Once upon a time British Home Stores (BHS) was regarded as a poor man's Marks & Spencer.
Now, Marks and Spencer Group (LON:MKS) is regarded as a poor man's M&S, and we're still waiting to find out if anyone will buy up BHS to turn it into a poor man's Woolworth or maybe a rich man's Poundstretcher; they could call it Guineastretcher.
Former Next, Mothercare and Burton executive Greg Tufnell is the leader of a consortium that reportedly is the front-runner to rescue the department store chain.
Greg Tufnell, brother of former international cricketer Phil "the cat" Tufnell, was managing director of Mothercare from 1997 to 2000, and is the face of a newly-formed Portuguese private equity group, Richess Group, that is said to be negotiating with BHS's administrators.
A bit pants
As for the trading update from Marks & Spencer, financial journalists now have this phrase on a macro in their word processing software: Food sales good; clothing sales terrible.
New boss Steve Rowe has had his feet under the desk for long enough to have performed a strategic review, and among his conclusions is that the retailer has relied too much on promotions and sales, and these have eroded its value credentials.
His solution is to reduce prices, which seems contradictory but I think it means he is going, to paraphrase another retailer, for "everyday low(er) prices".
"Recovering our Clothing & Home business won't happen overnight," Rowe said.
He's right there. The market has been waiting for a decade, maybe more, already.
"It will take time for customers to notice the improvements we are making and change their shopping behaviour, but we are confident that our commitment to delivering the right product, price and service will help return Clothing & Home sales to growth," Rowe said.
Low fuel tailwinds
It has not been the best of weeks for the airline industry but Wizz Air Holdings PLC (LON:WIZZ) put a brave face on things in its full-year results statement.
Rapid expansion across eastern and central Europe by the FTSE 250 company saw pre-tax profits rise by 5% to €224mln, though given the tailwinds provided by cheap fuel prices this might not be as good a performance as it initially appears.
Small cap capers
Among the small-caps, the announcement from Eurasian Mining PLC (LON:EUA) is attracting a lot of attention from the private investor community.
The company has farmed out the mining of its West Kytlim alluvial platinum deposit in the Urals to local firm SKRS.
Christian Schaffalitzky, Eurasia’s managing director said the transaction would allow it to benefit from the development of West Kytlim without having to fund the capital cost of the project’s development.
If only it were always that easy for mining companies.
CentralNic Group PLC (LON:CNIC) was also racking up the clicks, which is appropriate for a web domains group.
It revealed its results had been boosted by the recent acquisition of Instra Group.
CentralNic acts as a wholesaler and technical partner to companies selling new internet domains, and its dominant position in the sector was cemented by its acquisition of rival Instra.