Little Bao Boy has been the best-selling Deliveroo menu in Leeds since 2020 beating high street chains

A popular Asian street food firm in Leeds has been snapped up by a major growth platform. Little Bao Boy was founded in 2016 by James Ooi in a home kitchen in Leeds and has quickly built a loyal following with its bold Asian flavours in a modern street-food approach.

The company also has a strong social media following, with almost 100,000 followers on Instagram alone. Now Sessions, the growth platform for restaurant brands which turns loved food businesses into national franchises, has announced the successful acquisition of Little Bao Boy, which has been the best-selling Deliveroo menu in Leeds since 2020, beating high street chains.

Sessions partnered with Little Bao Boy in 2021, first taking them to London through a number of pop-ups, and it has now taken the brand nationally, reaching consumers all the way from Plymouth to Durham and locations across Scotland. The partnership with Sessions has enabled Little Bao Boy to have immediate reach across the UK through offering the brand’s blueprint to Sessions’s delivery kitchen partners.

The delivery-first strategy and digitally-led presence has enabled Little Bao Boy to deliver more than 340,000 orders to date with a 431% year-on-year-growth. The expansion of delivery locations marks a significant moment for Little Bao Boy and Sessions. Following the successful acquisition, Sessions aims to continue to expand the brand further nationally, grow franchising and take Little Bao Boy internationally.

Dan Warne, founder of Sessions, said: “Having worked with Little Bao Boy for five years, we’re excited to enter this new chapter in our relationship with the team. It’s been a hugely successful partnership so far and we can’t wait to take this brand even further.

“We see acquisitions as a continued partnership where we want founders to continue to be involved in their brands – this is a core part of our model. As such, James Ooi, the founder of Little Bao Boy, will maintain a minority holding in the brand to support creative and culinary development and share in the future upside growth delivered through the Sessions platform.

“The acquisition with Little Bao Boy really showcases what we can do at Sessions for food brands that are looking for an exit strategy, and we’re actively looking to acquire additional food brands, whether that’s an existing brand partner, a small food business looking to scale, or a legacy, multi-site operator seeking an exit strategy.”

James Ooi, founder of Little Bao Boy, said: “Our relationship with Sessions so far has been brilliant. As founders, they listen to our stories, uphold our brand guidelines to the highest regard, and always make sure important decisions are signed off by us.

“The last five years have been hugely exciting for us, taking us from Leeds to a national franchise, and it’s incredible that they have now acquired the brand, offering us an exit from the business, whilst we can continue to have creative input and offer culinary development for Little Bao Boy.”

Little Bao Boy joins SoBe Burger and Mikos Gyros as brands that have been acquired by Sessions.

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The South Yorkshire Strategic Infrastructure Inquiry has concluded the government “should and must intervene” if a major public asset closure would have a damaging economic impact, recommending new compulsory purchase order powers for local authorities

New legislation is required to enable public authorities to acquire major privately-owned assets at risk of closure, an inquiry has found.

Following the closure of Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) in 2022, the South Yorkshire Strategic Infrastructure Inquiry has determined that the Government “should and must intervene” if the closure of a major public asset would have a “damaging, harmful and detrimental” economic impact.

The inquiry report, authored by chair Martin McKervey, stated: “The closure of DSA has underscored the potential community and economic impacts of losing critical infrastructure.” It suggested there is “merit” in considering amendments to existing legislation to include provisions enabling local and national governments to step in, should the private sector seek to close a majority infrastructure asset.

The report outlined: “This amendment should grant local authorities, regional governments, or specific national bodies the right to temporarily halt the closure or sale of such assets to allow for a comprehensive impact assessment and the exploration of alternative management or ownership models.

“Extensively, this amendment should also consider creating a statutory right for the public authority to purchase the asset at market value through a simplified Compulsory Purchase Order process if the owner will not voluntarily sell.”

The City of Doncaster Council, backed financially by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA), initially pursued a compulsory purchase order (CPO) to take control of DSA following its 2022 closure. However, a CPO represents a last resort, triggered only when no other agreement can be reached. Peel’s willingness to enter into a lease arrangement with Doncaster Council reportedly ruled out a CPO for the site.

While the inquiry, convened by South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard in 2023, examines broad examples of infrastructure – including water, energy and airports – it has been heavily shaped by the circumstances surrounding DSA’s closure.

DSA shut its doors in 2022 after owners and operators the Peel Group concluded the site was no longer “economically viable”. Doncaster Council is spearheading efforts to reopen the site using public funding.

The inquiry report also recommends the establishment of a “national regional aviation strategy”.

It states: “The experience with DSA highlights the vulnerability of regional airports to operational and financial pressures. A collaborative national Regional Aviation Strategy could provide a framework for local authorities to pool resources, share best practices, and advocate collectively for regional airports, ensuring these assets continue to serve their communities effectively.”

The airline has removed flights this winter after flying from Cardiff Airport for over 13 years

An airline has said it will withdraw its services between Cardiff Airport and popular destinations in Spain. After increasing the number of flights heading to Spain from Cardiff last summer, Vueling has now announced it’s decision to stop flying from the Welsh airport this winter season.

The Spanish airline has withdrawn all flights from Cardiff Airport to both Alicante and Malaga from October. Vueling had planned to run a three flights a week service to Alicante alongside flights to Malaga over the Christmas and New Year period.

A spokesperson for Vueling said: “At Vueling, we are constantly analysing our network and flight schedule to offer our passengers the best connectivity options and adapt our offer to the connectivity needs of each route.

“In this regard, our route between Alicante and Cardiff will not operate during the 2026 winter season. In any case, we continuously evaluate any opportunities that may arise in the future.”

Cardiff Airport said it is disappointed with the airline’s decision to withdraw from Wales‘ only international airport after almost 13 years. Never miss a Cardiff story by signing up to our daily newsletter here

A spokesperson for Cardiff Airport said: “We are disappointed that Vueling has taken the decision to withdraw its Cardiff to Alicante service for the winter season.

“Alicante remains a popular destination from Cardiff, with TUI and Ryanair continuing to offer direct flights this winter. We remain focused on working with our airline partners to grow our route network and give customers across Wales greater choice from Cardiff.

“We would encourage any customers affected by Vueling’s decision to contact the airline directly regarding their booking and to explore the alternative travel options available from Cardiff.”

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Henry Fan
Investor Relations Director

Hello, everyone, and welcome to OBOOK Holdings First Half 2026 Earnings Conference Call. OBOOK Holdings operates under the OwlTing Group brand. So throughout today’s call, we will refer to the company as OwlTing. This call is prerecorded.

I’m Henry Fan, Investor Relations Director, and I will be your host today. Joining me are our Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Darren Wang; and our Chief Financial Officer, Winnie Lin.

Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that today’s discussion contains forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. For a more detailed discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please refer to our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Over the past several years, we have invested in the regulatory, banking, compliance, settlement and technology infrastructure required to support global stablecoin-enabled payments. During the first half of 2026, we begin moving from infrastructure build-out and client onboarding into live production and transaction processing. As a result, our first half financial results capture only the early stage of these commercializations, while our more recent operating data reflect a meaningful different level of activity following period end.

I think that distinction is particularly important when evaluating the company today. The first half largely reflect the cost base and infrastructure required to prepare the platform to commercialize. The operating data we are seeing more recently begin to show what happened is that infrastructure is increasingly utilized by enterprise customers. So as investors evaluate our progress from here, we believe there are several

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Shares of Oracle Corp. climbed 2.25%, or $3.19, to $145.26 as of 10:21 a.m. EDT Friday, extending a modest recovery as investors returned to buy the dip in a stock that remains down roughly 59% from its 52-week high, even as the company continues pursuing one of the most aggressive artificial intelligence infrastructure buildouts in the technology sector.

Friday’s gains build on Oracle’s rebound earlier this week, when the stock rose as dip buyers stepped back into a name that has been described by market analysts as one of the strangest large-cap stock stories of 2026. According to Forbes, Oracle posted the best growth numbers in its 48-year corporate history over the past year, yet the company’s shares have lost 59% of their value since peaking last September, illustrating a sharp disconnect between Oracle’s underlying revenue growth and how investors have chosen to value the company.

That peak came on Sept. 10, when Oracle shares touched a 52-week high of $345.72, according to Barchart and Yahoo Finance, propelled by strong cloud growth metrics, outsized increases in remaining performance obligations, and investor optimism around a series of major deals tied to artificial intelligence workloads. The subsequent pullback has been driven largely by growing investor concern over the sheer scale of spending required to fund Oracle’s cloud and AI infrastructure ambitions, alongside execution risk tied to actually delivering on the massive data center commitments the company has made to key AI customers.

Oracle’s technical picture has remained under pressure even amid Friday’s gains. According to Benzinga, the stock is down 40.71% over the trailing 12 months and continues trading below its 50-day, 100-day and 200-day simple moving averages, sitting 5.9% below its 50-day average and 16.1% below its 200-day average as of earlier this week. Benzinga also noted that a “death cross” technical pattern, in which a shorter-term moving average crosses below a longer-term one, formed in January and continues to keep the broader technical bias cautious until the stock can reclaim those key trend lines.

The core tension driving investor debate over Oracle centers on the company’s balance sheet. According to Forbes, Oracle is effectively borrowing money to build out an AI cloud services business that continues burning through significant amounts of cash. Benzinga reported that Oracle ended fiscal 2026 with negative free cash flow, elevated capital expenditures, and roughly $260 billion in data center lease obligations, a scale of financial commitment that has drawn scrutiny from both bearish analysts and credit rating agencies.

CLSA analyst Bhavtosh Vajpayee has emerged as one of the more prominent bearish voices on the stock, arguing that the cost of Oracle’s infrastructure buildout exceeds what the company’s balance sheet can reasonably support, according to Forbes. Morningstar analyst Luke Yang, by contrast, has offered a more constructive view of Oracle’s positioning, crediting Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s technological differentiation as a flexible and secure alternative to established hyperscale providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Yang pointed specifically to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s strong client focus and scalability as factors that have positioned the company at the center of the broader AI ecosystem, driving what he described as skyrocketing bookings tied to key AI partners including OpenAI, Meta and xAI.

That heavy reliance on a concentrated set of AI customers, particularly OpenAI, has itself become one of the central risks flagged by analysts covering the stock. Forbes identified Oracle’s dependence on OpenAI, along with continued credit rating scrutiny and execution risk tied to its data center buildout, as the three key risks facing the company heading into the back half of 2026, ultimately concluding that Oracle may not be the right stock pick for that period despite the stock’s dramatic pullback from its highs.

Not every recent development has been negative for the stock. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, one of Wall Street’s most vocal technology bulls, has made a notably bold call on Oracle’s longer-term prospects, projecting the stock could reach $250 per share in 2026, driven by accelerating AI momentum and what he described as transformative enterprise deals expected to redefine the company’s long-term trajectory, according to Barchart. That target would represent significant upside from Friday’s trading level, though it remains well below the stock’s September 2025 all-time high.

Broader Wall Street sentiment has remained mixed but not uniformly bearish. According to Forbes, JPMorgan’s Mark Murphy upgraded Oracle to Overweight in March even while simultaneously lowering his price target on the stock, a combination reflecting continued confidence in the company’s long-term positioning despite near-term valuation concerns. The average analyst 12-month price target on Oracle currently implies roughly 83% upside from recent trading levels, according to Forbes, underscoring the wide gap between where the stock currently trades and where much of Wall Street believes it is ultimately headed.

Oracle’s next significant catalyst is expected to arrive with its upcoming earnings report, estimated for Sept. 8, according to Benzinga. Wall Street currently expects the company to report earnings of $1.67 per share, up from $1.47 in the year-ago period, alongside revenue expectations of $19.13 billion, compared with $14.93 billion reported during the same quarter a year earlier, reflecting continued expectations for substantial top-line growth even as investors remain divided on how sustainably that growth translates into shareholder value given the company’s mounting capital expenditures.

Oracle has also faced continued legal scrutiny in recent months, with multiple law firms announcing securities fraud class action lawsuits and investor alerts related to the company throughout the first half of 2026, according to CNN’s tracking of Oracle-related news coverage, adding a further layer of complexity to the broader narrative surrounding the stock beyond its underlying business fundamentals and valuation debate.

With Oracle’s next earnings report just over two weeks away and the stock continuing to trade well below both its September peak and its key technical moving averages, investors are likely to remain closely divided in the near term between those betting on the company’s aggressive AI infrastructure investments eventually paying off at scale, and those who view the current balance sheet risk, customer concentration and execution challenges as reasons for continued caution heading into the fall.