Reporting Accounts - news and updates

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence talks about Reporting Account's experience of Podcasting.   As a company we are new to recording podcasts and started for the first time in January 2021.  Our experience has been very positive, and we are tracking the visitors to our site on a daily basis and noting a good number of visitors arrive after listening to one or more of our podcast episodes.

Some sites that we particular like and note in this Podcast include

Apple Podcasts - very well known for the itunes store and technology devices.

Google Podcasts - a huge name in Search, now pushing into the podcasting space.

Some of the sites that Adrian has noted in the Reporting Accounts podcast journey so far include Podchaser, Podomatic and podcasts.

What has been successful for Reporting Accounts is to record regular episodes, as each one attracts visitors and listeners in its own right, so having more episodes has led to more engagement.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts and our database of more than 4.8million UK companies, please visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com

Spotify the popular Swedish streaming service has been in the news today, it is introducing flexible working so its employees have greater choice worldwide of where they choose to work and a option of workplace or home also.

This follows from similar announcements by Microsoft, Twitter and Facebook, and whilst more straightforward for a digital company such as Spotify it does have implications for the wider economy.   A large proportion of business costs relate to the workplace, so in future companies may choose to save this by not having the convential city centre office.  This in turn has implications for the footfall of shopping areas and changes potentially the whole dynamic of where people live and work.

This is a welcome development and one which other companies are likely to follow.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts and how we have information and insights covering more than 4.8 million UK companies, visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com

In this episode Adrian Lawrence our resident financial professional talks about the impact that Brexit is having on exporters.   The withdrawl agreement that brought brexit to a close at the end of 2020 was meant to represent a free trade agreement without tariffs and duties.  Many exporters are now finding to their costs that due to the rules of origin goods brought into the UK from outside the EU and then exported to the EU are paying double, once to on import to the UK and then again on import to the EU.

Companies are looking for ways to avoid this double taxation issue and these include setting up subsidiary companies in the EU close to the customers.  However this is not without costs in itself and there are changes due in 2021 around the ownership rules for EU companies which may limit the advantage this gives.

Business does not like uncertainty and many companies are not exporting, or exporting at a much reduced level due to these issues.

To learn more about our service at Reporting Accounts, visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com where you will find information and insights covering more than 4.8 milllion UK Companies.

French Connection the UK fashion retailer LSE:FCCN has received two takeover bids, in this episode our resident financial expert Adrian Lawrence discusses this and the changing dynamics in the high street.

French Connection rejected a takeover in January 2020 as being too low, that bid was around 40p but since then the high street shopping channel in the UK has been very seriously impacted by the three pandemic lockdowns.  The share price has been bombed out as have other companies who operate in the retail, leisure or hospitality sectors.   Towards the end of last year 2020, their share price was trading around the 10p level.  Now following on from the speculation surrounding retail brands and the actual announcement on Friday of formal takeover approaches, their price has jumped to 25p.   

You can find out more about FCCN here : French Connection Group PLC / LSE:FCCN

There is plenty of speculation now about if a deal will now go through and if so at what price.  There is talk in the forums of a price range betwen 40 and 50p which if try would be great news for the shareholders of FCCN.

The company is owned 35% by its founder who is still CEO and 35% by Mike Ashleys Sports Direct company so no deal can happen without the agreement of at least one or both of those parties.  That said the company announced a year or so ago that it was open to a sale, so there is a good chance this will go through.  Boohoo completed their purchase of selected assets from the Arcadia group last week so there are similar deals being done in the market, and Boohoo itself is rumoured to be a potential third bidder, if so that would open the potential for a bidding war.

The UK retail sector has been changing for nearly 20 years as more and more retailers appreciate the potential of the internet as a sales channel, now following the pandemic the companies that have invested in their digitial solutions are being rewarded with strong sales, for example Next has hugely increased online sales and has been able to offset the closure of their high street stores via their website.  The companies without a web channel that is sufficiently developed are suffering.

To learn more about our service and to find information and insights into more than 4.8million UK companies visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com/about-us

Today Adrian Lawrence our in-house finance expert is talking about the extension of the HMRC filing deadline for personal tax returns, normally their is a penalty of £100 if a return is not filed on time.  Now provided it is filed by the end of February 2021 this will be waived.  Also time to pay is available at an APR of 2.6% which is a good option for tax payers facing difficulty due to the pandemic.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts please visit our website which can be found at https://www.reportingaccounts.com

Moonpig the online greeting card business soared above its £1.2billion IPO value on its first day of trading, conditional trading opened around 30% higher at £4.40 compared to the IPO price of £3.50.   This is a real success story and follows on from the positive trading in Dr Martens the bookmaker which also joined the market last week.

In today's podcast Adrian Lawrence our in house financial expert talks about how the company is now likely to join the FTSE 250 and that it is likely to see increased competition as more and more traditional retailers are moving online and raising their game to offset the decline in high street sales particularly following the recent lockdowns.

To learn more about companies such as Moonpig visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com 

In today's episode Adrian our in house financial expert discusses the news from Hargreaves Lansdown today that they attractive growing numbers of younger investors.   There are many factors behind this trend, interest rates are very low in the UK at the moment and during the lockdown spending has been lower than normal meaning people have more savings available for investment.

The lockdown also means there is less travel and commutting which means more time available to research and investigate investment options.   This trend is welcome as the UK population is living longer and the stock market is a key source of funding for companies, direct investment get younger people more engaged with the economy.

The only concern being that younger investors means less experienced investors and that may lead to issues as the current times are very turbulent in terms of rises and falls of stocks and shares.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts and how are database has insights covering more than 4.8million UK companies visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com

In today's podcast Adrian Lawrence our in house financial expert talks about Lookers plc and how their shares were relisted on Friday and straight away jumped 83%, there unsuspension was accompanied by an RNS which updated the market on trading, which has been ahead of expectations.

Lookers plc - stock code LSE:LOOK has had a rough time over the last year, a fraud was detected which led to the resignation of a number of its senior team including its CFO and chairman and there has been a change of auditors.   Better than expected trading combined with the appointment of a fresh experienced team has encouraged the market and resulted in the jump in the price.  It will be interesting to see how trading develops during February as the market gets closer to the re-opening of Lookers dealerships.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts, please visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com/about-us

In today's podcast Adrian Lawrence talks about Dr Martens a british bootmaker who floated on the London Stock Market on Friday, they have something of a renaissance over recent years having being close to bankruptcy they were acquired by a private equity house, who built them back up.

Their price was set at £3.70 per share at opening they quickly moved to £4.25 and closed at around £4.50 representing a 22% rise on the day, this is a great result given the unsettled time for the UK economy and bodes well for other large floatations due soon including Moonpig plc.   The LSE code for Dr Martens is DOCS and its the largest IPO the London market has seen since September 2020.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts, please visit our website at https://www.reportingaccounts.com where you can find information and insights into more than 4.8million UK companies.

In today's podcast our resident financial expert Adrian Lawrence talks about Reddit Day traders and how they have sent the shares of Gamestop rocking upwards.  Reddit is a social media platform where members can chat and discuss a wide range of topics a sub group with Reddit known as Wallstreetbets has sprung up and is frequented by tens of thousands of amateur investors and day traders, they have been egging each other one to buy more and more share in a stock called Gamestop and the resulting stock squeeze has sent its share price through the roof.

Some of the threads point to a revenge aspect to this activity in that hedge funds shorted stocks during the 2008 financial crisis and in so doing left many small investors badly out of pocket.  Now they have targetted Gamestop where short sellers had a large open position, by driving the share price upwards they have forced many of these funds to close their positions, causing them large losses and compounding the shortage of stock.

Sadly this is likely to end with large losses for the small investors concerned as the share price has moved outside of the range which is realistic for a stock like this, so investors should be very wary of following the crowd.

There is even talk of an overspill into UK stocks such as Cineworld.

If nothing else its a great story, the small investor versus the large Wall street funds.

To learn more about Reporting Accounts and our database of more than 4.8 million UK companies please visit our website which can be found at https://www.reportingaccounts.com/about-us