Category: 3. Business

Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez know how to leave a mark with everything they do.

The couple made headlines with a lavish $50 million wedding in Venice, Italy attended by a long list of celebrities and media personalities including Leonardo Dicaprio, Orlando Bloom, Sydney Sweeney, Kim Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Brady and many more.

Now the newly-wed couple is off to spend their honeymoon at a location that has immense value for the TV fans.

As reported by Independent, the pair is at San Domenico Palace, a Four Seasons hotel in Taormina, Sicily.

The venue is internationally recognized for its role as the ‘setting’ for HBO series The White Lotus season two.

The 61-year-old and the 55-year-old reached the Nicelli airport from Venice to take a helicopter ride back to the Amazon founder’s $500 million superyacht Koru.

The yacht is currently anchored in Taormina while the two are enjoying some quality time together.

For the unversed, while the wedding has drawn backlash from some people including Charlize Theron and Rosie O’Donnell, the bride had prepared hard for the wedding.

The licensed pilot had brought some lifestyle changes including dietary to lose a few pounds before walking down the aisle.

Additionally, she also got a piercing on the nail of her ring finger to take her glam look up a notch.

The nail artist Iram Shelton pierced a diamond-encrusted ‘B’ charm into the long nail.

Findings from a subgroup analysis of the phase 3 CheckMate 9DW trial (NCT04039607) demonstrated that the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) provided overall survival (OS) and overall response rate (ORR) benefits compared with lenvatinib (Lenvima) or sorafenib (Nexavar) in Chinese patients with unresectable or advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).1

Data presented at the 2025 ESMO Gastrointestinal Cancers Congress showed that at a median follow-up of 31.3 months (range, 15.4-46.5), Chinese patients treated with nivolumab plus ipilimumab (n = 98) achieved a median overall survival (OS) of 23.5 months (95% CI, 18.0-37.8) compared with 20.1 months (95% CI, 15.3-24.0) in those given lenvatinib or sorafenib (n = 110; HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.57-1.18). The 24-month OS rates were 48% and 39%, respectively.

In the Chinese subgroup, nivolumab plus ipilimumab elicited an ORR of 37% (95% CI, 27%-47%) compared with 14% (95% CI, 8%-22%) for lenvatinib or sorafenib (difference, 23.1%; 95% CI, 11.4%-34.3%). The rates of complete and partial response were 7% and 30%, respectively, in the experimental arm. These respective rates were 2% and 12% in the lenvatinib or sorafenib arm.

“The results further support nivolumab plus ipilimumab as a potential new first-line standard-of-care therapy for patients with unresectable HCC in China, a region with the highest HCC incidence and overall mortality rate from HCC globally,” lead study author Shukui Qin, MD, of Nanjing Tianyinshan Hospital of China Pharmaceutical University, and colleagues wrote in a poster presentation of the data.

In April 2025, the FDA approved nivolumab in combination with ipilimumab for the first-line treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic HCC, based on data from CheckMate 9DW.²

CheckMate 9DW and Subgroup Analysis Overview

The randomized, open-label study enrolled patients with unresectable HCC who were naive to systemic therapy in the unresectable/advanced setting.1 Patients needed to have at least 1 measurable lesion per RECIST 1.1 criteria, a Child-Pugh score of 5 or 6, and ECOG performance status of 0 or 1, and no main portal vein invasion.

Patients were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive nivolumab at 1 mg/kg plus ipilimumab at 3 mg/kg once every 3 weeks for up to 4 cycles, followed by nivolumab alone at 480 mg once every 4 weeks (n = 335); or single-agent treatment with investigator’s choice of lenvatinib at 8 mg or 12 mg per day, or sorafenib at 400 mg twice per day. Treatment continued until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, or consent withdrawal. Treatment in the experimental arm only lasted for a maximum of 2 years.

Stratification factors included etiology (hepatitis B [HBV] vs hepatitis C vs uninfected); macrovascular invasion (MVI) or extrahepatic spread (EHS; yes vs no); and alpha-fetoprotein level (<400 ng/mL vs ≥400 ng/mL).

OS served as the trial’s primary end point. Blinded independent central review (BICR)–assessed ORR and duration of response (DOR), along with time to symptom progression, were secondary end points. BICR-assessed progression-free survival (PFS) and safety were exploratory end points.

The subgroup analysis included 208 Chinese patients from mainland China (n = 29), Hong Kong (n = 67), Taiwan (n = 48), and an additional group from mainland China (n = 64).

Within the Chinese subgroup, the median age was 63.5 years (range, 37-84) in the nivolumab/ipilimumab arm vs 62 years (range, 26-81) in the control arm. The majority of patients were male (experimental arm, 80%; control arm, 81%), had an HVB etiology (79%; 70%), had a Child-Pugh score of 5 (76%; 79%), and had Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage C disease (78%; 74%). An ECOG performance status of 1 was reported in 35% of patients and 13% of patients in the respective arms.

In the nivolumab/ipilimumab arm at baseline, 30% of patients had MVI, 52% had EHS, and 66% had both. These respective rates were 31%, 55%, and 72% in the control arm. Forty-two percent of patients in the experimental arm had an AFP level of at least 400 ng/mL compared with 39% of patients in the lenvatinib/sorafenib arm. The rates of prior local therapy were 43% and 58%, respectively.

Additional Subgroup Efficacy Data

The median DOR was not reached (95%% CI, 23.4-not evaluable [NE]) in the nivolumab/ipilimumab arm vs 8.4 months (95% CI, 6.4-NE) in the lenvatinib or sorafenib arm. The median time to response was 2.1 months (95% CI, 1.8-9.1) and 5.5 months (95% CI, 1.9-13.9), respectively.

Among evaluable patients, the median tumor reduction from baseline was –47.1% (interquartile range [IQR], –70.5% to –4.8%) in the nivolumab/ipilimumab arm (n = 77) vs –13.8% (IQR, –28.2 to 1.2) in the control arm. Any reduction was reported in 75% of patients in the experimental arm vs 72% of patients in the control group. In the nivolumab/ipilimumab arm, tumor reductions of more than 50% and more than 75% occurred in 45% and 21% of patients, respectively. These respective rates were 5% and 1% in the control arm.

Further analyses showed that the ORR benefit with nivolumab/ipilimumab was consistent across subgroups within the Chinese population.

Any subsequent therapy was administered to 47% of Chinese patients in the nivolumab/ipilimumab arm vs 55% of patients in the lenvatinib or sorafenib group. These included radiotherapy (experimental arm, 6%; control arm, 5%), surgery (4%; 3%), locoregional therapy (14%; 12%), and systemic therapy (41%; 52%). Types of subsequent systemic therapy included anti–PD-(L)1 therapy (5%; 15%), anti–PD-(L)1 plus anti–CTLA-4 therapy (0%; 3%), anti–PD-(L)1 plus anti-VEGF therapy (12%; 19%); platinum-based chemotherapy (1%; 0%), and anti-VEGF therapy (30%; 15%).

The median time to second progression (PFS2) was 22.0 months (95% CI, 15.7-34.0) in the experimental arm vs 15.5 months (95% CI, 13.1-18.6) in the control arm (HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.54-1.09).

QOL and Safety Findings

Numerical improvements in health-related quality of life were reported with nivolumab/ipilimumab over the course of the study, with the exception of week 25. In the experimental arm, mean changes from baseline in Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Hepatobiliary (FACT-Hep) surpassed the minimal important difference (MID) of 8 points between weeks 53 and 89; however, in the control arm, FACT-Hep score worsened at several time points, and the MID was exceeded at week 61.

Regarding safety, any-grade treatment-related adverse effects (TRAEs) occurred in 90% of patients in the nivolumab/ipilimumab arm vs 95% of patients treated with lenvatinib or sorafenib. The rates of grade 3/4 TRAEs were 43% and 38%, respectively. Serious TRAEs of any grade occurred at respective rates of 31% and 17%; the rates of grade 3/4 serious TRAEs were 27% and 15%, respectively. TRAEs led to treatment discontinuation in 20% of patients in the nivolumab/ipilimumab arm vs 13% of patients in the lenvatinib or sorafenib arm. TRAEs led to death in 3 patients (3%) and 1 patient (<1%), respectively.

In the nivolumab/ipilimumab group, hepatic TRAEs included hepatobiliary disorders (any-grade, 15%; grade 3/4, 12%), increased aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels (23%; 1%) increased alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels (18%; 3%), and increased bilirubin levels (11%; 0%). In this group, cardiac TRAEs and hemorrhagic TRAEs were reported at rates of 6% and 3%, respectively; no grade 3/4 cardiac or hemorrhagic TRAEs were noted.

In the control arm, hepatic TRAEs comprised hepatobiliary disorders (any-grade, 6%; grade 3/4, 3%), increased AST levels (16%; 0%) increased ALT levels (10%; <1%), and increased bilirubin levels (17%; 2%). The rates of any-grade cardiac TRAEs and hemorrhagic TRAEs were 51% and 12%, respectively; the respective rates of grade 3/4 cardiac and hemorrhagic TRAEs were 10% and <1%.

Immune-mediated AEs (irAEs) reported in the experimental arm included pneumonitis (5%), hepatitis (14%), rash (23%), hypothyroidism/thyroiditis (22%), hypothyroidism (13%), thyroiditis (10%), and hyperthyroidism (19%). irAEs that led to treatment discontinuation included pneumonitis (n = 1) and hepatitis (n = 2).

References

1. Qin S, Bai Y, Han G, et al. Nivolumab (NIVO) plus ipilimumab (IPI) vs lenvatinib (LEN) or sorafenib (SOR) as first-line (1L) treatment in Chinese patients with unresectable/advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC): CheckMate 9DW expanded analyses. Presented at: 2025 ESMO Gastrointestinal Cancers Congress; July 2-5, 2025; Barcelona, Spain. Abstract 157P.
2. FDA approves nivolumab with ipilimumab for unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma. FDA. April 11, 2025. Accessed July 2, 2025. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/resources-information-approved-drugs/fda-approves-nivolumab-ipilimumab-unresectable-or-metastatic-hepatocellular-carcinoma

Kim Kardashian reportedly got triggered at the high-profile wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez.

As per the latest findings of Closer Magazine, the former wife of Kanye West had a meltdown at the wedding event in Italy.

This meltdown was reportedly sparked by the all the attention that Sydney Sweeney garnered from the eligible bachelors.

“Kim won’t say it outright, but seeing Sydney get all the attention in Venice was a huge blow to her ego,” claimed a source.

“She went into the trip with very high hopes, She’s been single for so long, it’s really starting to mess with her confidence,” the insider noted of the single mom, who is reportedly seeking new paramours.

In conclusion, “She still looks incredible, but she’s in her 40s, has four kids, and she worries it’s too much baggage to get the kind of man she wants.”

“She’s not holding it against Sydney, she actually thinks she’s gorgeous and talented, but it’s more that Kim’s realising she’s not the ‘it’ girl anymore, and that’s triggered all her worst insecurities.”

One in 10 cars sold in the UK in June were made in China, according to the latest industry figures.

New Chinese brands such as BYD, Jaecoo and Omoda are growing rapidly in the UK.

There has been a particular surge over the past few months, at a time when most other G7 countries have levied significant extra tariffs against their imports.

Around 18,944 cars made by Chinese-owned brands, including MG and Polestar, were sold in June, which is 10% of overall UK sales, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). That is up from 6% in the same month a year ago.

Across the first half of this year, more than 8% – or 1 in 12 – cars sold were Chinese, up from 5% in 2023 and 2024. This was mainly but not exclusively electric vehicles.

By comparison a study by Jato Analytics for the first five months of the year put Chinese brands at 4.3% of the market across the EU, and just 1.6% in Germany and 2.7% in France. Spain was higher though at 9.2%.

Its analyst Felipe Munoz said: “The fact that the UK has not imposed tariffs is a big opportunity for the Chinese, along with the popularity of electric cars.

“MG is also playing like a local brand, and unlike France and Germany, the UK doesn’t have a big local industry to protect.”

However, some industry grandees have warned that the UK industry will struggle to compete, and Britain might have to introduce quotas.

Chinese firms and their franchises have been buying up car showrooms.

“Chinese manufacturers are producing cars which are better, cheaper and more innovative in every sector of the market,” said John Neill, former SMMT President and ex-chief executive of Unipart.

“If they are going to sell here we are going to have to get the Chinese to manufacture here.”

The government has so far faced little pressure from existing suppliers on copying the tariffs imposed by the EU, US, and Canada on electric cars.

The majority of EU member states backed big taxes being imposed on imports of EVs from China, which can be as high as around 45%, and Canada announced its imposition of a 100% tax on Chinese made EVs.

The EU and China are in negotiations to replace the tariff with a minimum price system.

Some Chinese manufacturers are also in the process of opening factories in the EU which could export across Europe including the UK tariff-free.

The SMMT said that one in four buyers of new cars in the UK are now purchasing electric cars – although the transition to electric has been driven by “unsustainable” discounting by manufacturers, says Mike Hawes, the SMMT’s chief executive.

“As we have seen in other countries, government incentives can supercharge the market transition,” he said.

Quantitative vessel tortuosity (QVT), a noninvasive, radiomics-based imaging biomarker, was able to detect the antiangiogenic mechanism of action of fruquintinib (Fruzaqla) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), according to data from a retrospective analysis of the phase 3 FRESCO-2 trial (NCT04322539) presented during the 2025 ESMO Gastrointestinal Cancer Congress.

Results from the analysis demonstrated that patients in the fruquintinib group experienced a 70% decrease of vessel inflection in lung lesions from baseline to day 1 of cycle 3 (P < .0006). Additionally, patients in the fruquintinib arm experienced median reductions in vessel volume, torsion, curvature, and radius of 25% (P < .006), 15% (P < .05), 10% (P < .05), and 5% (P < .05), respectively, over the same time period. Conversely, patients in the placebo arm experienced a 30% increase in abnormal vessel branching at day 1 of cycle 3 compared with baseline (P < .05).

“Significant changes in QVT features between patients in the fruquintinib and placebo arms were observed during the first assessment, demonstrating the early antiangiogenic action of fruquintinib,” Sara Lonardi, MD, chief of the Oncology 3 Unit of Veneto Institute of Oncology in Padua, Italy, and her coauthors wrote in the poster. “The observed differences in Delta QVT radiomic features…quantify the ability of fruquintinib to prevent the formation of a twisted, heterogeneous vasculature.”

In November 2023, the FDA approved fruquintinib for the treatment of adult patients with mCRC who received previous treatment with fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin-, and irinotecan-based chemotherapy, an anti-VEGF therapy, and, if RAS wild-type and medically appropriate, an anti-EGFR therapy.² The regulatory decision was partially supported by prior data from FRESCO-2, which demonstrated that patients treated with the VEGFR inhibitor experienced a 34% reduction in the risk of death compared with those who received placebo (HR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.55-0.80; P < .001).

FRESCO-2 Study Design and Retrospective Analysis Methods

FRESCO-2 was a global, double-blind study that enrolled adult patients with metastatic CRC.³ Patients were required to have experienced disease progression on or have been intolerant to trifluridine/tipiracil (Lonsurf) or regorafenib (Stivarga). Eligible patients also needed to have a body weight of at least 40 kg, an ECOG performance status of 0 or 1, measurable disease per RECIST 1.1 criteria, and an expected survival of over 12 weeks.

Patients were randomly assigned 2:1 to receive fruquintinib (n = 461) or placebo (n = 230) at 5 mg daily, both in combination with best supportive care.¹ Treatment was administered in 28-day cycles for 3 weeks on, 1 week off. Treatment in both arms continued until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

The primary end point was overall survival (OS).³ Secondary end points included progression-free survival, objective response rate, disease control rate, duration of response, and safety.

This retrospective analysis included CT scans from 221 patients enrolled in FRESCO-2; 442 lesions were analyzed from 162 patients in the fruquintinib arm and 167 lesions were analyzed from 59 patients in the placebo arm.¹ For each lesion, 909 QVT features were extracted to quantify peritumoral vascularity. The longitudinal change in QVT features was calculated as the percentage change in features from screening to day 1 of cycle 3.

Following CT scan image transfer, image processing and lesion selection occurred, followed by lesion annotation and segmentation. QVT features were then extracted and selected prior to data integration and analysis.

The presence of lung metastases was the primary objective of the retrospective analysis. Notably, primary colorectal lesions were not analyzed due to the high rate of resection prior to screening.

Additional Findings From the Retrospective Analysis

Additional data from the retrospective analysis revealed that a statistically significant difference in Delta QVT with fruquintinib vs placebo was observed in 11 of the 21 preselected QVT features. Treatment with fruquintinib also showed a clear normalizing effect on tumor-associated vasculature in lung metastases. Compared with placebo, treatment with fruquintinib led to decreases in mean vessel curve intensity (P = .02095), mean branch length (P = .04677), number of branches (P = .01460), mean torsion (P = .01939), torsion length-to-distance ratio (P = .00991), number of vessel inflection points (P = .00606), mean vessel radius (P = .01282), and vessel volume (P = .00606).

“These findings establish the value of QVT as a direct measure for fruquintinib-based antiangiogenic activity and support the use of this method as a potential tool to assess treatment effect based on the mechanism of action,” Lonardi and her coauthors wrote in their conclusion. “Further analyses are planned to include liver lesions and a predictive model of OS.”

Disclosures: Lonardi reported being on the advisory boards of Amgen, Merck Serono, Lilly, Servier, AstraZeneca, MSD, Incyte, Daiichi-Sankyo, Bristol Myers Squibb, Astellas, GlaxoSmithKline, Takeda, Bayer, Rottapharm, BeiGene, Nimbus Therapeutics, and Helion. She has also been an invited speaker for Pierre Fabre, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Servier, Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, incyte, Lilly, Merck Serono, and AstraZeneca, as well as a coordinating primary investigator for Amgen, Merck Serono, Bayer, Roche, Lilly, AstraZeneca, and Bristol Myers Squibb.

References

1. Lonardi S, Yardibi O, Dasari A, et al. A novel imaging biomarker, quantitative vessel tortuosity, captures the antiangiogenic effect of fruquintinib in metastatic colorectal cancer. Presented at: ESMO Gastrointestinal Cancers Congress 2025; July 2-5, 2025; Barcelona, Spain. Abstract 32P.
2. FDA approves fruquintinib in refractory metastatic colorectal cancer. FDA. November 8, 2023. Accessed July 4, 2025. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/resources-information-approved-drugs/fda-approves-fruquintinib-refractory-metastatic-colorectal-cancer
3. A study of efficacy and safety of fruquintinib (HMPL-013) in participants with metastatic colorectal cancer (FRESCO-2). ClinicalTrials.gov. Updated April 4, 2025. Accessed July 4, 2025. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04322539

Trillions of pounds worth of assets are managed by London’s listed investment houses. Their purpose is to deliver financial security for clients by growing and preserving the value of their capital.

Larger managers, such as Legal & General, Aberdeen, M&G and Schroders, offer access to a wide range of asset classes and geographies, can handle the largest mandates and tend to focus on mainstream markets.

Smaller players offer distinctive investment approaches and niche and specialist options for diversification, often catering to wealthy individuals with an appetite for impact investing or risk, or who carry tax burdens that are suitable for easing through venture capital trusts and enterprise investment schemes. These enable investors to earn tax breaks in return for providing capital to young British companies. 

Among these smaller managers are Polar Capital, whose offering includes technology, scientific and financial funds. Foresight specialises in infrastructure and private equity opportunities that can help tackle climate change, and Liontrust with its range of funds focused on sustainability. A clue as to what makes Mercia Asset Management stand out is in the name of its range of VCTs: Northern.

This manager steers clear of overfished London and south-east England, preferring to find opportunities in regional towns and cities — 80 per cent of its investment activity is outside south-east England — where it can identify and support high-growth, ambitious businesses on attractive valuations, and which meet its impact and socially responsible requirements. 

Investing in niche areas and cutting-edge smaller companies is not without its risks, and while there is demand in the market for differentiation and diversification in terms of strategies and processes, good performance is essential to keeping fund flows and management fees coming in. 

BUY: Mercia Asset Management (MERC)

Inflows accelerated in the final quarter, writes Mark Robinson.

Mercia Asset Management slipped back into the black at its March year-end, as the specialist asset manager increased its cash margin. Performance was aided by economies of scale, and evidenced by a 390 basis point rise in the adjusted margin to 22.1 per cent.

It’s too early to judge whether this vindicates the “Mercia 27”, a 100 per cent growth target, as it was only outlined a year ago. But the scaling of the fund management business is under way, and it wouldn’t be fanciful to suggest that Mercia has already made strides to meet its Ebitda target of £10mn by full-year 2027.

The group realised a fair-value loss of £300,000 in the period, against a £4.5mn gain in the previous year, though fair-value movements strengthened appreciably in regard to unrealised assets. In contrast to many industry peers, Mercia increased its third-party funds under management (FUM) by around 10 per cent on an organic basis to £1.8bn, with no redemptions recorded. Venture FUM rose by 1.6 per cent to £928mn.

Meanwhile, the direct investment portfolio’s fair-value assessment stood at £126mn, against £117mn last time around. Management intends to offload about 70 per cent of these direct investments over the next couple of years, so exit activity is set to rise in the near term. Some mandates are moving into the realisation phase within its equity and debt funding businesses.

The bulk of the inflows were recorded in the final quarter of its financial year. They reflected both existing mandates and new fund management contracts. The period also saw successful Venture Capital Trust and Enterprise Investment Scheme fundraisings. Given the timing, it is unlikely that the related impact of the inflows on revenues is fully reflected in these figures.

Mercia’s ability to rejig its business focus is aided by an unencumbered balance sheet. And a number of funding rounds were completed following the period end. The group carries no debt and exited full-year 2025 with £39.3mn in net cash. This has underpinned a 5 per cent increase in the proposed final dividend, along with the commencement of an annual share buyback policy of up to £3.0mn.

It’s a niche offering for investors: venture capital funding, private equity and debt finance to high-growth regional UK small and medium-sized enterprises. Consequently, sell-side coverage is limited, but Mercia trades on a 45 per cent discount to the consensus target price, and by 23 per cent to net assets, giving rise to a price/book ratio of 0.7 times. We maintain that Mercia is undervalued, or maybe unfairly overlooked.

BUY: Currys (CURY)

The electronics retailer’s turnaround strategy is paying off despite ongoing cost pressures, writes Valeria Martinez.

Currys is showing why it was the right call to push back against Elliott Management’s takeover approach last year. The once-struggling retailer has turned a corner, with chief executive Alex Baldock’s turnaround plan starting to deliver. A sharp rise in free cash flow and profits has allowed the group to reinstate its dividend after a two-year break. 

While the company is still dealing with cost pressures, from high inflation to rising national insurance contributions, it has done a decent job of managing them so far. Another £32mn in annual costs is expected from last year’s Autumn Budget, but Currys plans to offset this by cutting central costs and automating and offshoring parts of the business.

Helpfully, demand has been resilient despite the wider economic backdrop. UK and Ireland like-for-like sales rose 4 per cent in the year to May 3, with operating profits up 8 per cent to £153mn. Margins held steady at 2.9 per cent.

A growing focus for Currys is more profitable revenue streams, such as credit, repairs and connectivity services. These so-called “solution” sales rely less on one-off product purchases and tend to deliver better margins. Revenue from these areas rose 9 per cent to £814mn last year, and Panmure Liberum estimates they now make up 28 per cent of UK and Ireland revenue. 

Net cash stood at £184mn at the year end, excluding leases and pensions. When accounting for a £103mn pension deficit, the net position is now £81mn, which Panmure Liberum analyst Wayne Brown said is £901mn better than six years ago. “The prospects for buybacks this year are very real,” he said, though they are likely to hinge on the outcome of the pension triennial review due later this year.

The shares are up more than 70 per cent over the past year, yet still trade at just 11.4 times forward earnings. That’s well below their five-year average of 31.7 times.

HOLD: Wynnstay (WYN)

Firm farm gate prices underpin the agricultural supplier’s interims, writes Julian Hofmann.

Good farm gate prices this year for all agricultural products has meant a decent profit harvest for suppliers to the industry. Feed and equipment supplier Wynnstay has reaped the benefit, reporting the same amount of profit in its first-half results as it managed for the whole of last year.

The half-year results are typically the highest point in the company’s annual working capital cycle as it stockpiles products in advance of the spring planting season. This meant the company’s business segments in fact reflected the vagaries of the preceding season.

For instance, feed and grain revenue more than doubled to £900,000, but grain trading was down 13 per cent as the poor harvest in 2024 worked its way through the supply system. In the meantime, the company sold off its Twyford mill and has outsourced milling for its poultry feed.

Arable profits tripled to £1.4mn on the back of better fertiliser prices and favourable spring planting conditions. Meanwhile, the company’s network of 51 stores generated a higher profit of £3.1mn with both footfall and margins remaining stable.

The company is midway through project Genesis, which is its plan to simplify the business and improve returns on capital consistently across the group and to invest where supply is constrained — Wynnstay’s investment in a new fertiliser facility in Avonmouth is part of this strategy.

Wynnstay’s shares have started to recover after a rocky couple of years. The price/earnings ratio of 13.6 for this year reflects its gradual reorganisation. However, until there is evidence of margin improvement, we remain cautious.