Tesco executives were able to enjoy a pay boost after online supermarket Ocado was removed from a group used to calculate comparative returns. Tesco said Ocado was “no longer a relevant competitor” as it was now a technology group, and by removing it from a custom index, Tesco shares outperformed its new peer group by 3.3% rather than underperforming it by 4.2% leading to a bumper pay boost for the UK’s biggest supermarket executives (The Financial Times £, The Times £).
Exiting CEO Dave Lewis earned £6.4m in the year to February, the chain’s biggest payday for a decade (The Telegraph, The Guardian).
Meanwhile, The Guardian argued that “changing the goal posts” in order to secure additional pay, after having been paid £29m in six years, was “grubby behaviour”.
The government has stepped in to underwrite supply chains in a move that ministers said would “maintain a vital cog in our economy” (The Times £). The UK government is to guarantee trade credit insurance to ensure that the market does not seize up because of the coronavirus crisis (The Financial Times £). The Government has stepped in to guarantee trade credit insurance agreements as thousands of businesses struggle to pay their bills (The Daily Mail).
Trade credit insurers had already threatened to pull cover if the UK failed to follow the lead set by Berlin and Paris in backstopping the industry, making exporters more vulnerable to the economic shock and curtailed exports once lockdowns ease. It was in everybody’s interests that this didn’t happen. (The Financial Times £)
Alternative meat companies, both plant-based and cell-cultured, secured more investment in the first quarter of this year than in the whole of 2019. Overall, there was $930m of investment into the sector in the quarter, with analysts claiming the coronavirus pandemic had not affected appetite in the sector (The Financial Times £).
Consumer group Which? has found the price of goods sold online on Amazon or Ebay to be 12 times higher than they would in supermarkets. Which? accused vendors of exploiting the coronavius crisis and urged consumers to report them (Sky News).
Analysts have come to the defence of Pets at Home in a row with a short seller, who claimed the company had manipulated a series of loans to make its profits look better than they were. But both Numis and Peel Hunt hit back at the accusations (The Telegraph).
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