News from Reporting Accounts: Recent Episodes
Adrian Lawrence
Our resident financial professional Adrian Lawrence gives regular updates on financial and corporate news stories in the press with a commentary. We offer insights and financial information on more than 4.8million companies Visit https://www.reportingaccounts.com
In today's episode our in-house Financial expert Adrian Lawrence talks further about becoming a Portfolio FD, he works as the CEO for Reporting Accounts one day per week, but as a Portfolio CFO himself 3 or 4 days per week for a number of different SME clients.
At FD Capital we get regular calls from FD's interested in moving into Portfolio work, common questions include how easy is it to find Portfolio work? You need to build up a network to be fully occupied and that takes time and effort, typically a day per week needs to be set aside for networking and reaching out to build up a network within the Private Equity and corporate finance spaces.
How many days per week can I expect to work? That's another common question and the ideal seems to be 4 days per week as that allows for extra time to support clients with their requirements for year ends, budgets, forecasting and fund raises. It also allows for time for networking.
Are their networks you can join? Yes there are and FD Capital is one of them. We are actively looking for new Opportunities and FD's in London and the West Midlands. So if you are looking to Recruit a part time FD in London then reach out to FD Capital.
To find more Hints and tips to become a Portfolio FD read our blog post here. https://www.fdcapital.co.uk/part-time-finance-director-london/
To learn more about Reporting Accounts and how we hold information and insights covering more than 4.8 million UK companies visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com
In today's podcast Adrian Lawrence the CEO of Reporting Accounts talks about a newly added feature to the Reporting Accounts site, which allows users to performed advanced database searches. Advanced Reporting Accounts search can be find here: https://www.reportingaccounts.com/advanced-search
Using this new feature it is possible for example to query our 4.8 million UK company database by location and by sic code and then review all results that match your criteria. If you are looking for free marketing information or to find new suppliers this is a great way to use our database. There are many other uses for this business intelligence data and we are working on adding a user area where these search results can be saved and downloaded in excel format.
We now have a sister site dedicated just to podcasts check out castovers. https://www.castovers.com
To learn more about Reporting Accounts and our exciting range of free and pay as you go features visit our website today.
In today's podcast Adrian Lawrence our resident financial experts talks about Deliveroo and their plans for an £8billion IPO on the London stock market. Deliveroo are only 8 years old but in that time have already grown to capture around 1/3 of the home food delivery market. Their IPO timing is also shrewd coming shortly after the pandemic lockdowns means their trading will have benefited. It is also a great endorsement of London and the London Stock market as a fund raising centre.
To learn more about Deliveroo and how Reporting Accounts holds information and insights into more than 4.8 million UK companies visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com
In today's episode Adrian Lawrence our in-house financial expert talks about CFO's (Chief Financial Officers) and how they have seen their earnings drop from between 2020 and 2019, which given the lockdowns and Brexit should be no surprise. Our sister company FD Capital have recently entered the CFO Recruitment niche, and if you are a company based in London or the West Midlands and are looking for a Part Time CFO then we can recommend speaking to them as they are a reliable outfit which we have known for the last 3 years, and our CEO Adrian works as a CFO himself with them.
To learn more about FD Capital visit their website at https://www.fdcapital.co.uk and to find out more about Reporting Accounts we hold information and insights covering more than 4.8 million UK companies visit our website also.
French connection Group plc, the company well known for its controversial FCUK advertising campaigns, has been in the news on Friday as it has received two takeover approaches for its business.
Like so many retailers 2020 was a very tough year with their stores being closed during the three UK Pandemic related lockdowns. The timing of the approaches is shrewd as the share price of FCCN along with many other retailers has been very low around the 10-12p range. On Friday their share price jumped to 26p on the back of this announcement.
In this episode Adrian Lawrence discusses the takeover and how retailers who have embraced the digital sector have done well, whils the ones who have not have suffered.
To learn more about Reporting Accounts and how we have information and insights covering more than 4.8million UK companies visit https://www.reportingaccounts.com
Moonpig plc the greeting card business was celebrating today after its IPO valued it at more than £1.2billion. Their trading opened up at £4.40 which was 30% up on its IPO pricing of £3.50. It is now likely that Moonpig will be joining the FTSE 250 of larger companies as a result.
Its market is currently highly profitable it having made £44m profit on £174m of sales, but high street retailers are moving online so the sustainability of its income stream is a potential issue.
To learn more about Reporting Accounts please visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com
Hargreaves Lansdown has been in the news today as it announced a big increase in its customers and funds managed and at the same time a reduction in the average age of its investors. Its impressive they are able to attract the younger customer. The UK has been in lockdown for a considerable part of the last 12 months during which time savings have risen and people have more time to research investments.
Adrian is the CEO of reportingaccounts, their website contains information and insights covering more than 4.8million pages, Visit https://www.reportingaccounts.com for more information.
Lookers plc the UK automotive dealership group returned the the London Stock market after a six month suspension, the shares were suspended following a fraud and accounting scandal which lead to the departure of their Chairman, CFO and auditors.
The company has been through a restructuring process and has replaced the key executives and on Friday report improved trading ahead of market expectations, this was well received and as progress is being made in the UK with a national vaccination program the market is looking forward to the time when Lookers dealerships will re-open and trading can return to normal.
To learn more about Reporting Accounts visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com
Today Adrian Lawrence our in-house financial experts talks about Doctor Martens the UK bootmaker and their successful IPO on Friday. The shares were priced at £3.70, they opened at £4.25 and closed at £4.50 representing a 22% profit for the day. A great success considering the company was close to bankruptcy before being acquired and developed by a private equity house.
Its the first large IPO since September 2020 and renews confidence in the London Stock exchange which is positive as other IPO's such as Moonpig plc are coming to the market very soon. Dr Martens trades on the LSE under the code DOCS.
To learn more about Reporting Accounts and our free UK Business Intelligence service visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com where you will find information and insights covering more than 4.8 million UK companies.
In today's episode Adrian Lawrence talks about how Wall Street professionals including Hedge Funds have been caught out by the activity of tens of thousands of small investors who have driven up the share price of Gamestop.
Part of the story is that some of the investors lost heavily in the 2008 Financial crisis and now want revenge on the hedge funds, these funds have been short sellers of Gamestop and are now facing huge losses as they have to buy back stocks to cover their positions.
The issue is that the share price is now so high that losses are very likely for the small investors concerned, but nevertheless its a great story showing that retail investors can turn the tables on Wall Street.
To learn more about Reporting Accounts visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com and view the more than 4.8million listings we have covering UK companies.
In today's podcast the team at reporting accounts talks about Rolls Royce the aerospace engineering business, its been in the news today because it now expects to be £2billion behind on its revenue forecasts as a result of the continuing pandemic, the new mutant strain of Covid, together with the UK and USA travel restrictions and lockdowns have weighted heavily on investors and today the share price fell to around 90p before recovering much of its ground before the close of the London stock market.
Rolls Royce is a good company with a great reputation and is supported by HM Government contracts and work, at the end of the day the UK will not allow Rolls Royce to fail and a recover in trading and its share price will come in time, that time however appears to be somewhat further in the future than the markets expected hence the share price movement.
Rolls Royce's income is based on the number of hours its engines are in service, so with much reduced international aviation, its income is similarly impacted.
To learn more about Reporting Accounts and to find information on more than 4.8 million UK companies visit our website today at https://www.reportingaccounts.com
In today's podcast our resident financial expert talks about an interesting story in the financial press. Dyson the innovative vacuum cleaning business is bring a case for damages against the EU for loss of revenue. Their case is due to flawed energy efficiency ratings that favoured convential cleaners. The tests concerned involved empty cleaners which use more energy in the real world as they fill compared to the bagless Dyson versions which use a steady amount of electricity if they are empty or full.
This meant that customers were misled about the true energy ratings of what they were buying.
To learn more about Reporting Accounts why not visit our website at Reporting Accounts and take advantage of our free business intelligence service.
In today's podcast Adrian Lawrence our in-house finance professional talks about auto enrolment, the concept of a real living wage, and the newly conceived real living pension. In the same way that the living wage is intended to encourage employers to pay a living wage the living pension is intended for companies to aspire to so they contribute enough to their employees pension pots that they can have a living retirement or a comfortable income in retirement.Employers signing up to such a scheme need to encourage their employees to pay more themselves and one way this can be achieved is by offering to match contributions up to a living wage level. The idea has a lot of merit as employees are typically unaware of how much they need to be ,and typically default to the minimum legal contributions which are 8% - being 5% employee (including 1% tax reflief) and 3% employers.The direction of travel of Government is towards this and there are moves planned already to abolish the starting age and the contributions thresholds, but what is needed is to increase the employers levels closer to the employees ones ie so 5% employees and 5% employers then increase again to 6% employers and 6% employees which would then make contributions sufficient for someone starting at the age of 25 to get a proper pension.At Reporting Accounts we fully support this approach and believe the best way forward is for the Government to adopt this as a formal policy and phase it in, in the same way that the living wage where HM Government has committed to increasing the living wage to be 66% of medium earnings which equates to £10.50.To learn more about companies in the UK and their financial positions visit our website at Reporting Accounts
In the news today we are hearing that the UK may be isolated from the rest of the World due to virulent nature of the mutant strain of Covid that is circulating in the UK. This has implications for how long the lockdown will last and in particular for companies that are impacted by this news. Retail, leisure and travel companies all had a tough time on the markets on Friday.
It is possible that the results are based on a small sample size and therefore not conclusive, there are also worries that the South African strain may be partially resistant to vaccines, so all in all a troubling set of news for the London market to digest.
There is also concerning news about the new South African mutant strain of Covid which may be resistant to the current vaccines, during today's podcast Adrian talks about the impact this is having on the stock markets and speculation that the summer holiday season may be affected.
You can download company accounts and view analysis of corporate results using the free data on Reporting Accounts visit our website now to find out more and to view data on more than 4.8 million UK companies.