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Sainsbury's Christmas quarter hurt by weak general merchandise Sainsbury's reported a slight drop in underlying sales in the key Christmas quarter when weak demand for general merchandise overshadowed solid sales of food. The group, which is trying to rebuild investor confidence in its strategy following a botched attempt to take over rival Asda, said on Wednesday like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, fell 0.7% in the 15 weeks to Jan. 4, its fiscal third quarter. That compares with a second quarter fall of 0.2%. Sainsbury's said that while grocery sales grew 0.4%, slightly ahead of analysts' expectations, sales of general merchandise goods such as electronics, toys and gaming were down 3.9%. The group said colder weather helped drive a 4.4% increase in clothing sales, while party and gifting ranges performed well. It said its Argos business outperformed the market in consumer electronics, but the toy and gaming markets declined year-on-year. Chief Executive Mike Coupe told BBC radio he was comfortable with analysts' average forecasts for full year 2019-20 profit - underlying pretax profit of 584 million pounds (US$768 milliondown from 601 million pounds in 2018-19). In September, Coupe put cost cutting and paying off debt atthe heart of a new plan designed to show Sainsbury's can prosper on its own. Shares in Sainsbury's, down 13% over the last year, closed Tuesday at 231 pence, valuing the business at 5.1 billion pounds. Industry data published on Tuesday showed Britain's supermarkets recorded the lowest sales growth over the Christmas trading period for five years. – Nampa/ReutersAnglo American in talks to buy Sirius Minerals Miner Anglo American Plc said on Wednesday it was in advanced talks to buy fertiliser maker Sirius Minerals for about 386 million pounds (US$507 million) as it sets its sights on Britain's biggest mining project. The proposal of 5.5 pence per Sirius share represents a premium of about 34% to Sirius' last close. Sirius is reviewing the North Yorkshire polyhalite project in northern England after scrapping a plan to raise US$500 million in a bond sale, delaying the project. Many local people have invested in the plan which would tunnel under North York Moors National Park to exploit what Sirius has said is the world's largest deposit of polyhalite, a multi-nutrient fertiliser. Anglo American said it believes that the possible offer could provide certainty to Sirius' shareholders by bringing in the financial and technical muscle to advance with the project. "Anglo American identified the project as being of potential interest some time ago, given the quality of the underlying asset," the FTSE 100-listed miner said. – Nampa/ReutersCaltex Australia attracts more suitors Caltex Australia on Wednesday confirmed it has been approached by UK-based EG Group and others to acquire some or all of its assets, setting up a potential A$9 billion (US$6 billion) bidding war against Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard. Caltex's shares jumped to a nearly two-year high of A$35.65, following the statement, which came in response to a report by Bloomberg on Tuesday that EG Group was considering a bid for Caltex. Caltex said since announcing Couche-Tard's takeover proposal in November, "it has had approaches from a number of parties, including EG Group, who have indicated that they are potentially interested in making a proposal to acquire Caltex or some of its assets." Privately owned EG Group entered Australia in 2018 with the acquisition of supermarket giant Woolworths Group's petrol stations for A$1.7 billion, after Australia's competition watchdog blocked the sale of that business to British oil giant BP Plc. Caltex in November rejected an A$8.6 billion offer from Couche-Tard at A$34.50 a share, but said it would give the Canadian convenience store firm access to some private information to help it come back with a higher bid. – Nampa/ReutersSamsung Q4 profit likely fell 34% Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday its operating profit likely slumped 34% in the fourth quarter, beating analysts' forecasts, dogged by a year-long downturn in the memory chip market. Operating profit in the quarter ended Dec. 31 fell to 7.1 trillion won (US$6.09 billion) for the memory chip maker and smartphone vendor, from 10.8 trillion won a year earlier. That came in ahead of the 6.5 trillion won forecast by RefinitivSmartEstimate. Revenue likely declined 0.5% to 59 trillion won from a year earlier. – Nampa/Reuters

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