Robert Walters reports record profits, FirstGroup lifts guidance
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 111 points lower on Friday, having closed down 0.63% on Thursday at 7,879.98.
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Robert Walters reported record profits on Friday, driven by the tight labour market and surging wage inflation, as it announced that its long-standing chief executive was stepping down. The recruiter said revenues in the year 31 December were ahead 13%, or 12% on a constant currency basis, at £1.1bn, while pre-tax profits jumped 11% to £55.6m, an all-time high. Net fee income rose 21% to £428.2m. Robert Walters said it had benefited from "fierce competition for talent and significant wage inflation across all geographies and specialist disciplines" during the first half.
Transport operator FirstGroup lifted annual guidance as passenger traffic on its buses and trains continued to recover from Covid pandemic levels. The company on Friday said bus passenger volumes have increased to 83% of 2020 equivalent levels, with commercial and concessionary volumes at 87% and 75% respectively. FirstGroup cited the £2 bus fare cap scheme introduced in England in January, and recently extended to the end of June 2023, and the Scottish government’s funding for free bus travel for all under-22s that has been in place since January 2022.
Newspaper round-up
Deloitte’s chief executive has launched a thinly veiled criticism of rival EY after its controversial plans to split the business into two were thrown into turmoil. EY initially announced plans for a radical breakup of its global operations last year, which would separate its audit and advisory businesses. – Guardian
HS2 will be delayed by another two years and major road building schemes will be mothballed, ministers have confirmed, after soaring inflation added billions to the cost of transport infrastructure projects. Ministers insisted they remained committed to Britain’s high-speed rail network scheme, but the budget constraints have cast further doubt over prospects for the rail project’s full implementation. - Guardian
With spring approaching, Bill Quan is preparing to plant this year’s crop of potatoes and peas at his Herefordshire farm. Yet there is a key difference on the field this year. Between the last harvest and the beginnings of the next one, Quan has kept the soil healthy using a mixed-species cover crop. Not only does this add nitrogen and allow the earth to hold more water, it also sucks up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequesters it in organic matter. – Telegraph
A struggling electric vehicle start-up founded in Britain has said it is in line to strike a deal that will bolster its finances, despite making losses of up to $1 billion last year. Losses at Arrival widened to at least $587.6 million in the last quarter of 2022 alone, from $66.6 million the previous year, as it grappled with impairment charges and write-offs tied to decisions to close its British operation, switch to the United States and halt development in Russia. – The Times
Britain is set to become a “significantly worse place to do business” as corporation tax rises and investment incentives expire, new research suggests. The combination of corporate profits being taxed at 25 per cent and the end of the so-called super-deduction tax break will push the UK from tenth place to 33rd out of 38 leading economies in terms of the competitiveness of its business tax regime, the Centre for Policy Studies has warned. – The Times
US close
Wall Street stocks closed lower on Thursday, as traders awaited the release of key employment data scheduled for release on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.66% to close at 32,254.86 and the S&P 500 dropped 1.85% to end the day at 3,918.32.
Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped 2.05% to finish at 11,338.35.
In currency markets, the dollar fell against its major peers, trading down 0.04% on the pound at £0.8383, and decreasing 0.14% against the euro to €0.9438.
The greenback also declined on the yen by 0.18% to change hands at JPY 135.90.