果冻传媒

Fresh off the confirmation of continued government subsidies last month, Drax (DRX) has said it could build a 100-megawatt (MW) data centre for its eponymous Yorkshire power plant site.

The company is working on a planning application for the project, which could initially run on grid electricity. Demand for data centre capacity has soared because of the computing requirements of artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT.

Drax said its agreement with the government, which covers just 30 per cent of the capacity of the wood-burning plant, or allows for an additional 500MW in capacity to go to a data centre. Drax鈥檚 current subsidies will expire in 2031, at which point the company plans to have carbon capture technology installed to reduce the heavy carbon emissions from the plant.

The company also said on Thursday its adjusted cash profit for 2025 would be at the high end of the analyst consensus range, or around 拢910mn, down from just over 拢1bn in 2024.

RWS Holdings (RWS) chair Julie Southern is set to step down from the board later this month, as the Aim-traded translation services group reported a near-50 per cent cut to adjusted pre-tax profits in the year to 30 September.

Adjusted profit before tax fell 43 per cent to 拢60mn as revenue fell 4 per cent to 拢690mn, or 0.7 per cent on an organic constant currency (OCC) basis. As a result, the proposed final dividend has been more than halved to 4.6p to 鈥渁lign shareholder returns more closely with sustainable profit performance鈥�. 

Once again, the regulated industries division took the biggest hit. OCC revenue fell 10 per cent due to reduced activity in its linguistic validation business, while the language services unit rose 3 per cent and language & content technology and IP services stayed broadly stable.

RWS鈥檚 gross margin fell by 3.5 percentage points to 43.4 per cent because more of its revenue came from lower-margin work, such as TrainAI data services, APAC localisation projects and SaaS licences, while higher-margin regulated industry work made up a smaller share of sales. This was partially offset by overhead cost cuts in the second half.

The R果冻传媒S UK residential market survey for November pointed to a depressed UK housing market in the run-up to the Budget. 

The survey, which asks agents about current market conditions, found that 32 per cent of respondents reported a drop in buyer enquiries rather than an increase. Similarly, 24 per cent more agents said sales had fallen rather than risen, and 19 per cent saw fewer listings. 

Looking forward, most agents expect to see UK house prices fall on a 3 month view, but, more positively, expect them to rise over a 12-month view.

Elsewhere, UK rental growth has decelerated to its slowest rate in four years, according to property portal Zoopla. It reported a 2.2 per cent year-on-year increase in December rents.

Entain鈥檚 (ENT) finance boss and deputy chief executive Rob Wood will formally step down in March after 13 years with the group. 

His departure comes at a tough time for the company, which recently warned of 拢200mn in extra annual costs for its UK and Ireland online business as a result of last month鈥檚 Budget tax rises. 

The operator said it would immediately cut back marketing and promotion activities, which it hoped could offset up to 25 per cent of the impact.

The Ladbrokes owner confirmed that Michael Snape will join from Royal Mail parent International Distribution Services as 鈥淐FO designate鈥� in February. Wood will stay with the company until June to ensure a smooth handover.

Snape was previously chief financial officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance, as well as in finance roles at Tesco (TSCO) and Waitrose. 

Entain鈥檚 shares were down 3 per cent on the news.