A new loan agreement for Pepkor Europe generates plenty of coverage today. The Telegraph writes that Poundland has distanced itself from its embattled South African parent company Steinhoff by striking a separate £180m loan facility deal to reassure suppliers. The Times adds that the lifeline from a US hedge fund will allow the discount chain to continue trading independently of it Steinhoff. Pepkor Europe, which owns 879 Poundland, Pep&Co and Dealz stores in western Europe and a further 1,266 PepCo stores in Eastern Europe, said in a statement that it was “now not dependent on working capital support from parent company, Steinhoff International”. It said a proportion of the loan facility would be made available to Bensons for Beds, Britain’s largest bed retailer, and the furniture chain Harveys, also part of the Steinhoff empire. The Guardian flags a record performance over the festive season for Poundland as sales rose 5.6% in the 12 weeks to 24 December as it sold more than five million rolls of wrapping paper, and almost 250,000 items from its new Nooky sex toy range.
News of Christmas cheer at Co-op also came under the media spotlight. The Times says “Co-op breaks out bubbly for a promising new year”. Britons tucking into mince pies and washing them down with prosecco helped the Co-op’s retail business to enjoy a tasty period of festive trading as like-for-like sales rose 6.2%, the paper adds. The Co-op doubled its sales growth over the festive period after profiting from the collapse of wholesaler Palmer & Harvey, which left many of its corner shop rivals with empty shelves in the run-up to Christmas, The Telegraph notes.
The UK’s competition regulator has referred Refresco’s proposed $1.25bn (£935m) takeover of fellow soft drink maker Cott for a full investigation over concerns it could push up prices (The Telegraph). “Cott-Refresco drinks deal hard to swallow for competition watchdog,” The Times says. The CMA, after an initial examination, has concerns that a takeover of Cott by Refresco could reduce competition for certain juices, leading to higher prices and lower standards.
The Serious Fraud Office has been accused of ignoring and “grossly misrepresenting” evidence and failing to carry out a proper investigation of an alleged fraud at Tesco, the supermarket group, The Times reports. Ian Winter, QC, defending John Scouler, a former Tesco executive alleged to have helped artificially inflate Tesco’s 2014 profit forecast, told a jury yesterday that they should not “feel confident about the nature of this prosecution”. He claimed that the SFO had not proven a single allegation against Mr Scouler because it had either “misunderstood” or “ignored” its own evidence.
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