market three years ago when its shares were twice as high as they are now, rather than braving it out. John Harrington looks at the FTSE 350 to see whether there
