Chris Hill, the new boss at investment provider Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.), was probably wise to manage shareholders' income expectations on the publication of its final results on Tuesday. He didn't promise a special dividend bouncing back in 2018: instead, he said that future returns of excess capital might not match those of old, given higher capital requirements. That's here.
Which might, of course, give Mr Hill the wiggle room in future to overdeliver: the classic play from the new CEO (having joined the business as CFO a little more than a year before). Ignore the capital headache and the rest of the numbers look good, especially that growing share of execution-only stockbroking.
Compare and contrast with challenger bank Aldermore (ALD), which had half-year results last week. Its common equity tier one ratio – a measure of such capital as a proportion of risk-weighted assets – is heading towards 12 per cent, which means a maiden dividend could soon be on the cards. That's here.
A company in recovery is like a person hopping on one leg: you hope nothing comes along to kick away the other. For public services outsourcer Mears (MER), which is doing its best to improve profitability at its care division, the last thing it needed was delays to projects in its housing division, which it had been relying on to maintain the top line. But very necessary reviews of the safety of social housing blocks, after the Grenfell Tower tragedy, have done exactly that. Click here for our analysis.
Don't miss a decent set of results from car retailer Marshall Motor (MMH): if the market is falling over, it is happening slower than some were expecting. That's here. Scroll down for more.
