Whitbread (WTB)

With the New Year well underway there have been plenty of news items to catch investors’ attention of late. There was a reminder of the continuing pressures on the airline sector as Ryanair (RYA) and EasyJet (EZJ) landed the market with mixed updates on 18 January and 22 January respectively. Ryanair warned on profit again, lowering guidance from a range of €1.1bn to €1.2bn down to €1bn ...

The £3.9bn sale of its Costa Coffee franchise to Coca-Cola has netted Whitbread (WTB) a tidy sum, funds which can be returned to shareholders in time. Yet the sale also leaves the Premier Inn operator almost exclusively reliant on its hotels chain, which now represents the bulk of the business going forward. Against this backcloth it is understandable that today's disappointing third quarter ...

UK stocks trade lower after the government survived a motion of no confidence by a narrow margin last night. The FTSE 100 index of leading stocks is down 0.5% to 6,863 points leaving it more or less where it finished last week. Banks, Insurers, Miners and Oils are the main losers while Consumer stocks such as BATS (BATS), Diageo (DGE) and Unilever (ULVR) are stemming the losses. AB FOODS ...

UK markets continue their losing run in a predictably quiet final trading session before the holiday. The FTSE 100 index loses around 40 points in a truncated Christmas Eve session that will close for the Christmas break at 1pm when the London Stock Exchange shuts down. That leaves the blue-chip index at 6,681.07 as investors struggle to shake-off a multitude of concerns for the weeks and ...

Premier Inn owner Whitbread (WTB) plans to target people looking for ‘no-frills’ cheap accommodation by launching a new hotel concept called Zip. Chief executive Alison Brittain says the market opportunity for ultra-budget consumers could be worth £1bn annually. She believes the new Zip brand will target people that typically do not stay at Premier Inn as they may deem it too ...

London’s FTSE 100 falls to a seventh-month low of 6,983 on Tuesday, with markets flashing red across Europe and Asia amid geopolitical tensions focused on Saudi Arabia, a falling oil price, Italy’s budget issues and ongoing Brexit concerns among many other issues. Leisure leviathan Whitbread (WTB) weakens 75p or 1.7% to £43.89 after booking a flat first half profit with sales growth ...

So far in 2018 stocks under Canaccord Genuity’s leisure sector coverage have dropped by 10% on average. This miserable performance, which is worse than the wider market, begs the question of what is going on with this grouping of companies. Investors should note these companies are still profitable for the most part, but have struggled following slower than anticipated profit growth, profit ...

Speculation has been brewing over what will happen to Whitbread (WTB) following the agreed sale of Costa Coffee to Coca-Cola for £3.9bn. Coca-Cola is buying Costa to develop the coffee chain and make cold-brew and ready-to-drink coffee products under a strong global brand. Canaccord Genuity analyst Nigel Parson believes this potentially signals ‘the beginning of the end’ for ...

The surprise sale of Whitbread’s (WTB) Costa Coffee business to Coca-Cola for £3.9bn on 31 August is sparking a debate over who could be next to buckle under the influence of activist investors. For the activist funds with stakes in Whitbread, Sachem Head and Elliott, the deal is a victory, helping to achieve their aim of generating more value by splitting up the Costa Coffee business from ...

There is no question what the biggest story is on the UK stock market right now as Coca-Cola swoops for Whitbread’s (WTB) Costa Coffee business in a £3.9bn deal. The shares surge to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard, up Having proposed a spin-off under activist pressure in April 2018, Whitbread had said the process could take two years. Today’s deal offers a short-cut and at what most ...

The FTSE 100 is down 0.25% early on to 7,497.30 as underlying global tensions over trade return to the fore following a threat from president Donald Trump to pull out of the World Trade Organisation. Whitbread (WTB) says it has agreed to sell its Costa Coffee chain to The Coca-Cola Company for an enterprise value of £3.9bn and would return 'a significant majority' of the proceeds to ...

The benefits of the recent heatwave attracting visitors to London could soon be reflected in results from several quoted hotel operators with sites in the Capital. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased by a record 9% to £156.15 in July, according to data from industry specialist STR. That beat levels seen in the 2012 Olympics and was also helped by several popular events bringing ...

Firms operating in different industries have their own yardsticks for performance, beyond the usual metrics like pre-tax profit, revenue and cash flow. These key performance indicators or KPIs for short can help you spot positive or negative trends before they show up in the P&L or balance sheet. And having a handle on the key KPIs for specific sectors can help you decipher updates from ...

Takeover, merger (M&A) and spin-out activity is expected to accelerate in the months ahead as UK businesses aspire to bolster their competitive advantages and/or release extra shareholder value. Already this year several UK firms have been targeted with deals either agreed or negotiations ongoing, including the £18bn-plus potential takeover of TV and broadband supplier Sky (SKY) by US cable ...

Dalata Hotels (DAL) 634p Gain to date: 9.2% Original entry point: Buy at 3 May 2018, 580.5p We’re very confident about the outlook for Irish hotel operator Dalata Hotels (DAL) given that revenue per available room (RevPAR) in the Irish hotels industry continues to beat expectations. Since entering our Great Ideas portfolio, shares at Dalata have jumped 9.2% to 634p. RevPAR, a ...

Investors could be overlooking value at Costa Coffee to the tune of £248m according to Davy Research analyst Joseph Quinn. Costa owner Whitbread (WTB) plans to demerge the coffee chain from its Premier Inn operations within the next two years. Quinn says Costa Coffee China could be worth up to £248m, but many investors attribute no value to the business. He argues this value could be ...

Sales at Costa Coffee owner Whitbread (WTB) have risen 3.2% in its first quarter to 31 May thanks to further expansion at the coffee chain and hotel chain Premier Inn. Yet the business is showing several cracks under the surface and isn’t as healthy as you might think. Shares in Whitbread gained 2.1% to £39.76 despite declining like-for-like sales at Costa as shoppers shun the high ...

Demergers are back in fashion with five companies in the FTSE 350 index each preparing to split into two separately-listed entities. Another one has just completed its split and there are rumours that a further FTSE 350 stock could spin off one of its businesses. Unbundled companies often flourish because they have the freedom to be more entrepreneurial and not be part of a larger company where ...

The FTSE 100 is seeing unprecedented levels of corporate activity and the deals keep on coming. J Sainsbury (SBRY), Shire (SHP), Sky (SKY) and Whitbread (WTB) are the latest blue chip companies at the centre of M&A and demerger activity and this article will look at the key points behind their respective deals. Before we get to that commentary, it is worth noting that takeover appetite ...

Whitbread (WTB) has decided to demerge its struggling Costa Coffee chain within two years in a bid to drive long-term value and allow its Premier Inn hotels to thrive as a separate entity. The news should not come as a surprise after activist investor Elliot Capital took a 6% stake in the company earlier this month. Combined with Sachem Head's 3.4% holding in Whitbread, nearly 10% of the ...