Smith & Nephew (SN.) chief executive has walked away from the business after his demand for a bigger pay package was refused. Namal Nawana will leave the medical equipment company after just 18 months in charge, it was announced. The firm said he was quitting to ‘pursue other opportunities outside the UK’ and assured investors that Roland Diggelmann, a non-executive director and industry veteran, had been lined up to succeed him. Nawana’s exit follows controversy over his pay and reports that the company was considering a possible relocation to the US, partly because of the country’s more relaxed attitudes to the issue of executive pay.
Sirius Minerals (SXX) has insisted there are no plans to take the business private following controversial comments made by its boss. Chief executive Chris Fraser last week suggested the company may be better off quitting the stock market. In an interview with the Mail, Fraser said: ‘Where we are now, I think we might be better off being a private company, because sentiment, short-sellers and all those sort of features are massively distorting the value of the company.’ The comments alarmed the firm’s 85,000-strong army of small investors, including many families in villages around the moors who have seen the value of their shares tumble since backing Sirius. Fraser added: ‘As I see it today, there’s potential merit in being private simply to get away from the capital markets.’ He told the Mail he blamed markets for Sirius’s struggles to raise more cash, saying banks and other big institutions that would usually commit to funding were ‘failing’ companies.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is selling two anti-rabies vaccines to a Danish rival for £822m. The British drugs group said the sale of anti-rabies treatment Rabipur and Encepur to Bavarian Nordic includes an upfront payment of £259m and later payments of up to £563m. GSK’s boss Emma Walmsley is continuing with an overhaul of the company, which is posed for a fresh push into the lucrative cancer drug market.
Nick Candy has confirmed that he is part of a consortium mulling a takeover bid for Earl’s Court owner Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC). The mogul’s investment vehicle, Candy Ventures, said ‘it is in the early stages of considering a possible cash offer’ for the FTSE 250 business following reports over the weekend. Candy, who co-developed the exclusive One Hyde Park, is reportedly in contact with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund over the deal. He said there ‘can be no certainty’ that a bid will be made or what the terms of any offer would be.
Just Eat (JE.) has posted rapidly growing sales in the third quarter despite a backdrop of ‘softer consumer spending’. The food delivery company saw sales jump 25% to £247.5 million in the three months to September, although this represented a slowdown from the prior half-year. Revenues jumped as orders continued to rise, increasing 16% to 62 million across the group for the period. The company said it has made progress with its recent turnaround plan to deliver ‘strong growth’ across a number of markets.
Investors in Funding Circle (FCH) breathed a sigh of relief after the group released a rare piece of good news. Its loans under management reached a record £3.7 billion in the past three months, up by almost a third on the same period last year. The company also said it has written £1.8 billion worth of new loans so far in 2019, up 9% on last year.
NMC Health (NMC) initially rallied on a bullish update from its capital markets day. NMC forecast a better performance in the second half of this year, double-digit revenue growth in 2020 and pointed out it has strengthened its corporate governance with the new role of a group compliance officer and two additional committees.
Pearson (PSON) shares were unmoved by an upgrade from brokers at Deutsche Bank, who upgraded the stock to ‘hold’ from ‘sell’ and said a huge recent sell-off in its shares ‘seems to be over’.
Micro Focus International (MCRO) fell 75.2p, to a 19-month low of 1012.4p after a Canadian firm, Open Text, poured cold water over rumours that it was looking to buy the British IT giant. Open Text denied a Bloomberg report last week that it was mulling a bid for Micro Focus, which is still struggling from the fallout of a merger with HP’s software business for £6.6 billion in 2017. The acquisition included HP’s troubled Autonomy arm, which is still wading through a fraud trial between HP and Autonomy’s founders.
was pummelled after the Indian central bank intervened in an investment by the company’s largest shareholder, Future Group, and demanded that Future reapply for approval. Koovs warned the investment, for £6.8m worth of shares, may not complete by the end of this year.
