Good morning: Oil giant BP has embarked on a $1.4 billion share buyback and raised its dividend as it was boosted by the rising oil price.
The company has reported better-than-expected second quarter underlying profits — on the industry’s preferred replacement cost basis — of $2.79 billion. BP reported a loss of $6.6 billion for the same period last year as it wrote down the value of assets after reducing its long-term forecast for oil prices to $55 a barrel, down from $75 a barrel.
Bernard Looney, chief executive, said: “We are ... delivering another quarter of strong performance while investing for the future in a disciplined way.”
Here’s the full story from Emily Gosden, our energy editor.
Elsewhere this morning:
Advertisement
Sales at Greggs rose 81 per cent to £546.2 million in the six months to July 3, prompting the bakery chain to forecast that full year profits would “be slightly ahead of our previous expectation”. On a two year basis sales were flat against £546.3 million over the same pre-pandemic period in 2019.
Greggs, which had 2,115 shops as at 3 July, said it intended to open a further 100 shops in 2021. Delivery service was now available from 837 shops, Greggs reported and now represented 8.5 per cent of company-managed shop sales in the first half of 2021. We’ll have a story shortly from Ashley Armstrong, our retail editor, on www.thetimes.com/#section-business.
It is a very similar story at Domino’s Pizza, the takeaway group, which has reported that sales are up 19.6 per cent to £752 million in the six months to the end of June boosted by the Euros. Headline profits are up 27.7 per cent to £60.8 million over the same period.
FTSE 100 Standard Chartered posted a 57 per cent jump in first-half pretax profits to $2.55 billion, up from $1.63 billion over the same period last year. On the back of the better-than-expected performance the Asia- and Africa-focused bank announced plans to resume dividend payments and a $250 million share buyback.
Builders merchant Travis Perkins has nudged full-year profit forecasts higher and reinstated its dividend after reporting that profits rose to £100 million in the six months to the end of June from a £86 million loss in the same half last year. The company — which owns Toolstation — now expects operating profit of at least £310 million, up from £300 million.
Advertisement
Operating profits at Direct Line rose by 40 per cent to a better-than-expected £369.9 million in the six months to the end of June, as the insurers policyholders left their cars on the driveway during lockdown and there were fewer new drivers.
Hiscox, FTSE 250 insurer which suffered reputational damage last year after it resisted paying out business interruption claims to hundreds of small businesses shut down by the pandemic, has returned to profit in the first half of the year and resumed dividend payments. Pre-tax profits rose to $133.4 million compared with $138.9 million loss in the same half year.
Others updating this morning include Coats, the textile firm, Fresnillo, FTSE 100 miner, Rotork the pipeline engineer and TP Icap, the interdealer broker.
Finally, as China’s American-listed companies continue to face heightened scrutiny in Beijing, Alibaba, the digital retail group, reports before the bell.
I’ll be on Times Radio just after 4.30pm today to talk through the day’s market action. You can also catch me Monday to Thursday at about 7.50am on the breakfast show. Listen online, on DAB radio, your smart speaker or via the Times Radio app.
Advertisement
Please do keep sending your thoughts, observations (and corrections) to me at richard.fletcher@thetimes.co.uk and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @fletcherr.
Richard
Get our daily Times Business Briefings — including the business front pages, market updates and day ahead in the United States — direct to your inbox at 8am and lunchtime by going to https://home.thetimes.com/myNews and ticking the business box