Business
Bioethanol plant begins shut-down process
Business reporter, BBC News
Reporter, BBC Radio 5 Live
BBCVivergo, one of two UK bioethanol plants, has ceased production and will start laying off its 160 employees on Tuesday.
After weeks of talks, the government said on Friday it would not be providing financial support for the bioethanol sector, which is facing increased competition from imported US ethanol.
Vivergo, owned by Associated British Foods, said that would have meant continuing as a “heavily loss-making” business. As a result it is closing, with all staff due to be gone and the site ready for demolition by end of the year.
The government said it had decided a rescue would not provide value for taxpayers or solve the industry’s long-term problems.
Alex Snowden, Vivergo’s operations director, said the closure was “heartbreaking”.
“I’m from the local area, I live 10 minutes away from site,” he said. “It’s a huge part of my life.”
“What we’re doing effectively now is emptying the last of our brewery as we’re winding down the plant,” he told the BBC.
The plant, based near the Humber estuary, takes locally grown wheat, uses it to distil alcohol for bioethanol and then makes the residue into high protein feed pellets, primarily for dairy cattle.
The operation has been through ups and downs and required “a lot of hard work”, Mr Snowden said, but is now in very good shape, which he added makes the closure even more frustrating.
Bioethanol, can be made from waste oil or grains and is used as an additive to fuels, to reduce climate-damaging emissions. For example it is added to E5 and E10 petrol and sustainable aviation fuel.
In May the UK signed a trade deal which removed 19% tariffs on US-imported ethanol up to a quota of 1.4bn litres, roughly eqivalent to the size of the UK market.
It was one of the concessions made by the UK as part of a broader trade pact, that eased the tariffs that President Donald Trump had said he would impose on UK car and steel being imported across the Atlantic to the US.
‘Unfair competition’
Even before that trade agreement, the UK sector had complained that US imports had an unfair financial advantage as their ethanol is certified as a waste byproduct in the UK, whereas domestically-produced bioethanol is not.
UK producers have argued this leads to US rivals being able to undercut them, and would be at an even greater advantage once tariffs were removed.
Vivergo is one of two bioethanol sites in the UK which has said without support it will be forced to close.
The BBC understands that the other plant in Redcar, Teesside, which is owned by German firm Ensus, is waiting to hear whether the government will provide support to protect its CO2 production, a product widely used in industry, food production and healthcare.
Vivergo had also been planning to start capturing CO2 produced as part of the bioethanol making process, but had not yet started.
Ripple effect
Ben Hackett, Vivergo’s managing director described the government’s decision not to provide a rescue package as a “massive blow to Hull and the Humber”.
He said the government had decided the bioethanol sector was something that could be “traded away” and that it amounted to a “flagrant act of economic self-harm”.
As well as the loss of its own staff, Vivergo warned there would be a knock-on effect on suppliers and customers.
Paul Temple, a farmer situated less than 30 miles from Vivergo, has not only sold his wheat to the plant, but also purchased feed for his livestock.
“As a result of trade negotiations – making a plant effectively uneconomic… this is really frustrating,” he said.
Louise Holder, director of a local haulage firm, added the closure would have a “massive” impact on the local economy.
“People [will be] out of work,” she said. “Obviously there’s an impact then on the hospitality industry, because people aren’t going out, because they can’t afford to. It just has a rippling effect on everybody, every business.”
Andrew Symes, the chief executive of OXCCU, which makes sustainable aviation fuel, told the BBC’s Today programme that the closure would make the UK reliant on imports for CO2 and for ethanol, which he described as “risky”.
“I think that was probably what wasn’t realised when the trade deal was done,” he said.
The government said it had taken the decision “in the national interest” and that the tariff deal with the US had protected “hundreds of thousands of jobs in sectors like auto and aerospace”.
A government spokesperson said it would work to support the companies through the closure process and that it was continuing to work on proposals that would “ensure the resilience of our CO2 supply in the long-term”.
Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, GMB National Officer, said the government’s commitment to green policies should mean a commitment to green jobs.
“A clean energy industrial strategy means nothing if we cannot protects plants long enough to deliver clean energy jobs here in the UK,” she said.
Business
American Eagle stock jumps 10% as it expects a big holiday, raises forecast after Sydney Sweeney ads
An American Eagle advertisement featuring actress Sydney Sweeney on a billboard in Times Square in New York, US, on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
American Eagle issued bullish holiday guidance and raised its full-year forecast on Tuesday after posting better-than-expected quarterly results.
The apparel company is expecting fiscal fourth quarter comparable sales to grow between 8% and 9% – about four times better than the 2.1% analysts had anticipated, according to StreetAccount.
American Eagle is now expecting its full year adjusted operating income to be between $303 million and $308 million – up from its previous range of $255 million to $265 million.
American Eagle shares rose as much as 15% in extended trading.
The company beat third-quarter expectations on the top and bottom lines.
Here’s how American Eagle did during the quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: 53 cents vs. 44 cents expected
- Revenue: $1.36 billion vs. $1.32 billion expected
The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Nov. 1 was $91.34 million, or 53 cents per share, compared with $80.02 million, or 41 cents per share, a year earlier.
Sales rose to $1.36 billion, up about 6% from $1.29 billion a year earlier.
The results are the first time investors are seeing a full quarter of impact from American Eagle’s splashy campaigns with Sydney Sweeney and Travis Kelce.
Companywide, American Eagle saw comparable sales grow 4%, better than the 2.7% analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount. While the business’s overall results topped expectations, they were primarily driven by Aerie, which saw comparable sales rise 11% and revenue jump about 13%.
At American Eagle, where the campaigns were focused, comparable sales grew just 1%, worse than the 2.1% analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount.
The company told CNBC the campaigns are “attracting more customers” and creating more attention around the brand, but the results show they have not yet been a major revenue driver.
However, they’re not having a major impact on profits, either. During the quarter, American Eagle’s operating margin was 8.3%, better than the 7.5% analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount.
Beyond its marketing campaigns, American Eagle told CNBC it saw record revenue in its third quarter and that “strong momentum” carried into the current quarter, where it saw a “record breaking Thanksgiving weekend.”
The rosy holiday commentary comes after peers like Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap and Urban Outfitters posted better than feared results ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season. Investors have been watching discretionary retailers closely to look for slides in consumer demand because of tariffs, but many have proven resilient so far. They’re showing that for now, higher prices aren’t stopping consumers from shopping, as long as they feel like they’re getting good value for their money.
Industrywide holiday outlooks from outside consulting firms have been relatively murky, but the latest slate of earnings from discretionary retailers have been a positive omen for holiday sales. Plus, turnout during the so-called Turkey 5 shopping weekend, the five day stretch between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, was stronger than expected, according to the National Retail Federation.
New Delhi: Credit card spending eased by Rs 2.5 billion in October to Rs 2,142 billion, a moderation of 1.1 per cent month‑on‑month but an increase of 6.1 per cent year‑on‑year, driven by a sharp shift toward point‑of‑sale transactions, a report said on Tuesday.
“The strong POS growth can likely be attributed to festive (Diwali) spending, whereas muted online spends are due to the elevated base of the previous month,” the report from Asit C. Mehta Investment Intermediates Limited said.
Point‑of‑sale transactions grew 22 per cent month‑on‑month and 11.4 per cent year‑on‑year, while online spending declined 12.7 per cent MoM and rose 2.7 per cent YoY. The top 10 banks accounted for 94 per cent of total spending, with HDFC Bank recording the highest MoM spending market share gain in October.
An increase of 6.7 per cent is seen in the total number of cards outstanding on a YoY basis, adding a total of 0.63 million cards, the report said. Transaction volumes saw a healthy growth of 4.6 per cent MoM and 19.2 per cent YoY. The YoY growth is lower than the historical average due to a high base last year.
Since volume growth outpaced spend growth, the average spend per transaction declined by 6 per cent MoM and 11 per cent YoY. With card issuance rising and overall spending remaining flat, the average spend per card declined 1.7 per cent MoM and 0.5 per cent YoY.
IndusInd Bank reported a steep 36 per cent MoM decline in average spend per card, due to a sharp fall of 34 per cent in its total spends. Among major banks, HDFC Bank led with 0.14 million new cards, followed by SBI (0.13mn), ICICI Bank (0.1mn), and Axis Bank (0.08mn). HDFC Bank reported the highest YoY gain of 1.12 per cent.
A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
A slew of new supply is still making its way through the multifamily housing market. That, coupled with weakening demand, especially from the youngest workers, is pushing vacancies up and rents down.
The national median rent for apartments fell 1% in November from October, and now stands at $1,367, according to Apartment List. It was the fourth consecutive month-over-month decline. Apartment rents are down 1.1% from November 2024 and have fallen 5.2% from their 2022 peak.
“Earlier this year, it appeared that annual growth was on track to flip positive for the first time since mid-2023; however, that rebound stalled out and reversed course during a particularly slow summer,” according to Apartment List researchers.
After hitting a record high for this index, which dates back to 2017, in October, the national multifamily vacancy rate remained at 7.2% in November.
The historic surge in multifamily construction over the past few years is now pulling back, but a good supply of new units is still coming online at a time of much weaker demand.
The fall historically sees the biggest slowdown in multifamily rents, but this year it’s even more pronounced. CoStar reported the biggest monthly drops in median rent it had seen in 15 years of tracking. The primary reason is that more young people are struggling to form new households.
“That 18- to 34-year-old group … I think it’s up to 32.5% of those now are living with family, and that’s the highest it’s been in a while,” said Grant Montgomery, CoStar’s national director of multifamily analytics. “I think it reflects high rental costs that have risen over the years, as well as the tougher job market for young folks just coming out of college.”
“That is where a lot of demand traditionally comes from, the core renter demand is from that sort of younger base,” he said.
The weakness is showing up in stocks of the major public apartment REITs. Names like AvalonBay, Equity Residential and Camden Property Trust are all down year to date.
Some markets are seeing rents drop faster than others, due to local economic factors. Las Vegas, for example, is experiencing slower tourism, which in turn hits jobs there. Boston has seen a decline in federal funding for biotech as well as a drop in foreign students for its colleges and universities; both are impacting its rental sector hard. Austin, Texas, is seeing the biggest hit to rents, thanks to still more construction of multifamily units.
While rents are softening nationally, and landlords are boosting concessions, renters are increasingly searching in more affordable markets.
Cincinnati was the market most searched for, followed by Atlanta and Kansas City, Missouri, according to a Yardi report that looked at where apartment hunters were active last summer, the traditionally busiest time for new leasing. St. Louis saw the biggest quarterly jump in tenant interest, and Washington, D.C., dropped from the top spot to No. 4.
“The Midwest, in particular, drew more attention than ever, signaling that many of its ‘hidden gem’ markets are no longer a secret,” according to the report, which found 11 of the top 30 cities for renter demand were in the Midwest.
Yardi also revised its expectations for 2026 supply, saying that while new supply will decline through 2027, a larger-than-expected under-construction pipeline caused it to increase its previous quarterly estimates for 2025 and 2026 by 6.8% and 2.5%, respectively.
As construction continues to slow into next year, the overall market should stabilize somewhat, according to the Apartment List report.
“That said, the supply boom still has a bit of runway remaining, and the demand outlook has begun to appear weaker amid a shaky labor market,” researchers wrote.
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