There was a significant boost for the grocer and technology company Ocado this morning after they announced a settlement had been reached with US customer Kroger. A deal between the two has been scaled back in size with Kroger closing three customer fulfilment centres and cancelling a fourth venue. That’s going to take $50m off revenues in the current financial year, but the payoff of $350m is clearly seen as adequate compensation. Management also reiterated that the company is still expected to turn cash flow positive in FY26. The Ocado share price was up 11% in early trade.
Thursday proved to be a bruising session for the online review service Trustpilot after the impartiality of the service was called into question by a short seller. The stock fell by almost one third in value, despite management rushing out an update to refuse these claims. On Friday morning however the consensus appears to be that the sell-off is overblown, with buyers swoping in on the stock as it trades around two-year lows. The Trustpilot share price was up more than 10% shortly after the open.
Another challenging day for the FTSE-250 listed self-storage company Big Yellow. Having revealed earlier in the week the expected drag on profits from changes made in the budget, last night management announced that the proposed all-cash takeover bid by Blackstone Europe was being pushed back, owing to the price being offered. The put up or shut up deadline is set for Monday and management have indicated this won’t be extended. The Big Yellow share price was down 5% by 8.45am.
Most read news on Investegate this morning
Demerger of Unilever’s Ice Cream Business - - Unilever (ULVR)
