 | Metro Bank (MTRO) chair Vernon Hill quits as losses widen. Michael Snyder to take over while co-founder is due to leave board at end of year |
| appoints RSM as new auditor. UK sportswear retailer ends search for auditor after Big Four cited conflicts of interest | |
| Lex – Metro Bank (MTRO): doggone. Vernon Hill’s fast exit is far from enough to turn the lender round |
 | Another top Just Eat (JE.) shareholder has opposed the £4.9billion hostile takeover of the food delivery firm – but said it would consider a price tag of nearly £1billion more. Aberdeen Standard Investments said the cash bid from Prosus of 710p per share ‘significantly undervalues’ the firm. It is the third major shareholder to come out against the bid. However, Aberdeen joined fellow shareholders SM Trust and Cat Rock in saying it would consider backing Prosus’s proposal if it increased its offer. Between them, the three investors control one fifth of the stock. |
 | A new manager for the troubled Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) will be announced within days. The trust’s board has been seeking to fill the role after Neil Woodford quit last week, just hours after being fired from his separate Equity Income fund. His replacement, who could be announced this week, will have to run the Patient Capital Trust rather than winding it down, the Mail understands. Industry sources have pointed to private equity house Harbour Vest Partners as the most likely new manager, although its peer, Pantheon International, and the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock, have also been suggested as possibilities. But the job of running the stock market-listed trust, stuffed full of difficult-to-sell, early-stage unlisted companies, is hardly in demand. |
| has appointed RSM as its new auditor, ending a six-week hunt for accountants after Grant Thornton resigned in September. It comes after the retailer scrambled to avoid Government intervention or possible suspension from the London Stock Exchange. Mike Ashley’s retail group will become RSM’s most high-profile client and its first in the FTSE 350. RSM mainly audits private companies as well as dozens of AIM-listed firms. It will start work with Sports Direct immediately. It recently also agreed to take on audit work for Patisserie Valerie – which collapsed due to accounting errors – from Grant Thornton. | |
 | Midatech Pharma (MTPH) sank after an unnamed American institutional investor agreed to buy 20% of the Cardiff-based biotechnology group. The investor will take the £2.3million stake by acquiring 3m American depository shares, which can be bought on a US stock exchange. But these value Midatech’s UK-traded stock at 3.9p each, much lower than it has traded at in recent months. |
 | Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) revealed activist US investor Harris Associates, most notorious for pushing the Saatchi brothers out of their namesake ad agency, has taken a 5% stake. Problems with its Trent 1000 engines have been a headache for Rolls since 2016, when it was discovered that turbine blades were wearing out more quickly than expected. It has earmarked £1.6billion so far to deal with the fallout, alongside a sweeping turnaround orchestrated by chief executive Warren East. Harris looks for companies which are trading at a lower price than it believes they are worth, saying it only invests in firms that ‘offer significant profit potential’ and ‘are run by managers who think and act as owners’. |
 | Sirius Minerals (SXX) ended slightly higher, up 0.01p, at 3.13p, after its first day of trading as a small-cap firm. The Government must respond to a Parliamentary petition with more than 11,000 signatures demanding the Treasury supports Sirius by offering a full loan guarantee for the troubled company, which last month failed to secure the cash needed to finish building its £4billion potash mine under the North York Moors National Park. Sirius blames the Government for derailing a financing package by not underwriting a loan. |
 | US investor has snapped up a major stake in Domino’s Pizza Group (DOM), piling more pressure on the takeaway business as it grapples with angry franchisees and seeks out a new boss. Los Angeles-based hedge fund Browning West has become the UK-listed pizza company’s fifth biggest shareholder with a stake of 5.33% worth £70m. The move could herald demands for a major change of direction at Domino’s and will be another major blow for boss David Wild, who is already locked in battle with restaurant operators demanding a higher share of the business’s profits. |
| Mike Ashley’s has drafted in mid-table accountant RSM to oversee its books, ending weeks of uncertainty for the FTSE 250 company. Sports Direct has struggled to find an accountancy firm to vet it since August when Grant Thornton resigned following a chaotic market update. The retailer is RSM’s first client in the mid-cap space and with a market value of £1.7bn is significantly bigger than its normal customers. RSM scrutinises the books of 59 companies listed on London’s junior stock market AIM, and was also appointed to oversee Patisserie Valerie after the cake chain collapsed earlier this year. | |
 | Tesco (TSCO) is set to launch high end pop-ups in major cities in the run up to Christmas, it has emerged. The supermarket chain will sell some of its “Finest” products, which are also its most expensive, alongside wine. It is eyeing small sites in London as well as other cities and plans to run the temporary shops-cum-wine-bars for four to six weeks in November and December. The retailer wants to showcase a selection of the items “in a premium, exciting and unexpected way”, The Grocer first reported. Outgoing chief executive Dave Lewis has previously said that Finest “as a brand is one of the largest food brands in the country”. |
| The hostile suitor trying to buy Just Eat (JE.) must pay an extra £1bn to take it over, major shareholder Aberdeen Standard has said. Prosus’s shock £5bn offer for delivery company Just Eat is not high enough, according to the investor, amid rising hopes of a bidding war. The European arm of Naspers, one of the world’s biggest tech companies, Prosus launched its bid for Just Eat on Tuesday – offering a 20% premium to its share price and gatecrashing a planned merger with Dutch peer Takeaway.com. Just Eat rejected Prosus’ approach, sparking expectations that a battle would soon erupt which could lead to even higher offers. |
| Metro Bank (MTRO) founder Vernon Hill has bowed out earlier than expected, promising investors the “best is yet to come” just hours before it emerged that his bank had plunged to a quarterly loss. The troubled lender, which is fighting to rebuild confidence following a major accounting gaffe earlier this year that left investors nursing huge losses, swung £2.2m into the red for the three months to September 30 compared to a £15.1m profit a year earlier. Metro’s chief executive Craig Donaldson also hinted at a wider overhaul by telling investors the bank is now evaluating its future plans to strike a balance between growth and costs. |
| Vernon Hill stepped down with immediate effect but will stay on the board until the end of the year as a non-executive director. His resignation came before a trading update from Metro Bank (MTRO) after the market had closed, in which it revealed that it had fallen to a £4.9 million loss after tax for the three months to September 30 from a £10 million profit a year earlier. The loss was the result of an accounting blunder this year. |
| Sports Direct names RSM as new auditor. has appointed RSM as its auditor after it was dropped by Grant Thornton and snubbed by the accounting industry’s Big Four. The decision ends a six-week hunt for a replacement to avoid government intervention or possible suspension from the London Stock Exchange. The retailer said in August that Grant Thornton, which had been its auditor since the company was floated in 2007, would not seek reappointment at the annual meeting after a review of its client portfolio. Conflicts of interests ruled out EY, KPMG and Deloitte, while PWC cited concerns about the sports goods retailer’s ownership structure. | |
| One of the biggest investors pf Just Eat (JE.) has declared that the South African bidder trying to gatecrash a takeover of the takeaway delivery group will have to raise its offer by at least 20% for it “to be deemed attractive”. Aberdeen Standard Investments, which has a stake of 5.2% in Just Eat, said that it welcomed the interest in the company, but insisted that neither Naspers bid or a proposed merger with Takeaway.com were acceptable. |
 | Fuller Smith & Turner (FSTA) has reinvested some of the proceeds from the sale of its brewing business in acquiring Cotswold Inns & Hotels for £40 million. The deal involves seven hotels and inns in the Cotswolds, including the Manor House at Moreton-in-Marsh, as well as two bars in Birmingham. It excludes the Broadway Hotel, which is being retained by Michael and Pamela Horton, who founded the business in 1997. The properties being acquired by Fuller’s generated revenue of £17.5 million last year and underlying earnings of £3.4 million. |
 | Fresnillo (FRES) edged lower after it said that this year’s production would likely be at the “lower end” of its guidance. Its third-quarter update showed a 6.9% drop in gold production compared with the same period last year, while that of silver fell by 14.5%. RBC said that this was not a “particularly strong set of numbers”. |
 | Centamin (DI) (CEY) topped the mid-cap risers, despite the goldminer announcing a 17% fall in third-quarter production. Analysts at Peel Hunt said that the drop was in line with their revised forecasts, while the “main positive” from the update was the commitment to maintain the final dividend. |
| The boss of Manolete Partners Plc (MANO) has pledged almost half of his stake in the company as security against a £1 million personal loan, which he is using to pay for renovation work at his London home. Steven Cooklin, chief executive, has put up a 7.8% stake, worth almost £15 million which also will be used to pay the taxman. Sources close to Mr Cooklin, who owns 18% of the company, said that he had no intention of selling any of his shares. | |
 | Tempus – Contour Global (GLO): Buy. Highly attractive valuation for a company at the centre of the world’s move to renewable fuel sources |
 | Tempus – Northgate (NTG): Buy. Operational recovery and potential sales are not built into the shares |
| Lombard – Just Eat (JE.) investors left to read a moving menu. Attempt by Dutch vehicle of Naspers to gatecrash merger leaves investors with dilemma |
 | Lex – Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.): no kidding. Managing supply and smoothing volatility should be reflexive for a consumer products company |
 | Rio Tinto (RIO) has ‘eureka moment’ with US lithium discovery. Miner says it has found critical material for electric vehicle batteries while looking for gold |
| Just Eat (JE.) rebuffs hostile £5bn bid from South Africa’s Naspers. UK food delivery group agreed merger with Takeaway.com in July |
| Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) cuts sales and profit targets. New chief executive promises turnround plan in February |
 | Whitbread (WTB) posts drop in profit amid ‘challenging’ UK market. Owner of Premier Inn shows Brexit effects as it looks to Germany for opportunities |
| The High Street is at ‘breaking point’ and many of the country’s biggest chains are in a fight for survival, says a major study. Changing consumer habits, an unfair business rates regime and rising staff costs are hitting the UK’s biggest chains leading to more store closures than ever before, according to research by professional services firm A&M. Profit margins in stores have fallen in the past eight years from 8.8% to 4.1%, while costs have soared by close to 11% in the past five years. Traditional bricks-and-mortar shops have also suffered because consumer spending online has risen fourfold since 2008. The report estimates that Britain’s 150 largest retailers, including supermarkets, have 20% more store space than they would like, which has fuelled closures and insolvencies. | |
| Whitbread (WTB) said that its profits were dented in the past six months amid ‘challenging’ UK trading conditions. The firm said UK accommodation sales slumped by 3.6% during the period, thanks to weaker demand in regional areas where Premier Inn has 80% of its hotels. It once again blamed the ongoing Brexit deadlock, which is taking its toll on consumer and business confidence and the wider travel industry. Whitbread said that the slowdown amid ‘heightened political and economic uncertainty’ was particularly noticeable among its business travellers and spread into the third quarter too. ‘The continuing Brexit circus may be drawing more international attention to Britain but it’s certainly not helping the country’s travel market,’ said Fiona Cincotta from City Index. ‘Whitbread is more exposed to Brexit uncertainty than its UK peers because it has a larger chunk of the domestic business travel market and is more exposed to regional areas.’ |
 | The banker at the heart of Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) restructuring group scandal will be in court as a witness for the first time. Derek Sach, former boss of RBS’s toxic Global Restructuring Group (GRG), will give evidence in a case starting next week brought by Oliver Morley, 49, a property developer who took out a loan from RBS and is suing it for damaging his business. He claims that GRG placed him under ‘economic duress’ which led to some of his assets being seized by RBS in 2010 and sold. |
| Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) has slashed its annual sales outlook for the second time this year after a ‘disappointing’ third quarter. Shares in the group dropped 5% as it said sales fell 0.3% across its health division in the three months to September 30, leaving revenues overall growing by a muted 1.6% to £3.3billion. Reckitt cut its expectations for full-year like-for-like sales growth to between zero and 2% due to the poor third quarter and ‘seasonal uncertainty’ in the final three months. Profit margins are also expected to see a ‘modest’ fall in 2019, it cautioned. It comes after Reckitt lowered its revenue guidance in July amid a slowdown in demand for baby formula in China. |
| Just Eat (JE.) shares soared by a quarter this morning as tech investment firm Prosus revealed a £4.9billion bid to buy the food delivery company. The 710p per share offer puts Just Eat at the centre of a bidding war, with the company already in the midst of a merger with its Dutch rival Takeaway.com. Shares in Just Eat hit 745p, despite Just Eat quickly rebuffing the approach as too low. This implies investors expect Prosus to try again with a higher offer. The firm revealed the 710p bid is just the latest preliminary offer it had put forward, with 670p and 700p being proposed earlier and rebuffed. |
 | Haydale Graphene Industries (HAYD) has unveiled a range of materials that offer protection against lightning strikes. These could be applied to drones, planes, space technology and offshore wind turbines, which Haydale says are particularly susceptible to being struck. It has developed the materials with companies including Airbus UK, GE Aviation and BAE Systems, and has been testing them with customers. |
 | The new chief executive of Travis Perkins (TPK) hit the pause button on the sale of its plumbing and heating unit amid ‘unprecedented’ levels of uncertainty in the market that has knocked trading. The Wickes and Toolstation owner put the division up for sale last December to cut costs and simplify the business. Nick Roberts, who has been at the helm for three months, said the plan to simplify the business remains ‘the right one’ as he announced a 3.8% rise in group sales during the third quarter. |
 | Forterra (FORT) tumbled 26p, to 273p, as it said full-year profit before tax is likely to be ‘modestly below’ the £64.8million it made last year. Although new housing has been steady, Forterra said it was suffering from a slowdown in non-residential building and getting fewer orders from distributors. |
 | Pendragon (PDG) accelerated back into the black with pre-tax profit of £3million in the three months to September, following cost-cutting that included shutting underperforming showrooms. There was a 3.6% fall in revenues at sites open for more than a year, including a double-digit drop in used car sales, and it confirmed it will make a loss for the full-year. |
 | TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) hit the bottom of the Footsie after brokers at Morgan Stanley cut its rating from ‘overweight’ to ‘equal weight’, worried that the crisis with Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft will drag out even longer and rack up more costs for the Anglo-German company. |
| Sirius Minerals (SXX) will crash out of the FTSE 250 on Wednesday after a torrid year in which its share price collapsed. The fertiliser miner will become part of the FTSE small cap index in another blow for thousands of retail investors. Last month the company lost more than half its market value in a single day after announcing that its $3bn (£2.4bn) funding plan for a potash mine in Yorkshire had fallen through. Sirius admitted failing to sell the bonds needed to unlock its financing, leaving it set to run out of cash in six months. It is now seeking alternative funds or a partner to save the project. |
| Whitbread (WTB) chief Alison Brittain insists she has no regrets after doling £2.5bn out to investors instead of using the money to buy other businesses, despite a takeover frenzy this summer in the leisure industries. The company struck the deal of the year in 2018 by selling coffee chain Costa to Coca-Cola for £3.9bn, and Ms Brittain was always clear that the majority of these proceeds would be returned to shareholders. The sale has left Whitbread, which has owned some the biggest brewing, hotel and restaurant names during its 277-year history, with Premier Inn as its main remaining asset. Three blockbuster transactions have grabbed the headlines this summer. |
| Online food delivery firms have revolutionised the way people eat, giving consumers access to a wide range of different cuisines without having to leave their sofa. Now Durex owner Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) has caught on to the trend and is allowing customers to order condoms at the same time as getting their favourite pizza delivered. The service, which is available in China and Latin America, is part of a wider drive by Reckitt to keep up with changing consumer habits and fierce local competition. |
 | Investors burned by the failure of famed stock-picker Neil Woodford have sought advice on taking legal action against Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) over its part in the events that led to them being trapped in the Woodford Equity Income fund. Leigh Day, law firm, has confirmed it is investigating how much Britain’s most powerful stockbroker knew about the situation within the fund while it continued to publicly back it. Hundreds of thousands of Hargreaves customers bought units in Mr Woodford’s flagship fund, which along with the smaller Income Focus portfolio appeared on the broker’s Wealth 50 list of recommended funds. |
| Cost-cutting including showroom closures helped propel Pendragon (PDG) back into the black over the summer, but the car dealer warned it would still make a pre-tax loss this year. Pendragon, the UK’s biggest car dealer and owner of the Evans Halshaw and Stratstone brands, reported an underlying pre-tax profit of £3m for the three months to September, an increase of £1.9m compared to the same period last year. The rise came despite a 3.6% drop in like-for-like revenues, led by near-17% plunge in used car sales. |
| Questor: want to ride the ‘e-ticket’ phenomenon? Buy shares in recently floated Trainline Plc (TRN). Questor share tip: it already dominates the market in Britain but there remains plenty of growth potential both here and on the Continent |
| The board of Just Eat (JE.) is under pressure after it rejected a hostile £4.9 billion bid from a South African technology investor that threatens to scupper a proposed merger with Takeaway.com. A takeover battle erupted for the FTSE 100 takeaway delivery group yesterday after Naspers made a 710p-a-share offer. The bid, via Prosus, Naspers’ Dutch-listed investment vehicle, was rejected by Just Eat as being too low. However, shares in the delivery business rose by 145½p to 735p, well above the offer price, amid expectations that there could be further bids, either from Prosus or from suitors. |
| Sensyne Health (SENS) said that Lord Drayson, its chief executive, had proposed forgoing his £500,000 pay for the rest of the financial year, which runs to the end of April. The former Labour science minister will be paid £1 instead of the roughly £250,000 that he should have received. Sensyne also has withdrawn its remuneration policy for Lord Drayson, 59, and will give its leading investors a final say over any bonus that the board proposes for him for this year. Under the abandoned policy, he could have been handed a £1 million award. | |
| Fears that Whitbread (WTB) might use its half-year results to issue a profit warning proved wide of the mark yesterday, but the gloomy picture painted by the Premier Inn owner still prompted investors to check out. While insisting that its first-half performance had been resilient and that it was winning market share, Alison Brittain, chief executive, said that “market conditions in the UK continue to be challenging, with business confidence remaining weak and leisure confidence in decline, coinciding with heightened political and economic uncertainty”. She said that the uncertainty had continued into the third quarter and that this had hit domestic hotel demand, particularly in the regional market, where 80% of Premier Inn hotels are located. Nevertheless, Ms Brittain, 54, emphasised that the company retained “confidence in the long-term structural opportunities available in the domestic budget travel markets in the UK and Germany”. |
| The new boss of Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) yesterday accused his predecessor of running “the engine too hot”. Delivering a savage analysis as he cut both sales and profit forecasts, Laxman Narasimhan referred to a string of errors within the Durex and Gaviscon-maker’s largest health division and claimed that the business had taken its “eye off the ball”. Mr Narasimhan, 52, who joined from Pepsico seven weeks ago, said that Reckitt had struggled to integrate Mead Johnson, the American baby formula maker it bought for £12 billion two years ago. He was also critical of the group’s failure to maintain close relationships with American retailers, which he said was responsible for low stock levels of its Mucinex medicine before this flu season. |
| Economic uncertainty has forced Travis Perkins (TPK) to delay plans to sell its plumbing and heating business. Britain’s biggest distributor of building materials had said in December that it would sell the division to streamline its structure, cut costs and focus on its trade businesses. However, it said yesterday that the demerger had been postponed until the second quarter of next year, although efforts to demerge Wickes, the group’s DIY chain, would continue. It also announced a 3.4% rise in like-for-like sales in the quarter to the end of last month, driven by its Wickes and Toolstation businesses. |
 | Underlying revenue at Bunzl (BNZL) slipped by 1% in the third quarter, taking account of constant exchange rates and excluding acquisitions. The group put this down to “lower sales to a large grocery customer in North America”, where its biggest client is Walmart, the giant retailer. Including acquisitions, revenue rose by only 0.5%. On an actual basis, the group reported revenue growth of 4%. Bunzl said that its expectations for the year “remain unchanged, with overall trading consistent with the slowing underlying revenue growth indicated in previous announcements”, and it blamed “the impact of the continued mixed macroeconomic and market conditions across the countries and sectors in which the group operates”. |
| The former head of Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) scandal-hit restructuring division is to be questioned over allegations that the government influenced the bank’s poor treatment of thousands of businesses. Derek Sach, who ran RBS’s Global Restructuring Group, is due to appear as a witness in a high court battle between Oliver Morley, a wealthy property developer, and the bank. It will be the first time Mr Sach, 71, has been publicly questioned about GRG since a disastrous appearance before MPs in 2014 at which he was accused by Andrew Tyrie, then chairman of the Treasury select committee, of being “wilfully obtuse”. Mr Morley, 49, claims that GRG placed him under “economic duress” that resulted in the acquisition of some of his assets by West Register, the bank’s property division, in 2010. The bank has said that it “fundamentally disagrees” with the claims and “does not believe they have any merit”. |
| Rio Tinto (RIO) has said it could become America’s largest producer of lithium for batteries after making a discovery at a mine in California that it has described as a “eureka moment”. The Anglo-Australian group said that it had found that piles of waste rock discarded over almost a century at its Boron site contained high-grade lithium, which could be used in batteries for electric vehicles. If Rio were to succeed in extracting the metal from the waste rock, it would become a substantial supplier. This, in turn, would be a significant development for the fast-growing electric car industry — and also the US-China trade war. There are five lithium producers working in South America and Australia, two of which are Chinese. Experts have warned that China could choke supplies to the United States in retaliation for tariffs imposed by President Trump. |
| Investors in TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) are concerned that the dividend could be cut again next year — but analysts at Morgan Stanley were looking a little deeper and their fears centred on Boeing’s grounded 737 Max jet. In their view, the aircraft’s return to the skies by the end of the year looks “unlikely” and for Tui, which uses the Max to fly tourists to destinations in Europe and beyond, they reckon that the continued grounding of the aircraft will cost the travel operator €150 million this financial year, which began at the start of October — rather more than a previous estimate of €50 million. Worse, that assumes that the 737 Max jets resume flying in April and they fear that the cost could rise to €350 million if the aircraft are out of action for longer than that. |
 | On The Beach Group (OTB) enjoyed a day in the sun as it announced plans to take advantage of the “unprecedented opportunity” created by Thomas Cook’s demise. The specialist in beach package holidays is to increase its marketing, taking out more newspaper wraps and filling billboards with its ads, as it tries to grab a bigger slice of the market. |
 | Ibstock (IBST) crumbled by 9¼p to 249¾p after a profit warning from Forterra (FORT), its fellow brick maker, which warned that this year’s profits would be less than last time around because of a drop in demand from distributors and its non-residential customers. Forterra shares fell by 26p to close at 273p. |
 | Anglo American (AAL) has warned that its copper production in Chile has been hit by the severe drought in the country, which could continue to affect its output next year. The mining group reported a 16% drop in third-quarter output from its Los Bronces mine in the Andes, primarily because of a lack of water in “the driest year of the longest drought ever recorded in central Chile”. Water is critical to the operations, both for transporting crushed ore as slurry and then for separating the copper from the ore. |
 | Tempus – Baillie Gifford Japan Trust (BGFD): Avoid. Strong track record and performing share price would be more compelling with a higher yield |
 | Tempus – Hostelworld Group (HSW): Hold. Sensible recovery plan will take time but shares offer rewards |
 | 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. | |
| Just Eat (JE.) left investors with a sour taste in their mouths yesterday after warning of a “broadly softer consumer spending backdrop”. Plainly speaking, people aren’t reaching for their phones to order a kebab quite so often. The takeaway company’s shares slid more than 6% as shareholders digested the news. Interim boss Peter Duffy, noted that there is a “structural shift” taking place, with consumers favouring the delivery of faster food such as KFC. Just Eat’s UK sales grew 8% in the third quarter. |
| Shares in Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) jumped to their highest level in almost a year on Monday after property developer Nick Candy confirmed he was considering a takeover bid. The embattled property company’s stock rose more than 8% after the luxury flat tycoon said his investment company Candy Ventures could make a play to buy it. Candy Ventures said discussions are in their early stages and that an offer for the £2.3bn group is not guaranteed. The company has also held separate talks with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund about teaming up to buy Capital & Counties, the Sunday Times reported. |
 | Prudential (PRU) and M&G overcame a string of high-profile setbacks to complete their historic split on Monday, creating two FTSE 100 companies out of what was previously a single entity. Shares in M&G were trading at 225p on Monday afternoon, valuing the investment manager and UK insurer at £5.7bn – shy of the £6bn to £8.5bn predicted by analysts. Existing investors in Prudential retained their shares and also received new shares in M&G, which did not raise any new money as part of the hive-off. Shares in Prudential fell 9.5% on Monday afternoon, leaving it with a value of £35.5bn following the split. |
 | Questor: Derwent London (DLN) is not quite the bargain it once was but the is long-term value. Questor share tip: the real estate firm has negligible vacancies and is expanding in some plum areas. |
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