(Bloomberg) -- Sending a card on Mothers Day is no longer an onerous task involving post offices, pens and stamps. Companies like MoonPig have made it easy — and they’ve benefited. The annual maternal celebration led to the online gifting company’s best ever week, it said this morning, indicating more people than ever are opting to type rather than write their adoring messages.

Here’s the key business news from London this morning:

In The City

SSE Plc: The energy company boosted its adjusted earnings per share forecast to more than 160 pence, after strong performance from its power generation plans offset a lower than expected output from renewables and hedge buy-back costs.

• The company previously expected its adjusted EPS to be more than 150 pence, while analysts expected it to come in at 139 pence

Moonpig Group Plc: The online gifting company experienced its largest ever week of sales in the UK ahead of Mothers Day, as part of what it said was “resilient” trading in the second half of the year.

S4 Capital Plc: Martin Sorrell’s advertising company reported more than a £1 billion revenue for the first time and the company is “cautiously optimistic” for the year ahead, despite slowing growth in some of its key markets.

• The advertising giant told Bloomberg Radio this morning “the environment is not as strong as it was,” but on the digital side of the business there is “significant growth”
• Sorrell said advancements in AI has led to “significant improvements” in copy writing productivity, and creative content that is more personalized to consumers

In Westminster

The government is set to outline its strategy to speed up the deployment of renewable power and capture carbon today, part of a plan to boost energy investment in Britain that lacks the financial might of endeavors in the US. Billed as a response to the limitless green subsidies in US President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the measures in a draft document seen by Bloomberg show little in the way of new spending. 

Fraud against the UK taxpayer almost quadrupled in the two years of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the National Audit Office.

British businesses, meanwhile, expect a return to growth in the next three months for the first time since shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a further sign of the country’s improving economic prospects.

In Case You Missed It 

British raincoat-maker Burberry Group Plc is among the luxury-goods firms being marked out as potential M&A target this year in Europe.

There are plenty of worries in the City of London that other financial centers are catching up. Now its own league table appears to confirm those fears.

Jim O’Neill, the former UK Conservative minister and Goldman Sachs chief economist, says he doesn’t miss being in banking. But when asked on this week’s podcast episode of In the City whether he can explain what’s happening in the industry right now, he’s got some ideas: 

Looking Ahead 

Nationwide’s house price survey will be in focus at 7 a.m. tomorrow, after mortgage data this week showed approvals nudging up. Bloomberg economists expect house prices to have dropped 2.2% in March compared to the same month last year. 

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