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John Lewis slumps to £99m loss
Mark Sweney
The John Lewis Partnership slumped to a first half loss of £99m driven by soaring inflation, as the department store group warned a “uniquely uncertain” outlook in the run-up to Christmas would put the staff annual bonus at risk this year, reports my colleague Mark Sweney.
The group, which is staff-owned and includes the Waitrose supermarket chain, made a profit of £69m in the same period of the six months to 30 July last year. Sharon White, the partnership’s chair, said:
No one could have predicted the scale of the cost of living crisis that has materialised, with energy prices and inflation rising ahead of anyone’s expectations.
As a business, we have faced unprecedented cost inflation across grocery and general merchandise.
JLP warned the outlook for the rest of the year was “uniquely uncertain” owing to the cost of living crisis and its impact on discretionary spending, particularly on its key Christmas trading period.
White warned that the business, which is “heavily skewed” toward the so-called golden final quarter in the run up to Christmas, will need to substantially outperform in the second half of its financial year for staff to receive an annual bonus. She said:
A successful Christmas is key for the business given the first half. We will need a substantial strengthening of performance, beyond what we usually achieve in the second half, to generate sufficient profit to share a partnership bonus with Partners. Much will depend on the wider economic outlook and consumer sentiment.
The Financial Times has spoken to the boss of Goldman Sachs International, Richard Gnodde, who has claimed that scrapping the bonus cap would “make London a more attractive place for sure.”
The argument seems to centre on the fact that banks have had to increase salaries to attract talented staff in lieu of bonuses, and that it is harder to cut back a banker’s salary during more challenging years.
However, a bonus can be scrapped entirely, making it a more attractive lever for rewarding workers.
Gnodde said that, under the current system:
If I move a senior person between New York and London I am driving up the fixed cost of our operations
If that rule doesn’t exist, I don’t have to think about that.
Adding to what is proving to be a lively debate, Mick McAteer, a former board member at City regulator the Financial Conduct Authority has warned that scrapping the banker bonus cap is a “bad idea” and could encourage risk taking.
Interesting discussion on @BBCr4today about gov scrapping bankers bonus cap.
There’s a number of reasons why this is a bad idea.
Will encourage the type of aggressive, risk taking socially useless market behaviours we really dont need. 1/— Mick McAteer (@MickMcAteer) September 15, 2022
Finance person on Today said other regulatory measures could limit harm caused by removing bonus cap. Not really.
Even if individual firms think they’re behaving what matters is aggregate impact on system. Removing cap will encourage fierce competition and create huge risks. 2/— Mick McAteer (@MickMcAteer) September 15, 2022
I’m not sure it’s appreciated just how dangerous fierce competition can be. Doesn’t just have destabilising market effects, it creates incentives for institutional manufacturing and misselling of toxic socially useless financial products to eg. pension funds 3/
— Mick McAteer (@MickMcAteer) September 15, 2022
Moreover, scrapping bonus cap comes at a time when gov intends to force fin regulators to champion City interests, to promote ‘growth and competitiveness’. So, further increasing pressure to expand risky activities, sell toxic products. 4/
— Mick McAteer (@MickMcAteer) September 15, 2022
And if that’s not bad enough, looks like gov intends to give itself ‘call in’ powers to override regulators’ decisions. So much scope for City lobbyists to get what they want.
Regulatory independence under serious threat from political expediency/ industry lobbies now. 5/— Mick McAteer (@MickMcAteer) September 15, 2022
Already it looks like gov thinking about relaxing bank capital requirements after pushing BoE/ PRA to weaken critical insurance Solvency II regulations.
And what does scrapping bonus cap mean for levelling up? Why give London a further rocket boost?
6/— Mick McAteer (@MickMcAteer) September 15, 2022
Shell shares are up nearly 0.8% on the back of confirmation of Ben van Beurden’s departure and replacement this morning.
Relatively flat open for European markets
We’re not seeing a lot of movement from European stocks this morning, which are mixed but relatively flat.
Here’s how major indexes are starting the Thursday trading session:
Shell names Wael Sawan as new chief executive
Mark Sweney
Shell has appointed Wael Sawan, a 25-year company veteran , as successor to Ben van Beurden, the company’s long standing chief standing chief executive.
Sawan will replace Ben van Beurden, Shell’s boss for almost a decade, who will be stepping down at the end of this year. Reports of Van Beurden’s planned departure emerged earlier this month, and Sawan was considered frontrunner to take the top job.
As Shell’s current head of integrated gas and renewables division, Sawan oversees its push into into low-carbon energies as well as its giant gas business.
Sawan, born in Beirut with dual Lebanese and Canadian nationality, will officially take over as chief executive from 1 January at which point he will also join Shell’s board.
The 64-year-old Van Beurden, who has worked at Shell for almost four decades, will continue to work in an advisory role to the board until the end of June.
Shell chairman Sir Andrew Mackenzie said:
Ben can look back with great pride on an extraordinary 39-year Shell career, culminating in nine years as an exceptional chief executive.
He leaves a financially strong and profitable company with a robust balance sheet, very strong cash generation capability and a compelling set of options for growth.
Read more here:
Introduction: Banker bonus cap on the chopping block
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the world economy and the financial markets.
Banker pay is back in the spotlight this morning after reports emerged that Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is considering lifting a bonus cap as part of the government’s wide-ranging post-Brexit reforms.
The cap was part of the EU’s reaction to the 2008 financial crisis, and means that year-end bonuses are currently limited to two times their annual salary.
But those EU rules are now likely to be repealed eight years after their introduction. The Financial Times, which first reported the news, said the controversial move was part of the government’s plans to boost the City’s global competitiveness and make the UK a more attractive place for banks to do business.
Remember that the government is also planning to controversially re-introduce “competitiveness” as a secondary objective for UK regulators through the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which is about to head to committee. Though economists and ex-politicians have warned it is an inappropriate throw-back to pre-crisis conditions. Critics are likely to make the same argument about lifting the bonus cap.
It all seems to be part of the government’s wider strategy to put growth at the centre of all decision making, and generally lure more business, stock market listings and start-ups to London.
But lifting the cap could prove widely controversial at a time when households are struggling to make ends meet amid the cost of living crisis, even with the government’s £150bn support package for energy bills on the horizon.
We’ll bring you more debate and analysis as we get it.
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