Premarket London: EasyJet Raises Revenue Guidance; Dixons Mixed Christmas Sales

Investing.com – Here is a summary from the most important regulatory news releases from the London Stock Exchange ahead of the UK market open on Tuesday 21 January. Please refresh for updates for UK market news from the LSE’s RNS on individual UK shares from , and .

• Budget airline EasyJet (LON:) said its first-half loss will narrow this year after it raised its revenue guidance for the first half, thanks to higher passenger numbers and an increase in revenue per seat.
• Lower capacity in competitors helped the airline boost passenger numbers during the quarter. The airline also said it benefited from the breakup of Thomas Cook in September.
• The low-cost airline said revenue was up 9.9% to 1.4 billion pounds for the three months to Dec. 31, up from 1.3 billion pounds the previous year.

• BP (LON:) said its chief financial officer Brian Gilvary is to retire. He’ll be succeeded by Murray Auchincloss, who is currently CFO of the group’s upstream division. Gilvary will stay on through a transition period lasting until the middle of the year.

• Dixons Carphone (LON:) shares are set for an interesting open after the retailer reported a strong Christmas season for appliances but a miserable one for mobile phones.
• Like-for-like sales in electricals rose 2% thanks to a 75% increase in supersized TVs and a 20% rise in the number of people buying fancy hairdryers and other beauty products from Dyson – a spending splurge somewhat at odds with the weak overall retail sales report for December.
• But all that good work was undone by an 11% drop in the Carphone side of the business, as like-for-like sales in the U.K. and Ireland fell 9%.
• Chief Executive Alex Baldock said the group had gained market share, and that online sales had risen 7% in the period. International online sales rose 5%. He cited “broad-based growth with strength in TVs, Gaming, Smart Tech and Small Domestic Appliances”.

• Telecoms company Talk Talk (LON:) said it would sell its fibre network, FibreNation, to CityFibre in a deal valued at 200 million pounds.
• The sale is conditional on shareholder approval.

• Miners BHP Group (LON:) said its full year guidance remained unchanged, despite the ongoing bushfires in Australia.
• BHP said it increased its production of and iron ore, however output of petroleum and coal dropped.
• “Production and cost guidance is unchanged, and we remain on track to deliver slightly higher production than last year.” said CEO Mike Henry.

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