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Apple lost its fight against an order by EU competition regulators to pay €13bn ($14.4bn/£11bn) in back taxes to Ireland as part of a crackdown against sweetheart deals between EU countries and multinationals.
The European Commission (EC) issued the order in 2016, saying that the iPhone maker benefited from two Irish tax rulings for over two decades that artificially reduced its tax burden to as low as 0.005% in 2014.
“The Court of Justice gives final judgment in the matter and confirms the European Commission’s 2016 decision: Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid which Ireland is required to recover,” judges said.
The Irish government said it would respect the ruling, while Apple said it was disappointed with the decision. The company said: “The European Commission is trying to retroactively change the rules and ignore that, as required by international tax law, our income was already subject to taxes in the US.”
Read more: FTSE 100 LIVE: European stocks mixed as UK wages grow at slowest pace in two years
The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.
It comes after Apple’s big product launch event this week failed to excite the market on Monday, leaving its share price flat. It announced a new version of the iPhone with a camera button on the side.
Centamin (CEY.L)
Gold miner Centamin surged more than 24% after it agreed to be taken over by AngloGold Ashanti (AU) in a $2.5bn (£1.9bn) deal.
Under the terms of the transaction, Centamin shareholders will receive 0.06983 new AngloGold Ashanti shares and $0.125 in cash. The price represents a premium of around 36.7% to the closing share price on Monday.
Hochschild Mining (HOC.L) also gained on the back of the news, along with Fresnillo (FRES.L).
“A takeover of Centamin represents the end of an era for mid and large-cap gold miners on the UK stock market,” said Russ Mould of AJ Bell.
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“Centamin is one of the last pure-play gold producers remaining on the London Stock Exchange. While there are plenty of tiny exploration companies hoping to strike it rich, few have enjoyed Centamin’s level of success and built a large-scale operating mine.
“It’s surprising we’ve had to wait this long for someone else to make a serious offer for Centamin since Endeavour (EDV.L) tried to buy it in 2019. Centamin owns a gigantic gold mine in Egypt called Sukari, which is the company’s jewel in the crow. Sukari is the type of deposit that most gold producers dream of finding but never do. Often it is easier to buy a proven deposit than spend years looking for one.”
Meanwhile AngloGold Ashanti shares were down 6% in premarket trading.
Wickes rallied as it posted a drop in interim profit as revenues fell, but backed its profit expectations for the year and said trends were improving.
Pre-tax profits tumbled 24.8% to £23.4m in the six months to 29 June as like-for-like sales of larger design and installation ranges fell 18.3%.
This dragged overall comparable store sales down 3.9%, offsetting a 0.6% increase across retail sales to DIY customers and local trade professionals. It saw strong performance in the categories of decor, garden and tiles and flooring.
However, Wickes said trading had improved so far in the third quarter, with design and installation sales “stabilising”. It remains on track for full-year pre-tax profit expectations of £40.4m.
“Whilst the market outlook remains uncertain, current trading along with the planned action taken to mitigate the impact of inflation underpins management’s outlook for adjusted pre-tax profit for full-year 2023-24,” the DIY retailer said.
Ocado was the fastest-growing grocer in Britain for the seventh month in a row, the latest industry data showed on Tuesday.
Shares at the grocer rose as much as 2.5% on the day as sales soared by 12.9%, the fastest since May 2021, outpacing the wider online grocery market where sales grew by 4.4% compared with a year ago.
It comes as data provider Kantar revealed that grocery inflation has fallen from 1.8% last moth to 1.7% in the four weeks to 1 September.
Prices for toilet roll, dog food and bottled cola drinks are among the items whose price is falling, whereas vitamin and mineral supplements, chilled fruit juices and chocolate confectionery increased.
Tesco’s (TSCO.L) sales rose by 5.3%, while Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L) grew 5.7%. However, Asda struggled suffered a 5.6% fall in sales last month.
Read more: UK interest rates could be cut again as wage growth slows
Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: “Despite grocery price inflation easing back to 1.7% over the last four weeks, shoppers’ financial confidence hasn’t risen with it. Memories of the last two years remain strong, with nearly 60% of shoppers still very or extremely concerned about rising grocery prices. This is their second biggest financial worry, only behind home energy bills.
“Retailers have been doing their bit to help shoppers keep the cost of the weekly shop down, and the proportion of sales on promotion increased year-on-year for the 16th month in a row in August. More than half of all grocery trips include some kind of deal, and this proportion rises as the trolley gets bigger.”
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