BUSINESS LIVE: Aston Martin losses accelerate; Informa to buy Ascential; Reckitt strategy shake-up

Some areas of London and the East of England would have no ATM machines within the next two years if the current trend of closures continues, a report has warned.

South Cambridgeshire and the London suburbs of Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner would have none by June 2026, according to worrying projections from portable card machine company Merchant Machine.

Monaco Yacht Show organiser Informa has agreed to acquire fellow events company Ascential for around £1.2billion.

Under the proposed deal, Ascential investors will receive £5.68 per share, a premium of around 53 per cent to the FTSE 250 firm’s closing share price on Monday.

Reckitt has revealed plans to sell a portfolio of major home care brands as part of strategy shake-up that will also see it explore all strategic options for Mead Johnson.

The consumer group plans to offload its £1.9billion home care portfolio, which includes brands like Air Wick and Cillit Bang, Calgon and Mortein, as it pivots towards a focus on health and hygiene.

Customers of digital bank Monzo will soon be able to merge all of their old pension pots in the Monzo app.

Monzo has launched Monzo Pension, a tool which will allow customers to round up all their existing personal and workplace pensions and hold them in one place in their Monzo app.

A neobroker is offering small businesses access to money market funds in a bid to boost their savings, This Is Money can reveal.

Aston Martin reported a bigger loss for the first half of the year, as the luxury car maker made fewer vehicles and its debts continued to climb.

The group, which has launched several new cars over the past year including its next generation sports cars the DB12 and Vantage, stopped making old models ahead of a ramp-up in the production of fresh models this year.

Three of the five highest-earning legal practices for UK corporate work are American, new research suggests.

US law firms Kirkland & Ellis and Lathan & Watkins have today been named as the top earners for UK corporate instructions, beating off their English rival Linklaters.

Rolls-Royce has taken a major step in its return to the market for short-haul aircraft by beginning work on a smaller version of its new Ultrafan engine.

Boss Tufan Erginbilgic said the company was working on a ‘demonstrator’ of the engine at its main headquarters in Derby – alongside the larger version designed for long-haul planes.

Like it or not, Kamala Harris is hot right now. In the first 24 hours after President Biden was forced out of the race, the Democratic frontrunner to replace him had pulled in $250m in online donations and big donor promises for her campaign.

It’s one of the largest amounts ever received in such a short space of an election cycle – twice what Biden raised in the first two months of his campaign – and shows no sign of letting up.

Reckitt Benckiser is to sell off a slew of household name brands including air freshener Air Wick and cleaning product Cillit Bang, as part of an effort to focus the company on health products.

The London-listed firm said it would sell its portfolio of home care brands that are ‘no longer core’ to the business, and which brought in £1.9billion in combined revenue last year, by the end of 2025.

Instead, it will focus on its most profitable health products including Strepsils cough sweets, Nurofen painkillers and Durex condoms.

It comes as operating profit fell 4.3 per cent year on year to £1.68billion for the first half of 2024, while revenue fell 3.7 per cent to £7.17 billion

Kris Licht, chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser, said:

‘Today I am pleased to announce a set of actions to significantly sharpen our portfolio and simplify our organisation for accelerated growth and value creation.’

Informa will buy Cannes Lions Festival owner Ascential for £1.2billion, with the group adding the prominent advertising industry conference to its portfolio of events.

Ascential, which also owns the Money20/20 fintech events, said on Tuesday after the market closed that it had received the cash offer, which it was minded to recommend.

Informa said it would expand both events into more sectors and accelerate growth, helped by its first-party data platform and understanding of both the marketing and fintech sectors.

It has agreed to pay 568p per share, representing a 53 per cent premium on the closing price of 371p on Monday.

Informa announced the deal alongside its first-half results that showed underlying operating profit growth of 18.8 per cent and revenue growth of 11 per cent.

The strong performance enabled it to upgrade its expectations for the full year.

Aston Martin has posted a pre-tax loss of £216.7million for the first half of 2024, up from £142.2million the previous year, after the carmaker made fewer vehicles.

The group, which has launched several new cars over the past year including its next generation sports cars the DB12 and Vantage, stopped making old models ahead of a ramp-up in the production of fresh models this year

Revenues fell 11 per cent year-on-year to £603million, while net debt climbed 41 per cent to just shy of £1.2billion.

Aston Martin said the results were in-line with expectations and reflected its core portfolio transition.

Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin executive chairman, added:

‘As we commence an exciting second half of 2024, Aston Martin is at a pivotal moment in its journey, with our immense product transformation supporting volume growth and sustainable positive free cash flow generation later this year, of which we have full confidence in achieving.

‘In line with prior guidance, our execution in the first half of the year focused on the successful delivery of our new Vantage and upgraded DBX707 and we remain on track to deliver a strong second half performance. This will be underpinned by a significant ramp up in wholesale volumes including both the new V12 flagship Vanquish and ultra-exclusive Valiant Special, which we recently unveiled at Goodwood with Fernando Alonso’.’