Foreign vultures could swoop on Morrisons after a share price slump and a fall in the pound left it vulnerable to a takeover, analysts have warned. The supermarket chain, led by chief executive David Potts, is a leading candidate to fall to overseas buyers in a dealmaking frenzy driven by a drop in sterling due to jitters over Brexit coupled with its strong freehold property portfolio and relatively low debt pile. (The Daily Mail)
A senior executive at a major food retailer has told the BBC it is considering introducing rationing. He said such a move will prevent firms that have not made their own no-deal Brexit plan from using food retailers as wholesalers, but he did not envisage that the limits would affect normal retail customers. (The BBC)
Tesco boss Dave Lewis has promised to ban brands that use excessive packaging. The supermarket Tesco has pledged to step up its efforts in the battle against single-use plastic with measures that include banning brands using excessive packaging from Britain’s largest supermarket chain. (The Guardian)
Lewis writes in The Guardian: “The need is urgent, and so from next year we will assess the size and suitability of all packaging as part of our ranging decisions, and if it’s excessive or inappropriate, we reserve the right not to list the product.”
British farmers fear they could go out of business following a post-Brexit trade deal with the US, the National Farmers Union has told the BBC. NFU president Minette Batters said US farms could “outcompete” UK producers if standards were changed. (The BBC)
Research by analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch have found that the United States has a growing interest in cocktails, particularly simple-to-serve drinks that are fuelling the “hometainment” market, which gives Fevertree plenty of room for growth across the pond. (The Times £)
New Zealand’s A2 Milk is shifting focus to concentrate on greater growth opportunities in the US, China and other Asian nations, and is quitting the UK market after a challenging seven years. (The Financial Times £)
Fears have been raised that Greene King’s shock sale to one of Asia’s richest families is “almost certain” to result in pubs being shut and could lead to the sale of its famous Bury St Edmunds brewery. (The Telegraph)
Amid the Brexit fog, foreign buyers are snapping up British firms on the cheap, writes Ben Marlow in The Telegraph. “It is telling that as Hong Kong mega-billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CKA group was finalising the details of its £4.5bn swoop, Johnson was wasting his time listening to [Tim] Martin bang on incoherently about Brexit again.” (The Telegraph)
Morrisons is increasing the price of its plastic bags to 30p, having already upped them to 20p earlier this year. The supermarket is trialling the charge in some of its Welsh stores, with money being “reinvested in plastic reduction programmes”. (The Guardian)
Just Eat’s boss should demand a bigger slice of the Anglo-Dutch pie, writes The Times’ Simon Duke. “While the tie-up has been billed as a “merger of equals”, it is anything but. Yes, the enlarged company will remain listed in London… but it will be headquartered and registered in Amsterdam, with Jitse Groen, Takeaway.com’s billionaire founder, installed as chief executive. The carve-up is perplexing, given that the British company would deliver about two thirds of the merged company’s expected revenues and underlying earnings next year.” (The Times £)
Trade wars have crushed US grain sales. Tobacco is in terminal decline. However, for farmers in Kentucky the future may lie in a crop of the past: hemp. (The Financial Times £)
Asahi’s voracious thirst sees it take crown as king of M&A in Asia, writes The FT. “Since becoming president at the Japanese group in 2016, Akiyoshi Koji has overseen a cultural shift at Asahi as it transformed from a conservative, domestically focused brewer into an aggressive dealmaker with an astounding spending record of $21bn in the past three years alone.” (The Financial Times £)
The UK tech sector has seen a ‘staggering’ £5.5billion investment in the first seven months of 2019, with Deliveroo among the sites receiving the boost, new research shows (The Daily Mail).
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