If you lost a few bob in yesterday’s stock market crash, spare a thought for Wang Jianlin, who saw his estimated net worth fall by US$3.6bn yesterday.
Of course, as that was only a bit more than one-tenth of his total wealth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the chairman and founder of property and entertainment company Dalian Wander is still worth about US$35bn, so he’s unlikely to be wandering the streets of Beijing, rattling a begging bowl.
He’s also still China’s richest man, and he’s still worth US$6bn more now than he was at the start of the year, so he’s unlikely to be shopping at Poundland, even were that geographically possible.
Talking of which, Poundland (LON:PLND) has provisionally been given the all-clear by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to buy its rival, 99p Stores.
The CMA said there are enough competitors at the bottom end of the market to ensure the combined entity – sadly not about to rename itself BOGOF (buy one, get one free) Stores – would not abuse its leading position in the discount sector.
Judging by the latest grocery sales data from Kantar Worldpanel, the cheaper end of the market is going to get more crowded, as supermarkets reluctantly compete more than ever on price.
“Despite the accelerating British economy like-for like grocery prices are still falling, with a representative basket of everyday items now 1.7% cheaper than in 2014,” Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar Worldpanel, said.
Tesco (LON:TSCO) saw its sales ease 0.9% year-on-year in the 12 weeks to 16 August, but it is still comfortably the sector leader with a market share of 28.3%.
Reports indicate the cash-strapped grocer, which needs to invest heavily to revitalise its performance in its home market, has received three bids for its South Korean unit, with the bids pitched around the £2.76bn mark.
There’s been a bit of mergers & acquisitions news about, with Zurich Insurance finally making its long-awaited move on RSA Insurance (LON:RSA), proposing a takeover at 550p cash per share that has received the conditional approval of the RSA board.
Elsewhere, Global Invacom (LON:GINV) has lost more than a fifth of its market value after completing its US$11.6mln acquisition of satellite communications rival Skyware.
Meanwhile, MXC Capital (LON:MXCP) has completed its acquisition of its parent company MXC Holdings, making things a whole lot easier to understand on the ownership front.
"I am pleased to announce the acquisition we outlined at the time of our placing in May this year which consolidates all MXC investments and activities into a single entity and is the final step in the formation of the company as a quoted merchant bank, specialising in investing in technology companies," said Peter Rigg, chairman of MXC.
Lastly, today’s “we have no idea why our share price is moving so much” announcement is from Great Western Mining (LON:GWMO).
The shares have doubled over the last week and reached 0.90p at one point today, but have ebbed to 0.668p, up 6% on the day.