Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: The Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves
Speaker 2: in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.
Speaker 3: But let's take a look at some stocks on the
Speaker 3: move today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll and I'm joined
Speaker 3: by Bloomberg's Breaking News editor, Louise Moon. Louise, good morning.
Speaker 3: Loads of earnings around to get into. Let's start with
Speaker 3: the latest news from Larial.
Speaker 1: Yes, the world's largest beauty group, had their first quarter
Speaker 1: results this morning. Shares are surging as a result. They
Speaker 1: were up almost ten percent this morning. So sales climbed
Speaker 1: in the first quarter, the strongest quarterly sales in two years,
Speaker 1: particularly on demand for their shampoo and their fragrances. They
Speaker 1: both saw double digit growth, but actually all units across
Speaker 1: Lorel grew, but those two were the strongest and essentially
Speaker 1: showing that it's proving to be a lot more resilient
Speaker 1: than some of their peers. That obviously there's been you know,
Speaker 1: a bit of a consumer slow down given all of
Speaker 1: the geopilsical uncertainty hitting some of their peers, but Lorel
Speaker 1: faring better. So for example, before today's share price move.
Speaker 1: If you look back at how Laurel's stock has done
Speaker 1: this year so far, they're down about six percent, but
Speaker 1: if you compare that to esday lorder, for example, they're
Speaker 1: down about twenty seven percent, so proving more resilient. If
Speaker 1: you get into kind of the regional breakdown in terms
Speaker 1: of that consumer China is still proving a bit of
Speaker 1: a weak spot for Laurel, as is being kind of
Speaker 1: seen across the whole industry. So sales did drop there,
Speaker 1: but less than expected, so still not totally negative. And
Speaker 1: then the Middle East has seen a bit of a
Speaker 1: bit of a negative impact from the war and from
Speaker 1: changes they're from consumers. So the CEO said that he
Speaker 1: acknowledged that, but saying that even if consumers are worried,
Speaker 1: you know that there's what's what's called as the lipstick effect,
Speaker 1: they might still choose to spend their money on beauty
Speaker 1: and on those kind of items. So and Liss saying
Speaker 1: that the sales, you know, as he was kind of indicating,
Speaker 1: defies those worries about demand. It's a good set of
Speaker 1: results and faring a lot better than peers. So shares
Speaker 1: rising on.
Speaker 3: The back of that, Yeah, lipstick effect. I I hope
Speaker 3: you say lip sync effect for a minute there enough
Speaker 3: looking completely different. Let's turn to w H Smith next.
Speaker 3: Not such good news for them, at least in the
Speaker 3: markets today. Their shoes down almost eleven percent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they touched in near fourteen year low this morning
Speaker 1: and the biggest drag on the foot C two fifty
Speaker 1: in London. They cut their full year outlook. They also
Speaker 1: suspended dividends. They'd already cut dividends or reduced them in
Speaker 1: December and now they've been suspended, essentially trying to prioritize delevering.
Speaker 1: Deleveraging for WH Smith. This is a fresh blow essentially,
Speaker 1: so they'd already been struggling. They're trying to recover from
Speaker 1: a regulatory probe last year that was over an accounting
Speaker 1: scandal internally that triggered a stock slamp at the time
Speaker 1: and their CEO to resign. So that was already going on,
Speaker 1: so already trying to recover from that, and then we've
Speaker 1: seen the impact of the Iran war. Obviously, w H
Speaker 1: Smith a travel retailer, so that's the reason that they've
Speaker 1: cut their full your outlook and they've got that cautious
Speaker 1: look ahead that's the Iran war, so kind of a
Speaker 1: double whammy for wh Smith. The executive chair Leo Quinn,
Speaker 1: he said that the immediate focus is to restore confidence,
Speaker 1: so he's kind of acknowledged that that lack of confidence
Speaker 1: they're both in the business and from consumers more generally.
Speaker 1: And the results aren't just hitting wh Smith this morning,
Speaker 1: also hitting their peers, so the likes of SSP and
Speaker 1: a Volta, so dragging those lower as well. On the
Speaker 1: back of that.
Speaker 3: Okay, the finally some moves for Via in France tell.
Speaker 1: Us more yeah, slightly eving once in not earnings, but
Speaker 1: an m and a story. So the privacy firm Apollo
Speaker 1: is nearing a deal to buy one of their units.
Speaker 1: So for VIA's car interior's business, so it makes makes
Speaker 1: things for cars like door panels and other things. Four
Speaker 1: Via as a whole is a car tech company, so
Speaker 1: they do everything from those kind of interiors and seats
Speaker 1: to electronics, lighting, etc. So this is one of their units.
Speaker 1: So this potential deal from Apollo could value that unit
Speaker 1: at about one point four billion euros. Talks are still ongoing,
Speaker 1: so it's not definitely a certain that this deal will
Speaker 1: come about, but shares are ticking higher as a result
Speaker 1: of this news. It's all part of four VIA's strategy
Speaker 1: to streamline. They've been trying to streamline the business boost growth.
Speaker 3: We already knew they're.
Speaker 1: In talks to sell the unit, so apollow and the
Speaker 1: valuation is the new news. It's already been been said
Speaker 1: by analysts to be a positive step that they're selling
Speaker 1: this focusing on deal leveraging. So Yeah, shares ticking higher,
Speaker 1: but still relatively flat on the year and far off
Speaker 1: still a all time high.
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