Coca-Cola HBC
(Shares) Coca-Cola HBC has lagged the wider stockmarket this year. But there is plenty of upside for the soft-drink bottling group as the global economy reopens. A first-quarter trading update showed that despite Covid-19 restrictions continuing, sales were up by 6.1% year-on-year. The company’s “geographic diversity” also allowed it to benefit from “accelerating sales in emerging markets”, with Russia and Nigeria both posting double-digit growth.
2,509p
Marks & Spencer
(The Sunday Telegraph) Marks & Spencer (M&S) has had a series of “turnaround” executives who have failed to tackle the “deep-seated decline in its fortunes”. Its record pre-tax profit of £1.2bn was achieved in 1998. Last year’s figure was just £67.2m. But new executives Archie Norman and Steve Rowe could turn that around. Norman grasps what customers want: “a clearly understandable product range that offers reliable quality and value”. Concentrating on a smaller range
May 25, 2021
Almost five months after being licensed in the American state of Michigan and British online casino games developer Gaming Realms has announced that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has awarded it with an interactive gaming manufacturers licence.
The London-headquartered firm behind the Slingo portfolio of mobile-friendly online casino games used an official press release to detail that the new license will allow it to begin offering its innovations to certified iGaming operators in ‘The Keystone State’ such as BetMGM, DraftKings Incorporated and FanDuel Group.
Imminent introduction:
Gaming Realms, which is moreover licensed by the regulator for New Jersey, disclosed that Pennsylvania is the fifth most populous state in the United States courtesy of
tinyBuild
(The Daily Telegraph) Instead of developing its own games, tinyBuild takes on “promising titles from independent developers” and helps with funding, marketing and technical expertise. It is “becoming extremely profitable and cash generative” and “little need to invest in fixed assets” has translated into very high returns on capital. The computer-games sector is “bigger than film and music combined”, and tinyBuild will keep growing with it.
265p
Crossword Cybersecurity
(The Mail on Sunday) Covid-19 passports are being “actively explored” by governments and firms worldwide. With fraudsters “already at work” offering fake certificates, the documentation “needs to be secure”. Crossword Cybersecurity is working to ensure that Covid-19 certificates are “authentic and safe”. It has trials under way with the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust and some entertainment venues. It also “has several other strings to its bow�
Flutter Entertainment
(The Times) UK regulators might be “tightening their grip” on the sports-betting industry, but “the US is going the other way”. Flutter Entertainment is in “pole position” thanks to its FanDuel brand, which boasts a 40% share of the US online sports-betting market. “There are reasons to be cautious”: the firm is in the middle of a legal dispute with Fox Corporation over its purchase of a stake in Flutter. But despite its ongoing spat with the media conglomerate, the outlook is positive.
15,295p
Hargreaves Lansdown
(The Daily Telegraph) Investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown managed to attract 220,000 new customers last year, despite tarnishing its reputation by recommending Neil Woodford’s chronically underperforming fund. And “there is every reason to expect more customers to sign up”. With fewer workers benefiting from final-salary pension schemes each year, more must “save for their own future”. Only three million people us
Ricardo
(The Mail on Sunday) British engineering group Ricardo “is helping the US defence department to make its [Hummer trucks] safer” with devices that keep them stable; they are prone to rolling over. The Indian army is a customer too, but the company is diversifying towards helping public and private bodies “prepare for a low-carbon future”. Ricardo compiles Britain’s annual greenhouse-gas inventory, which records emissions and progress towards net-zero, and advises NHS Scotland and Her Majesty’s Prisons, among others, on cutting energy use.
435p
Gym Group
(Shares) Retail closures have “increased the availability of high-quality sites” that were previously beyond low-cost fitness firm Gym Group’s budget. It now plans to open new gyms in Oxford, York and Cambridge. A study by consultancy firm PwC , meanwhile, estimates there is “headroom for low-cost gyms to increase their market shares”. There is plenty of pent-up demand: 87% of gym members are se