Trading in Woolworth’s shares was suspended today as the company is locked in talks over debt restructuring that may see the high street favourite go in to administration.

Woolworth’s employs almost 30,000 at stores all over the UK.

Another 1500 jobs are in jeopardy at fitted furniture firm MFI is also teetering on the brink of administration in a row over unpaid rents with landlords. 

Other big names in trouble are the UK’s biggest tile and wooden flooring retailer Topps Tiles.

The 320-store chain has seen like-for-like sales fall 18.3% in the past seven weeks. The company has quoted a 27% fall in profits and axed dividends. Topps shares fell 2.5p to 18. Eighteen months ago they were changing hands at 300p.

Bosses at Hull’s KCOM – famous for the city’s cream telephone kiosks – put the company up for sale after shares slumped 80% in the past year, valuing the company at £65 million. When the city council floated the company in 1999, giving local residents share priority, the business was valued at £180 million.

The Government now owns about 58% of the Royal Bank of Scotland at a cost of £2.7 billion to the taxpayer after plans to raise cash from shareholders stalled.

Royal Bank shares closed at 53.6p, a 2.8p, or 5.5%, rise on the day.

The taxpayer is also footing the bill for 43% of the Lloyds TSB group

Lloyds TSB, which is fund-raising at 173.3p a share, closed up 13.3p, or 9%, at 160.9p.

The US Federal Reserve pumped another $800 billion in to the mortgage and credit markets boosting confidence in the economy.

The markets on both sides of the Atlantic closed up yesterday – with the FTSE100 ending up 18 point at 4171 and the DOW up 36 pts at 8479.

The Pound finished the day at £1.535 against the US Dollar and £1.185 against the Euro.

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For More information on specific Banks use these links

 

• Alliance & Leicester
• Barclays
• Capital One
• Child Trust Fund
• First Direct
• HSBC
• Post Office
• Tesco Savings

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Tags: British Pound, Current Economic Situation, FTSE, Shares, Tax, Tax Payer

Five John Lewis stores saw sales fall by more than 20% last week as the department store group was hit by heavy discounting by rivals.

The group’s weekly trading update revealed a 23% drop at Nottingham, while stores at Peterborough, Reading, Bristol’s Cribbs Causeway and Peter Jones, London, were also down by more than a fifth on year-on-year sales.

John Lewis disclosed on Sunday that sales across the division were down by more than 13% in the week to last Saturday. The period saw rivals Marks & Spencer and Debenhams hold discount days in a bid to drive footfall in the run up to Christmas.

One of the week’s best sellers was Biscuit the Dog, a life size electronic toy retriever puppy that John Lewis said had sold in record numbers.

Supermarket chain Waitrose, part of the John Lewis Partnership, said sales were down for a second consecutive week by just under 4%.

Meanwhile, a huge sale bonanza is expected at Woolworth’s as administrators look to raise cash from a stock clearance. The fire sale will force other stores to drop prices even more to compete.

Troubled DIY giant B&Q has is closing nine Trade Depot superstores as owner Kingfisher reported a £15 million loss in the last financial year.

The closures are in response to falling sales and heavy losses from stores in China.

Kingfisher is the world’s third largest DIY group. The cash savings will be pumped in to the group’s other B&Q stores and the online Screwfix brand.

Other B&Q stores will swallow 230 jobs at the nine axed stores.

The FTSE closed at up 71 points at 4153 while Wall Street climbed 247 up at 8726. 

The Pound stood its own against the US Dollar ($1.54) and the Euro (0.83p)

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For More information on specific Banks use these links

• Alliance & Leicester
• Barclays
• Capital One
• Child Trust Fund
• First Direct
• HSBC
• Post Office
• Tesco Savings

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Tags: Bargains, British Pound, Credit Crunch, Current Economic Situation, Economic Crisis, FTSE

My heart really does go out to anyone who is about to retire at this time. What a horrible position they are in. Not only has the value of their investment pool lost about 40% of its value over the last year, if it’s been invested in equities, but interest rates are forecast to come down even further, hurting their annuity payments if they have a private pension plan. But that’s really only the start…the real pain could yet lie ahead.

Since it is expensive to protect against a high level of inflation in an annuity, the retiree faces a difficult choice. Do I take the maximum income now from my annuity now and hope that inflation comes down as the government and industry say it will, or do I plan for inflation to creep up faster and faster as I draw the income from my annuity? This is such a tough choice at even the best of times since the variables are unknown, but the current economic situation makes this balancing act even tougher.

For those who do not wish to make this choice right now with so much financial uncertainty, the current rules many force them into the decision. If you are approaching your 75th birthday and have yet to vest a pension pot, the law as it stands today says you must do it before your birthday. This forces otherwise prudent savers into taking these decisions at exactly the worst time. So not only must they take the decision, they have no idea if the government’s huge spending plans will ramp up inflation after the commodity and GDP growth cooling period has ended and the prevailing force in the inflationary world becomes the money supply, which is currently being expanded massively.

Thank heavens I’m only 38…because I would have no idea which way to turn if this type of decision was forced onto me…and I’m a highly qualified pension’s adviser!

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Tags: Current Economic Situation, Government, Interest Rates, Investment, Pension, Private Pension