UK retail sales rose by 4.1 per cent in August, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), as more confident shoppers spent on food, health and beauty products. Food sales rose by 8.2 per cent in the three months to August, while monthly sales of non-food items were the strongest since February. Sales growth went backwards for categories including footwear and household appliances, however. And given the rate of inflation, UK shoppers are still spending more on fewer products. 

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said that as inflation eases “sales growth may fall in the coming months, even if volume growth does not”. CA

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IPSX collapses as its Reits weigh options

The world’s first property securities exchange, IPSX, has collapsed due to a lack of cash, leaving the three real estate investment trusts (Reits) on the exchange scrambling to find a new home.

IPSX said yesterday it had started the “orderly wind down of the operations of IPSX” because it “no longer [has] sufficient financial resources”. Its only three securities, Mailbox Reit, BWP Reit, and M7 E-Warehouse Reit, said they were looking for “alternative listing platforms”. M7 E-Warehouse Reit said in addition it would consider a private Reit structure.

IPSX launched in 2019 with great fanfare as an opportunity for investors to buy directly into real estate rather than buying into a company that owns real estate. However, a series of setbacks and delayed listings meant the exchange struggled to gain momentum. ML

Read more: Why has the world’s first property exchange failed to take off?

TI Fluid Systems buys in Budapest

TI Fluid Systems (TIFS), the engineering company that specialises in making fluid systems for cars, is buying a competitor in Hungary for $27.7mn (£22mn).

Cascade Engineering Europe (CEE) makes thermal fluid connectors and other car parts from a 6,500 square metre factory in Budapest and employs 349 staff. It is expected to generate revenue of around €35mn (£30mn) this year.  Analysts at Jefferies said the purchase price equates to around 6-times CEE’s cash profit. 

TI Fluid Systems, which last month reported a trebling of half-year profit to £58.9mn on the back of improving sales and margins, said the deal would be “immediately accretive to the group’s underlying earnings”. MF

Profits surge at JSG

Johnson Service Group’s (JSG) adjusted operating profit jumped by 48 per cent to £19mn in the first half of 2023 as a result of higher linen volumes, price increases and “positive signs on new sales” in the workwear division. The textile rental group now thinks that its full-year figures will be “slightly ahead of current market expectations” and intends to launch a new £10mn share buyback programme. JS

Ecora profits tumble on Kestrel move

The first half of this year was a taste of the next few years for Ecora Resources (ECOR) shareholders. Profits tumbled as the operator of the Kestrel coal mine in Australia moved away from the area over which Ecora holds a royalty, cutting the company’s income significantly. At the same time, weaker metals and coal prices also brought earnings down, especially against the record levels of last year. The interim operating profit was down almost 60 per cent to $32mn (£25mn). 

Higher taxes and interest costs also saw adjusted earnings per share come in 11 per cent below RBC Capital Markets’ forecast of 10.4¢ a share. 

This shift was not unexpected. Ecora had warned investors the Kestrel royalty would be on the way out, although the first half of 2023 and the hard end date of 2026 are quite different. The company said short-term Kestrel revenue “will become more volatile on a quarterly basis as operations move in and out of the group’s private royalty area”. The shares were down 4 per cent on Tuesday morning, taking the year-to-date fall to 29 per cent. AH