Good morning and welcome to the IC’s daily blog, rounding up the biggest business stories.
The UK government is looking into the sale of chipmaker Arm Holdings to US tech company Nvidia (US:NVDA) on national security grounds. Digital secretary Oliver Dowden yesterday issued a public interest intervention notice (PIIN), writing to the competition regulator to inform it of his decision.
Cambridge-headquartered Arm, currently owned by Softbank, is a global leader in the semiconductor industry. “Semiconductors are fundamental to current and future technologies”, Westminster said yesterday. At the same time, they “underpin the UK’s critical national infrastructure and are found in defence and national security related technologies”.
From national security fears to those closer to home, consumer cyber-security group Avast (AVST) reported first-quarter figures this morning – posting sales growth of 10.5 per cent to $237m and projecting full-year organic revenues at the upper end of its guidance after a disposal on 16 April. Last week Lauren Almeida considered what investors need to know about cyber player Darktrace, which yesterday confirmed its plans for a London IPO.
Debate about a controversial breakaway football ‘European Super League’ has raged on this morning. Earlier this month Oliver Telling asked whether esports might make a more sound investment than real sports.
Turning to the high street, Associated British Foods (ABF) counted the cost of non-essential store closures this morning which squashed sales at its Primark chain, although the clothing business’s branches in England and Wales enjoyed record sales in the week after reopening on 12 April. Remind yourself of Phil Oakley's take on ABF here.
And listen in to this week's free Alpha podcast for more thoughts from Phil on the UK retail sector.
Primark does not offer online shopping. Physical retailers have suffered acutely under pandemic-induced restrictions, while their peers with significant online presence have tended to fare better – as epitomised by FTSE 100 group Next (NXT: Buy, 7 April 2021).
Meanwhile, more than 10m people in the UK have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. But demand for diagnostics has arguably never been stronger as lockdown eases and the economy reopens.
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