Saudi Arabia’s state-backed oil giant has launched its long-awaited flotation to widespread scepticism that it can achieve its coveted $2 trillion valuation. Shares in Saudi Aramco will be offered to private investors for the first time in an initial public offering (IPO) that experts believe is likely to value the world’s biggest oil company at closer to $1.5 trillion. The listing on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange is the centrepiece of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vision to diversify the kingdom’s economy away from oil. Aramco, the world’s most profitable company, is thought to be looking to sell a stake of between 1 and 3%, raising anywhere from $15 billion to $60 billion.
AstraZeneca (AZN) is buying back a factory two years after it was sold as it seeks to avoid the collapse of a second site. The pharmaceutical group is in talks to reacquire the facility in Reims, northeast France, from Avara, the start-up contract drugs manufacturer and distributor, owned by Leonard Levie, an American former Lehman Brothers banker turned industrial investor. Astrazeneca’s planned acquisition comes after about half the sites bought by Avara from big pharma companies have failed or been taken back. They include the 100-acre Avlon site near Bristol, employing 230 workers, which produced Astrazeneca’s blockbuster Crestor statin. Avara appointed David Rubin & Partners as administrator in February, two years after it had been sold by Astrazeneca for £1. Astrazeneca agreed to set aside up to £12 million to cover redundancy payments at Avlon amid criticism from MPs, union leaders and employees after The Times helped bring the dispute to light.
One of Canada’s biggest pension funds has bought a 50% stake in Apple’s new research base in Cambridge as part of a £125 million investment in the city. The Public Sector Pension Investment Board, which manages the savings of Canadian civil servants and armed forces, has invested in two office developments at CB1, a 35-acre regeneration project in Cambridge. The stake was sold by Aviva Investors, the asset management business of Aviva (AV.), which will continue to act as development manager and asset manager.
The boss of Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) has accused an influential shareholder adviser of “financial illiteracy” after it told investors to vote against the pay policy at the pub group’s annual meeting later this month. Glass Lewis raised an alert over a “significant” increase for the finance chief for the third year running, adding that high fixed pay could be a “crutch” when performance fell below expectations. Tim Martin said Glass Lewis was talking “complete bollocks”. “The finance director was an internal appointment, who started from a low base and is increasing over a number of years towards what I hope will be a slightly lower level than the overpaid FDs in the sector generally,” he said. Martin, 64, was scathing of Glass Lewis’s comments on the absence of performance targets for some share awards. “The most toxic and damaging aspect of corporate governance is the obsession with targets,” he said. “In the pub sector they cause people to underpay staff, not to carry out essential repairs, and to try to artificially enhance profits.”
Former investment banker has emerged as the leading internal candidate to succeed Lord Blackwell as chairman of Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY). Lord (James) Lupton is a former co-treasurer who has donated £2.5m to the Tory Party. He joined the board of Lloyds in 2017 to be chairman of the non-ring-fenced part of the bank, which deals with large corporate customers. Lupton, 64, came to public attention as the owner of La Fortaleza, a 17th-century fortress on Mallorca, the lair of fictional arms dealer Richard Roper in the TV adaptation of John Le Carré’s The Night Manager. He was also deputy chairman of Baring Brothers in 1995 when the bank was brought down by rogue trader Nick Leeson, and served until two years ago as chairman of Greenhill Europe, a boutique investment bank, having co-founded the London office. A headhunter close to the bank said Lupton was the likely choice to replace Blackwell, 67, who was paid £743,000 last year. It was announced last week that Blackwell was stepping down. He plans to retire before the annual meeting in 2021, by when he will have been on the board for nine years. A formal search process will start next year. Lloyds declined to comment.
BT Group (BT.A) has been accused of stealing the advertising slogan deployed in its rebranding from a start-up providing technology training to schoolchildren. BT’s Beyond Limits campaign launched last month with the slogan “technology will save us”. It is BT’s biggest campaign in 20 years, according to ad giant Saatchi & Saatchi. However, the name was familiar to the entrepreneurs Bethany Koby and Daniel Hirschmann, who launched a company called Tech Will Save Us in London seven years ago. It provides make-it-yourself technology kits to children in 97 countries, with the aim of helping them learn to code and invent.
GVC Holdings (GVC) is preparing to appoint a new chairman after a series of governance scandals. The company is expected to reveal that retail and leisure veteran Barry Gibson will lead the board. He will replace Lee Feldman, who has been in the role for 11 years. GVC will hope the appointment of Gibson, 68, first reported by Sky News, will draw a line under a torrid year. In March, Feldman and chief executive Kenny Alexander sold £20m of shares in one day, driving the price down 20%. In July, The Sunday Times revealed that GVC had offloaded its Turkish business to three men, one of whom is Alexander’s partner in a stud farm. Their friendship was not disclosed to the market.
The City had all but written off Shield Therapeutics (STX) only 18 months ago. Its treatment for patients with iron deficiency had seemingly flunked a pivotal trial — meaning it failed to win backing from America’s Food and Drug Administration. “Everyone is scratching their heads,” chief executive Carl Sterritt said at the time. He had been sure the drug, Feraccru, would ace the test. Further analysis revealed that, in fact, the drug had worked, so Shield could hope to access a market worth a potential $1bn (£760m) a year. The AIM-listed company secured approval for its drug and the shares rocketed. The market for a drug that can effectively treat iron deficiency is huge. Analysts talk about sales of more than £300m a year based on the 6m adults with iron deficiency anaemia caused by inflammatory bowel disease and chronic kidney disease. A further 28m suffer iron deficiency linked to other problems, pushing the prize much higher. FinnCap, its joint broker, has put a 350p target on the stock, while Peel Hunt, its nominated adviser and joint broker, is predicting a more modest 200p. Buy.
The new boss of Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) has hinted that the lender faces another overhaul when she sets out her strategy for the group next year. RBS has undergone painful restructurings under Mr McEwan, 62, who ran the business for six years, and his predecessor Stephen Hester. Last year 431 branches were closed and a further 54 were shut in January as customers move online.
The downturn in the motor industry has forced Lookers (LOOK) to issue its second profit warning in only four months. The car dealership group also announced the departures of its chief executive and chief operating officer as it said that annual profits would be about £20 million this year, compared with City analysts’ forecasts of about £38 million.
Revenues at TP ICAP (TCAP) rose in the three months to the end of September in a set of third-quarter figures that were better than the City had expected. Market volatility triggered by Brexit and the trade war between the United States and China has benefited brokers such as TP Icap because it encouraged more trading during the quarter. Mr Breteau said the results showed that the group was “well placed to capitalise on volatile macro-market conditions”.Even so, the company sought to temper expectations for the remainder of the year and did not raise its forecasts. “Despite a strong performance in the third quarter, our full-year guidance of low single-digit revenue growth on a constant currency basis remains unchanged,” it said.
has approved $44 million spending on works to enable the restart of its Samarco operations in Brazil, where 19 people died in a waste dam collapse four years ago. The mining group said that the funding would be used to construct a filtration plant, which would remove water from the majority of the iron ore mining waste. This would enable it to be stacked safely, rather than in a huge water-logged dam, like the one that failed in 2015.
