Level 2

Sirius Minerals backs away from bond issue, Primary Health Properties issues new euro notes

By Josh White

Date: Tuesday 17 Sep 2019

(Sharecast News) - London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 30 points lower on Tuesday, having closed down 0.62% at 7,321.41 on Monday.
Stocks to watch

Sirius Minerals on Tuesday said it would not go ahead with a $500m bond issue due to "poor market conditions" and was "reducing the rate of development" on the world's biggest potash project as it launched a six-month review of its plans. The company needs to raise the $500m in order to unlock a $2.5bn credit facility arranged with JP Morgan that would give it access to the rest of the money it needs

Primary Health Properties announced on Tuesday that a wholly-owned subsidiary has issued new senior secured notes for a total of €70m (£62.07m) at a fixed rate of 1.509%, with a maturity of 12 years. The FTSE 250 company said the secured notes were guaranteed by the firm, and were placed with UK and Irish institutional investors. It said the notes represented its second euro-denominated transaction in the private placement market, and provided a "natural hedge" against movements in exchange rates for its portfolio of assets in Ireland.

BMO Commercial Property Trust reported that net asset value per share declined by 2.5% during the first six months of the year as Brexit ensured continued uncertainty in the UK commercial property market. However, the company said it expected easing in fiscal policy and low interest rates to provide some support for the property market in the coming months.

Newspaper round-up

Thomas Cook has delayed a crunch creditors' vote until next week, giving the stricken tour operator more time to smooth obstacles to a £1.1bn rescue package aimed at saving it from collapse. Fears for the future of the the 178-year-old tour operator have been mounting, as it threatens to buckle under the weight of high debt, intense competition and one-off factors including last summer's heatwave and Brexit uncertainty. - Guardian

Investors in an aborted Gavin Woodhouse care home project are to vote on whether the embattled entrepreneur's former business partner is attempting to "buy them off at a pittance" via a new settlement offer. The October vote will give investors the chance of accepting 11p for every pound they ploughed into a single off-plan development in Yorkshire, where the advertised care home never materialised. - Guardian

The world's biggest float - the $2 trillion listing of state-owned oil titan Saudi Aramco - is under threat in the wake of attacks on the desert kingdom that triggered the biggest spike in oil prices for almost three decades. The weekend drone strikes on Aramco's vast Abqaiq refinery and the Khurais oil field - Saudi Arabia's second-largest - sent shockwaves through markets. - Telegraph

The UK partners at PWC are in line for their highest payday in a decade, despite criticism from the industry watchdog over the quality of the firm's audit work and calls to break up the Big Four accountants. The 913 equity partners earned an average of £765,000 in the year to June 30, up from £712,000 the previous year. The payment is the highest since 2009, when partners received an average of £777,000. - The Times

The unrest surrounding St James's Place spread from its clients to its investors yesterday after it emerged that the wealth manager would review perks such as cruises for its advisers. Its shares fell by 28p, or 2.7 per cent, to close at £10.03 amid shareholder concerns that a radical shake-up to the rewards system and exit fees for customers may harm profitability, that clients could turn their back on the firm and that advisers frustrated at losing perks could leave for other wealth managers. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed weaker on Monday after an attack on a Saudi Arabian oilfield and the country's key processing facility sparked fears that a surge in crude prices could add to the slowdown in the global economy.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.52% at 27,076.82, while both the S&P 500 was 0.31% firmer 2,997.96 and the Nasdaq Composite closed out the session 0.28% weaker at 8,153.54.

The Dow closed 142.70 points lower on Monday, snapping an eight-day winning streak, as West Texas Intermediate soared 12.76% to $61.85 per barrel after a series of drone strikes took out roughly half of Saudi Arabia's daily crude production. Brent Crude was up 12.97% at $68.03 per barrel.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani claimed the attacks were a response to earlier attacks in Yemen.

Donald Trump said the US would be able to use oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to keep the market "well-supplied".

AxiTrader's chief market analyst James Hughes said: "As the new trading week gets underway, the stand out story is the attack on Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure and the fact that the temporary removal of as much as 6% of global output has seen crude prices lurch dramatically higher."

..

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:


Top of Page