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FTSE 250 group Carnival is gearing up for a record year after a surge in people booking cruises for the first time.
Customers choose to holiday at sea rather than spend a fortune on hotels or flights.
Carnival’s bookings reached a record high in the first three months of this year, while revenue rose 22 percent to a record £4.3 billion and profits reached £690 million.
The number of new cruisers increased by 30 percent. With demand higher than ever, Carnival expects 2024 profits to be more than 30 percent higher than last year, at £4.5 billion.
CEO Josh Weinstein said: ‘This has been a fantastic start to the year.’
Everyone aboard: FTSE 250 group Carnival gears up for record year after surge in first-time cruise bookings
Shares rose 1.7 percent, or 20.5p, to 1,236.5p.
In the broader market, the FTSE 100 rose 0.01 percent, or 1.02 points, to 7,931.98 and the FTSE 250 climbed 0.17 percent, or 33.02 points, to 19,810.66. The takeover frenzy once again gripped the city, with a large number of deals in the offing.
Shares in DS Smith rose 10.2 per cent, or 36.8p, to 396.6p as a transatlantic bidding war broke out for the packaging group.
Distribution group Diploma rose 9.5 per cent, or 324p, to 3750p as it completed a £236m deal to buy its US rival Peerless.
The FTSE 100 company, which supplies products including wires, cables and surgical devices, said the acquisition should be completed in the coming weeks.
North Sea operator Ithaca Energy joined the frenzy as it reviewed the British operations of its Italian rival Eni.
Stock watch – C4X Discovery
Drugmaker C4X Discovery could exit London’s junior market within a month to gain access to more investors and build its pipeline of treatments to tackle immune-inflammatory diseases as a private company.
It wants to halt trading on the alternative investment market on April 26, saying the share price is failing to reflect its ‘underlying potential’. The three largest investors, with 57 percent of the company, have backed the plans.
The shares, which have fallen 91 percent in six years, fell 24.2 percent, or 3.2 cents, to 10 percent.
The London-listed company’s proposal will make it the second-largest operator in the region, with Eni taking an almost 40 percent stake in the expanded group.
The announcement came alongside Ithaca’s full-year results, which showed last year’s production levels were largely unchanged from 2022. Shares rose 2.4 per cent, or 3.4p, to 145.6p.
Sir Martin Sorrell said no “credible” bid had been made for S4 Capital after reports it had rejected bids from its New York rival Stagwell.
The comments came as S4’s revenues fell 5.4 percent to £1.01 billion in 2023 as customers cut back.
It also revealed a major commotion in the boardroom. Shares fell 6.9 percent, or 3.06p, to 41.46p.
CMC Markets’ improved prospects added almost £50 million to the value of the holdings of Conservative peer Lord Cruddas and his wife.
The trading company founded in 1989 by the former Tory party treasurer and donor expects revenues to exceed its previous forecast of between £290m and £310m.
Cruddas and his wife Fiona own 174.15 million shares, or 62 percent of the company. Shares rose 16.8 percent, or 31.5p, to 219.5p.
Travis Perkins is looking for a CEO as Nick Roberts, who led the construction supplier for five years, prepares to step down just weeks after profits fell to £70m last year, down from £245m in 2022.
The news lifted the share price by 1.2 percent, or 8.6p, to 735p.
Sainsbury’s rose 3.6 percent, or 9.4p, to 271.9p after UBS analysts upgraded the supermarket’s rating.