Yesterday's trading: Pru favourite to win United deal

By Geoff Foster for MailOnline
Updated: 03:16 EDT, 7 April 2009

Tidjane Thiam is a big Arsenal fan but is having to forget his allegiance to the North London Premier League Club.

Getting shirty: Tidjane Thiam would prefer the Pru's name on an Arsenal shirt

The Ivory Coast-born Gooner who takes over from football mad Mike Tucker as chief executive of Prudential (6¾p off at 363½p), and has been getting well stuck into protracted sponsorship negotiations with European Champions Manchester United.

A Prudential spokesman confirmed that the insurance giant has been approached by United. Word now is talks have actually been ongoing for weeks and an agreement is not far away.

United's £56.5m current kit agreement with the American Insurance Group expires at the end of 2009-10 and the current Premiership leaders are actively seeking a lucrative replacement deal before the end of the year.

AIG apparently still owes a final payment of around £14m to United and announced earlier this year that it would not be renewing their agreement.

Samsung, Saudi Telecom, Indian companies Sahara and Tata, and AirAsia have all been approached by United, which is keen to tie up a shirt sponsorship deal with a Far-Eastern group. It enjoys massive support in the Asian region, particularly in South Korea because of midfielder Park Ji-Sung.

Pru is now the favourite to win the battle. It has extensive operations in Asia where profits soared 70% to £321m last year. The Pru has cash and near-cash assets of £2.1bn and has in place £1.4bn of undrawn committed banking facilities.

It can easily afford to fork out £60m-plus to United to have its name emblazoned on its shirts and advertised throughout the world, especially during next year's World Cup in South Africa. As for boss Thiam, he would much rather see Prudential's name on Cesc Fabregas's shirt rather than angry Wayne Rooney's.

Flying high and some 67 points higher before elevenses, the Footsie was brought back down to earth by Morgan Stanley's guru Teun Draaisma and weakness on Wall Street. It closed 36.13 points off at 3,993.54.

Draaisma advised clients to sell equities as the bear market is not over. He moved from neutral to underweight and warned none of the signposts which will call an end to this downturn - US housing, banks' balance sheets and corporate earnings - are flashing green.

Wall Street traded 153 points down in the early exchanges, led lower by US banks. They fell after influential analyst Mike Mayo, formerly of Deutsche Bank, cautioned that loan losses in the sector are likely to grow more severe than they did during the great depression. Billionaire investor George Soros then warned that the US economy is in for 'a lasting slowdown' and will not recover this year while 'the banking system as a whole is basically insolvent'.

Mining giant Rio Tinto was the Footsie's biggest casualty at 2208p, down 282p. Speculation intensified that it will announce a $10bn rights issue if its $19bn fundraising deal with Chinalco is blocked by regulators and/or shareholders. Broker Societe Generale downgraded to hold from buy and said Rio has few options but to proceed with the Chinese deal. A rights issue of this size could prove difficult to achieve.

Not so for Europe's biggest bank HSBC, which yesterday easily placed the 3.4% rump of its record £12.5bn rights issue at either 448p or HK$51.83 per share. Celebrating a successful conclusion to the task, the shares touched 463½p before closing 16.2p better at 450¾p and 77% above the rights price of 254p.

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Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey erected another 'squeezy' gain of 8½p at 37p on hopes of imminent news regarding a refinancing deal with its banks. Also reflecting a healthier UK housing market, Barratt Developments rose 11p to 118p.

Confirmation of a bid approach and rumours of a 45p-a-share cash offer lifted Renovo 4p to 30¼p.The biotech group has cash worth 44p a share on its balance sheet. Primary healthcare real estate investor CareCapital jumped 2.1p to 6¾p after its management indicated an interest in taking the company private.

Agriculture, food and engineering company Carr's Milling slumped 40p to 410p. The board warned it expects annual pretax profits to be 'appreciably lower' than last year due to weakness in its fertiliser unit and higher pension finance costs.

UK-based stem cell group ReNeuron firmed 0.3p to 4½p after announcing positive preclinical efficacy data with its lead CTX stem cell line in a peripheral arterial disease model.