What major events and stories do you need to know about? Plan your week with the Forward Planner insights from Kantar Media…
Next week’s highlights (9 – 13 April)…
Monday 9 April
Financial Conduct Authority publishes its Business Plan for 2018/19
TaxPayers’ Alliance publishes its annual Town Hall Rich List
Deloitte publishes its latest CFO Survey on the views of chief financial officers of FTSE 350 and other UK-listed companies
North Pole Marathon
Tuesday 10 April
CYBERUK annual summit opens in Manchester
Barclaycard Consumer Spending Data quarterly figures released
Last day to buy 2.2% fixed rate investment bond from NS&I, which was launched by the Chancellor in his Spring 2017 Budget
Man City v Liverpool in Champions League quarter-final second leg fixture
Wednesday 11 April
Mark Zuckerberg testifies to the U.S. House committee on Facebook use and protection of user data
Office for National Statistics publishes short term output indicators for February
Tesco and ASOS announce latest results
2018 Commonwealth Games, aka Gold Coast 2018, continue in Australia with diving and athletics
Thursday 12 April
Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham speaks at the ‘Moving North’ green transport conference
British Chambers of Commerce Quarterly Economic Survey published
ECB publishes accounts of its last monetary policy decision
Grand National horse racing meeting begins in Aintree, ahead of the big race on Saturday
Friday 13 April
Results announced by Citigroup and JPMorgan
Select Fashion Company Voluntary Arrangement meeting for creditors to vote on a restructuring plan
Summit of the Americas begins in Peru
County Championship cricket season begins
Date for your diary…
23 April 2018
Zero hour contract statistics published by the Office for National Statistics
Week in Review (3 - 6 April)
Tuesday 3 April
21st Century Fox offers Sky News remedies as part of its acquisition of Sky plc: Fox has proposed that Sky News is either ringfenced or sold to Walt Disney, according to two alternative remedy proposals published by the Competition and Markets Authority. The CMA has until 1 May to report back to Culture Secretary Matt Hancock after provisionally ruling in January that Fox taking full control of Sky was not in the public interest due to media plurality concerns.
Other news on Tuesday
- WPP board announces appointment of independent counsel to conduct an investigation in response to an allegation of personal misconduct against Chief Executive Sir Martin Sorrell
- CIPS / Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index rose slightly to 55.1 in March from 55.0 in February
- Flybe says revenues have been hit by the ‘extremely poor weather’ in February and March
- Official Receiver says 54% of the pre-liquidation workforce of Carillion have been found secure ongoing employment so far through the liquidation. To date 9,946 jobs have been saved and 1,802 jobs have been made redundant
- Hornby announces Barclays has agreed to waive off an earnings covenant as the toymaker enters the final stages of discussions on a new financing facility with new lenders
Wednesday 4 April
Deadline for organisations to issue their first gender pay gap report: Businesses, charities, and some public sector organisations with 250 employees or more had until midnight to publish their first annual gender pay gap reports. More than 10,000 organisations published reports before the deadline, with figures showing the majority of them paid their male employees more on average than their female employees.
Other news on Wednesday
- Groupe PSA says it is going to invest in its Luton plant to build the new Vauxall Vivaro van by 2019
- Mothercare announces the appointment of David Wood as Chief Executive with immediate effect, succeeding Mark Newton-Jones
- Financial Conduct Authority commences second part of PPI campaign featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger animatronic head
- Kantar Worldpanel figures show Tesco and Morrisons recorded sales growth of 2.4% in the 12 weeks to 25 March
- Conviviality announces the sale of its wholesale division Conviviality Direct to Magners cider owner C&C Holdings. On Thursday it announced the appointment of PwC as administrators
Thursday 5 April
UK car registrations fall in March: Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said new car registrations fell 15.7% compared with the same month last year, but was still the fourth biggest March ever for the sector. Demand for diesel cars fell 37.2% amid consumer uncertainty and environmental concerns.
Other news on Thursday
- CIPS / Markit Services Purchasing Managers Index sees weakest rise in services activity for 20 months in March, partly due to snow disruption. Snow was also blamed for a sharp fall in the Construction PMI on Wednesday
- Ofcom announces £1.35 billion has been raised from the auction of spectrum for current 4G and future 5G mobile services
- Which? calls for plastic-backed fridges to be removed from sale, saying they are unsafe
- Rank announces 2% decline in group like-for-like revenue for the 13 weeks to 1 April 2018
- Fidessa confirms Ion Trading and SS&C as potential bidders for the company. Temenos has already made an offer for Fidessa
Friday 6 April
Start of the new tax year: A Soft Drinks Industry Levy, dubbed the 'sugar tax', was among the new measures coming into effect at the start of the 2018-19 tax year. The income tax personal allowance has increased to £11,850 and the higher rate of income tax threshold to £46,350.
Other news on Friday
- Minimum contributions paid into automatic enrolment workplace pension schemes increase from 2% to 5%, with employers contributing 2% and employees 3%
- Office for National Statistics says UK productivity grew by 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to the previous quarter
- Co-operative Group reports a pre-tax profit of £72 million in 2017 compared to a £132 million loss in 2016
- AO World expects group revenues to be 14% higher this year than in the previous financial year, with full year trading expected to fall within the range of current market forecasts
- BDO says snowy conditions resulted in the UK high street seeing the second worst like-for-like sales on record in March
Find more information on Forward Planner here, and get in touch if you are interested in the service.
Source : Kantar Media