Britain's blue chips are keeping the m'learned friends busy, with Barclays (LON:BARC) stumping up a fine and Tesco (LON:TSCO) settling a US law suit.
The Barclays fine, for £72mln, is for lax checks – as opposed to tax cheques, which is a different issue altogether – and is the largest fine ever imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for failing to carry out enough checks on rich clients.
Mind you, the boys in the trading room will probably have a whip-round to pay the fine.
Tesco, meanwhile, has drawn a line – it hopes – under the dodgy accounting scandal under the previous management's watch, paying US$12mln to settle a US law suit linked to over-statement of commercial income last year.
The deal was agreed with holders of its American depositary receipts (ADRs). Supine British shareholders have been a bit more phlegmatic about the whole affair, and have gone back to practising their shoulder shrugging.
I can't think of a way to link “tax cheques” to Sir Philip Green so I'll settle for the old “elsewhere on the High Street” standby and move on to the profits of young folks' fashion chain, Topshop, part of Green's Arcadia group.
A strong performance by its online offering helped the group nudge up profits to £202mln from £198mln in the year to 29 August.
A collaboration with pop singer Beyoncé this year is also likely to improve – wait for it! - the bottom line in the current year.
Down among the small caps, reaction to Alliance Pharma's (LON:APH) acquisition of the non-aesthetics business of Sinclair IS PHARMA (LON:SPH) has been informative.
Alliance shares have fallen by almost 10% while Sinclair's have risen by more than 7%, in a fairly standard response to a deal where cash leaves one company – in this case £132mln of it from Alliance – and gets trousered by another.
Over the long term, though, the deal is going to make the £121mln-valued Alliance Pharma a very different beast.
It has always been a steady-as-she-goes kind of a company, squeezing profit out of pharmaceutical products that the big boys have tired of or abandoned.
The management is not the sort to bet the farm (or even bet the pharm) on a vanity acquisition.
Based on underlying earnings (EBITDA) last year, Alliance is paying 14.6 times earnings to add 27 new products to its medicine cabinet, but it will no doubt be looking to achieve significant synergies.
In other mergers & acquisitions news, the Daily Mail & General Trust (LON:DMGT) has offloaded its online discount business, Wowcher, to a newly formed company in which it will hold around a 30% stake.
DMGT’s net proceeds from the disposal of Wowcher and the investment in the new company are £29 million.
In the year to 30 September 2015 Wowcher achieved its first full year of operating profits.