B&M BARGAINS’ boss has checked out — as a big profit warning raised questions about his leadership of the firm.
The discount retail chain yesterday tried to position Alex Russo’s exit as retirement after two and a half years as chief executive.
But few believed those claims, as Mr Russo’s departure aged 54 came with a triple whammy warning of a sales slump, weak confidence and a profits hit due to currency rates.
Analysts at Panmure Liberum said the “retirement of Russo and a downgrade are unlikely to be mutually exclusive”.
Andrew Wade, at Jefferies, said it was not “a surprise, given the group’s consistent over-promising”.
Mr Russo’s departure comes eight months after The Sun first raised questions about why the boss of a FTSE 100 retailer would want to keep the media and investors in the dark about its trading.
We said it was a slippery slope when firms stop talking to the financial press about their results, especially when readers are its customers.
It raises suspicions all is not well if there cannot be open conversations on performance.
Analysts warned at the time B&M’s decision to scrap guidance was a clue its performance was weakening.
Mr Russo joined B&M in 2020 and replaced Simon Arora, who had led for almost two decades.
B&M shares fell yesterday by as much as 10 per cent before recovering to be down 2 per cent at 284.97p.
Did somebody say Justeaten?
TAKEAWAY firm Just Eat is being gobbled up in a £3.39billion deal — which values it at a fraction of its value during the height of its online ordering boom during lockdowns.
The group, which is now only listed in Amsterdam, is being bought by a Dutch tech investor Prosus.
At one stage the brand was using stars including US singer Katy Perry in marketing campaigns.
The company, who had merged with Dutch firm takeaway.com in a £6.2billion deal in 2020, had become ambitious after a surge in sales during Covid restrictions and spent £4.8billion buying US rival Grubhub.
The deal proved to be a disaster and Just Eat offloaded it for just £518million in November.
Shares in Just Eat Takeaway leapt by 54 per cent yesterday — but are still 82 per cent lower than their peak back in October 2020.
Shares in rival firm Deliveroo, which was founded in 2013 and also has been on a rollercoaster since Covid, jumped by almost 7 per cent yesterday as investors bet there could be further dealmaking in the sector.
£1.3bn grid sale
NATIONAL GRID has sold off its US renewable energy firm to Canadian investment giant Brookfield for £1.3billion.
The move for Brookfield to beef up in renewable energy with the Grid’s solar, wind and battery assets comes despite US President Donald Trump’s “Drill, baby, drill!” push towards fossil fuels.
In the past year, National Grid, which remains a FTSE 100 firm, has sold off the UK’s electricity operator to the British Government as well as raising £7billion to invest in renewable energy sources.
Diversity backlash hit home
THE firms “freaking out” the most about Donald Trump’s diversity backlash were virtue-signalling in the first place, says the boss of the FTSE Women Leaders Review.
Latest figures show women hold 43 per cent of roles on UK FTSE company boards, better than most European peers.
At the UK’s biggest 50 private companies it is 36.8 per cent.
However, the majority of female board seats are for heads of human resources.
Meanwhile, just 17 per cent of FTSE 350 chairs (53) are women and there are only 19 female chief execs (5 per cent) of FTSE 350 companies.
UK firms are mandated to report their board’s gender diversity but there is no penalty for failing to do so.
There is now speculation whether the requirements will continue.
Vivienne Artz, boss of the FTSE Women Leaders Review, told The Sun that transparency helped firms with diversity because you “don’t know what you’ve got until you measure it, or what you are working towards if there is no target”.
However, Ms Artz said that there had been too many DEI schemes “for the sake of it”.
This led to some men believing they were “disadvantaged when 60 per cent of boardroom jobs still go to men”.
She added: “I think the firms freaking out about the DEI backlash are those that were doing it just for the targets and data to make them look good.
“You need to be critical at what it’s delivering, not just virtue-signalling.
“It became pushed so much, people become disenfranchised because they feel excluded.”
APPLE has committed $500bn (£395bn) to the US as the tech giant aligns itself closer to President Trump.
Tim Cook, Apple boss, said the investment will create 20,000 new US jobs as he unveiled plans for a new factory in Texas.
Chem and get it
A BRITISH defence company which supplies the RAF has had a £1billion takeover bid from a US private equity firm.
FTSE 250-listed Chemring has reportedly rejected a 390p-a-share offer from Boston-based Bain Capital, Sky News said.
Shares in Chemring soared by as much as 14.5 per cent yesterday before closing up 4 per cent to 373.50p, amid uncertainty that Bain would return with a higher price.
The defence sector is expected to be boosted from the increasing tensions in global politics.
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