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: Let's take a look at some stocks on the move
Speaker 3: today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll and I'm joined Bubloomberg's
Speaker 3: Breaking news editor Louise Moon for more. Louise, let's start
Speaker 3: in the UK with the retailer W. H. Smith on
Speaker 3: news of the resignation of its CEO.
Speaker 1: Indeed, this is quite a dramatic bit of news this morning.
Speaker 1: So their CEO has resigned with the media effect. That is,
Speaker 1: after a independent investigation from Deloitte into an accounting era
Speaker 1: in North America. So this was previously disclosed. It came
Speaker 1: to light in April and at the time it caused
Speaker 1: a Bootsmith to cut its profit outlook in North America
Speaker 1: and shares plunged also at the time. So Deloitte then
Speaker 1: investigated discounting era and released their findings essentially today, so
Speaker 1: they've blamed the problem partly on a lack of oversight.
Speaker 1: And then there was also quite a punchy line saying
Speaker 1: that the US unit had, in their words, insufficient systems,
Speaker 1: controls and review procedures. So WA Smith have announced this
Speaker 1: to market today. They also at the same time set
Speaker 1: out an even bigger hit to the North America unit
Speaker 1: then they had previously forecast, so not good news, and
Speaker 1: the CEO is resigning with immediate effect. Shares only fell
Speaker 1: modestly on the news, and then they're actually now just
Speaker 1: slightly ticking up into the green as analysts are saying
Speaker 1: that they're essentially finding some positives away from the CEO news,
Speaker 1: so they're saying that there is still a long way
Speaker 1: to go to rebuild credibility, but that w Smith have
Speaker 1: given some kind of reassurance on the UK market and
Speaker 1: the West the rest of the world as well, as
Speaker 1: that's a bit of a relief net. Death is lower
Speaker 1: than expected then so there is some potential sill for
Speaker 1: it to return to kind of long term growth, focusing
Speaker 1: on their travel.
Speaker 4: Unit, which is their main unit, and in North America
Speaker 4: as well.
Speaker 3: Okay, so that's a very interesting one to be watching.
Speaker 3: Let's go to France next. The media group for Vendi's
Speaker 3: share is down thirteen percent nearly in Paris.
Speaker 1: What's going on indeed, so the French market regulator has
Speaker 1: essentially said that the Vendi's majority shareholders, so the billionaire
Speaker 1: Vincent Belore and his company must make a public offer
Speaker 1: for the Vendi shares within six months. So what's happened
Speaker 1: is Vendi broke up last year and the regulator says
Speaker 1: that at the time they should have offered to buy
Speaker 1: out other shareholders, so that they already own thirty percent,
Speaker 1: they're they're the majority shareholders, but they should have offered
Speaker 1: to buy out other shareholders at the time, and saying
Speaker 1: that they now should make a bid for the shares
Speaker 1: of what remains of the original company that's still listed.
Speaker 1: So this this kind of falls in favor of an
Speaker 1: activist investor. They've argued that the break up kind of
Speaker 1: gave preferential treatment to Belore over minority shareholders. And it
Speaker 1: all comes down to how much control the company has
Speaker 1: over decisions due to the structure of a Vendi of
Speaker 1: the company.
Speaker 4: So we'll have to say see.
Speaker 1: What happens if this this ruling by the regulator could
Speaker 1: be overturned in appeal, and it's not clear how much
Speaker 1: he would have to offer shareholders. But as you say,
Speaker 1: shares a moving on that news this morning, and you know,
Speaker 1: if this all goes through and shareholders to accept the offer,
Speaker 1: then Vivendi could potentially dealist.
Speaker 4: So we'll be keeping a close eye on what happens
Speaker 4: with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Indeed, an opinion from the French Advocate General, so one
Speaker 3: of the legal advisors to the court being reported by
Speaker 3: Lamand newspaper this morning. Keep part of that share moving story.
Speaker 3: Let's stay in France though and talk about caring warnings
Speaker 3: that will have to scale back reliance on Gucci.
Speaker 1: Indeed, Yeah, this so this was a report saying, yeah,
Speaker 1: that they would reduce their reliance on Gucci, which is
Speaker 1: obviously Carring's biggest brand, by kind of you know, developing
Speaker 1: other brands and focusing on other ones like Blentciaga. Also
Speaker 1: saying that they would need to scale back their store
Speaker 1: network and have a rethink about their price positioning as well.
Speaker 4: And this is all to return to growth.
Speaker 1: Shares fell on the back of that the most nearly
Speaker 1: two weeks unless is saying it's all quite vague, there's
Speaker 1: no definition of growth targets, there's no kind of hard facts,
Speaker 1: and the report did note that the actual officially official
Speaker 1: strategy plan will be presented next year, so those details
Speaker 1: potentially to come, but it just had to take a
Speaker 1: step back with the wider context. So that the CEO
Speaker 1: joined in June, and he was very welcome by investors.
Speaker 1: And one of the key things was was a revival
Speaker 1: of Gucci. So that hasn't yet happened. He has made
Speaker 1: some changes, there's a new boss and you vowing to
Speaker 1: cut costs and other measures. But all of these efforts
Speaker 1: pointed to a revival, but potentially a bit of a
Speaker 1: change in tone now saying that that Caring must reduce
Speaker 1: their alliance on Gucci, so shares not reacting positively on
Speaker 1: the back of that.
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