
Unilever ice cream spinoff should free up cash
The consumer goods giant spun off the division behind Magnum (advertised by actress Eva Longoria), Ben & Jerry's and Wall's at the start of this month after snubbing London for an Amsterdam listing earlier this year.
The group – whose brands also include Dove, Comfort and Hellmann's – will update investors on its plans for a fourth quarter listing on Thursday.
Aarin Chiekrie, from broker Hargreaves Lansdown, said the ice cream demerger should 'free up plenty of cash to pay down debts and invest in other, higher-returning areas of the business'.
It is looking to save £700m by cutting 7,500 jobs.
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The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
June ‘strongest month of 2025 so far for current account switches'
June was the strongest month this year so far for current account customers moving to a new provider, according to a switching service. Some 88,146 switches were processed through the Current Account Switch Service (Cass) in June, with 996,344 switches facilitated over the past 12 months. The service recorded 216,519 switches completed between April and June 2025. This follows 222,805 switches in the first quarter of 2025. The latest figures also indicate that Nationwide Building Society was the biggest 'winner' from customers using the service between January and March 2025. Figures provided voluntarily by banks and building societies showed that Nationwide made the highest switching gains among customers using Cass to move their account in the first quarter of this year. Nationwide was followed by Monzo and HSBC UK. Customers using Cass to switch their current account automatically have payments moved over to the new account and get the benefits of a guarantee that they will not be left out of pocket if anything goes wrong with the switch. Some current account switches take place outside of Cass and the figures provided do not include those switches. Andrew Hagger, a personal finance expert from said Nationwide had 'outperformed its peers by a country mile', adding: 'It had a £175 switching incentive in place for the whole of the three months in question, which no doubt helped boost recruitment, however the £100 annual fairer share payment is no doubt also having a positive impact on customer retention.' Nationwide also has a 'branch promise' and 5.7 million customers visited its branches last year – a 4% annual increase. Since the switching service launched in 2013, it has facilitated more than 11.9 million switches and redirected in excess of 166.8 million payments. Cass said customer research indicates that access to online or mobile app-based banking is the most frequently cited reason for preferring a new account, followed by interest earned, customer service, spending benefits and account fees or charges. John Dentry, product owner at owner and operator of Cass, said: 'The fact that the top three spots are occupied by a legacy bank, long-standing building society and a neobank shows the depth and diversity of the UK banking system. 'With nearly a million switches in the past 12 months, the Current Account Switch Service continues to play a key role in facilitating a healthy and competitive banking market. I look forward to seeing how the landscape evolves across the latter half of this year.' Here are the net current account switching gains or losses made by banks and building societies between January 1 and March 31 2025 by customers using Cass. The figures do not include switches made outside Cass. AIB Group UK (includes Allied Irish Bank brand switches), minus 414 Bank of Ireland, minus 311 Bank of Scotland, minus 1,850 Barclays, minus 22,334 Co-operative (includes the Smile brand switches), 1,022 Citibank UK, minus two Danske, minus 187 Halifax, minus 15,707 HSBC (includes First Direct brand switches), 5,621 JP Morgan Chase, minus 4,059 Lloyds Bank, minus 4,710 Monzo, 8,850 Nationwide Building Society, 55,578 NatWest, minus 13,086 RBS (includes Coutts and Isle of Man brand switches), minus 3,627 Santander, 1,546 Starling Bank, minus 1,284 Triodos Bank, 33 TSB, 1,277 Ulster Bank, minus 487 Virgin Money, minus 3,353


Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
White House warns Starmer: Stop threatening US tech companies' free speech
The White House has warned Sir Keir Starmer to stop threatening American tech companies amid mounting backlash over Britain's online safety law. Members of Donald Trump's administration are monitoring the Online Safety Act with 'great interest and concern' after key allies said it was censoring free speech and imposing unfair burdens on US businesses. The law, which regulates online speech, allows the British government to levy massive fines on companies like Apple, Truth Social, and X if it finds that rules on hate speech have been broken. Those in the president's inner circle see the potential penalties as an unwarranted foreign intervention into American free speech. 'President Trump has made it clear that free speech is one of our most cherished freedoms as Americans,' a senior US State Department official told The Telegraph. 'Accordingly, we have taken decisive action against foreign actors who have engaged in extraterritorial censorship affecting our companies and fellow citizens. 'We will continue to monitor developments in the UK with great interest and concern.' Since the law came into effect last week, Ofcom, the UK's online regulator, has written to several American firms ordering them to conform to the act, in letters seen by The Telegraph. It has sparked outrage from US lawmakers and legal experts, who say the overreach is a threat by the UK to silence American companies and citizens. Congressman Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary GOP committee, said the law was an attack on American companies. 'Ask Apple and they would view it as a $500 million attack,' he told The Telegraph. 'There's general concern... and then there's concern on how this impacts American citizens, American companies and infringes on our First Amendment. 'As long as foreign legislators, judges, and regulators continue their attempts to silence US citizens, we will not stop fighting back.' Mr Jordan also raised concerns over the bill's overreach with Peter Kyle, the Science Secretary, on Wednesday. Under the law, social media giants face fines of up to £18m ($24m), or 10 per cent of their annual revenue, if they fail to remove content deemed harmful from their platforms. While the measures are designed to protect young people from dangerous content, critics argue that it pressures platforms into censoring users by removing their content if it is disliked by others, even though it is perfectly legal. Social media apps such as X, Reddit and TikTok have been forced to introduce age verification checks since the bill came into effect last week. The warning to Sir Keir is the latest sign of Donald Trump's willingness to intervene in domestic British affairs amid a growing transatlantic rift over the protection of freedom of speech. During his meeting with the Prime Minister in Scotland, Mr Trump warned Sir Keir not to censor his social-media platform, Truth Social. 'Well, I don't think he's going to censor my site, because I say only good things,' Mr Trump said. In May, The Telegraph revealed that the president sent US officials to meet British pro-life activists over censorship concerns. The diplomats from the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour (BDHL) travelled to London in March in an effort to 'affirm the importance of freedom of expression in the UK and across Europe'. Led by Samuel Samson, a senior adviser in the state department, they met with officials from the Foreign Office and challenged Ofcom over the Online Safety Act. Since then, the Trump administration has also raised questions about the conviction and sentencing of several high profile cases like that of Lucy Connolly. Connolly, a former childminder and the wife of a Conservative councillor, is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence over a social media post published in the wake of the killings of three girls in Southport. After rumours spread online online that the killer was an illegal migrant, Connolly called for 'deportation now' and added: 'Set fire to all the... [asylum] hotels... for all I care'. Three Court of Appeal judges rejected the 42-year-old's case application last week, meaning she will not be released before August. And no case has raised concerns in Washington more than the prosecution of Livia Tossici-Bolt, an anti-abortion campaigner. The 64-year-old was handed a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £20,026 ($26,624) in costs for breaching a buffer zone while praying outside an abortion clinic. At the time, the case threatened to jeopardise Sir Keir's trade deal with the United States. In a highly unusual intervention, the State Department's BDHL posted a statement on X saying: 'We are monitoring [Ms Tossici-Bolt's] case. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression.' Ms Tossici-Bolt, who could have been handed a prison sentence, thanked the Trump administration for its intervention. Those closest to the president have long raised concerns about the erosion of free speech in Britain. In a speech at the Munich security conference in February, JD Vance, the US vice-president, cited British pro-life campaigner Adam Smith-Connor, who too was convicted for breaching a buffer zone outside an abortion clinic. 'Free speech in Britain and across Europe [is] in retreat,' Mr Vance said. Before his spectacular fallout with the president, Elon Musk was understood to be pushing Mr Trump to raise curbs on social media regulation in trade talks with the UK. Mr Musk, who has described himself as a free speech absolutist, said Britain's online safety laws amount to 'suppression of the people'. Several American businesses are now poised to bring a federal lawsuit against Ofcom. Preston Byrne, managing partner of Byrne & Storm, PC who is representing some of the US sites, said no foreign power should be allowed to 'cross our waterline'. 'I am instructed by multiple American websites to bring a federal lawsuit against Ofcom,' he said. 'No matter who is the target, the US free speech bar will not allow any American to be censored by a foreign government. No foreign power will be allowed to cross our waterline with unconstitutional and illegal orders.'


Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Adidas may hike prices, warns of US consumer hit from tariffs
LONDON, July 30(Reuters) - Sportswear brand Adidas ( opens new tab warned on Wednesday that it may have to hike prices in the United States, after reporting U.S. tariffs would add around 200 million euros ($231 million) to costs in the second half. Shares in Adidas dropped 11% in their worst day since U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled higher tariffs in April, bringing the stock's losses since the start of this year to 26%. Adidas said uncertainty over trade was holding it back from increasing its annual guidance, and it had not yet decided on possible U.S. price increases to mitigate the impact. On a call with analysts, CEO Bjorn Gulden emphasised that the final tariff levels were still not known, but said he was concerned about the knock-on impact of higher prices on U.S. consumer demand. "What I'm mostly worried about, to be honest, is not only the cost but it's what is going to be the consumer reaction in the market with all these price increases that I think will come not only in our sector, but in general in the U.S.," said Gulden. "Should we get mega inflation in the U.S., things will happen on the demand side, then of course volumes will go down." Adidas will review its pricing and decide which products it could hike prices on in the U.S. once tariffs are finalised, Gulden said, declining to say how much prices might increase. "We will try to keep the prices on known models (stable) as long as we can, and then do new pricing on product that hasn't existed before," he said. Adidas sales increased 2.2% in euro terms to 5.95 billion euros ($6.9 billion) in the second quarter, lower than analysts' average estimate of 6.2 billion euros, according to data compiled by LSEG. The shortfall will likely fuel concerns that, after a run of very strong sales growth fuelled by its trendy three-striped multicoloured Samba and Gazelle shoes, Adidas is losing momentum. "For investors to view this as a temporary setback, the company will need to deliver a reassuring message regarding the outlook for H2 and the early 2026 order book," UBS analyst Robert Krankowski said in a note to clients. The U.S. earlier this month announced a 20% levy on many Vietnamese exports and a 19% tariff on goods from Indonesia - Adidas' two biggest sourcing countries which produce 30% and 23% respectively of Adidas products sold in the U.S. Footwear imports into the U.S. already faced tariffs before Trump, and the new duties mean tariffs on footwear from Vietnam have gone up to 46%, from 26%, and from Indonesia to 43% from 24%, Gulden said. Like many other sportswear companies, including Puma , Adidas has been frontloading product shipments into the U.S. ahead of tariffs, driving its inventories up 16% to 5.26 billion euros at the end of June. Despite the impact of tariffs, Gulden said the U.S., which accounts for around a fifth of Adidas sales, is still a key market. "We want to grow and we are also willing to over-invest in the U.S. to double the business," he said on the call. Higher tariffs already had a "double-digit" million euro impact on Adidas' second quarter, and a weaker dollar and weaker Chinese yuan took 300 million euros off quarterly sales. Quarterly operating profit, however, reached 546 million euros, ahead of analysts' expectations for 520 million. Adidas said "lifestyle" revenues - from sneakers and casual clothing - grew 13%, helped by cow print, leopard print and metallic versions of its SL72 and Samba sneakers. A merchandise collaboration with rock group Oasis for its reunion tour has also boosted sales, Gulden said. ($1 = 0.8651 euros)