Hipgnosis plans £250m fundraise, Informa pushes back restart of events
By Josh White
Date: Monday 21 Sep 2020
(Sharecast News) - London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 73 points lower on Monday, having closed down 0.71% on Friday at 6,007.05.
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Hipgnosis Songs Fund said it planned to raise £250m through a share placing at 116p each as it looked to expand its music catalogue. The company on Monday said it had a significant pipeline of catalogue purchases, including "some of the most influential hit songs of each of the past six decades which offer significant song management opportunities and will further diversify the company's income by artist, genre and vintage". Hipgnosis was also in talks on further catalogues with an aggregate consideration of more than £1bn, it added.
Informa extended its delay to the restart of events until mid-to-late spring as Covid-19 sent the company to a £739.9m statutory operating loss from a profit of £248.3m a year earlier. Reported revenue fell 42% to £814.4m in the six months to the end of June.
The Department for Transport has extended its emergency measures for rail operators, it was confirmed on Monday, with Go-Ahead getting an extension to September 2021 on its Govia Thameslink Railway franchise. It also received an extension on the measures, which allow full operations to continue while passenger demand remains depressed due to Covid-19, to October 2021 for its Southeastern franchise, or possibly to March 2022 with an extension. FirstGroup, meanwhile, received an extension to March 2022 for the West Coast Partnership, and until March 2021 for South Western Railway and TransPennine Express, with TransPennine extendable to September 2021.
Newspaper round-up
The government has been accused of failing to rescue struggling industrial companies through its "Project Birch" bailout scheme amid signs that manufacturers are slashing investment in a fight for survival. Against a backdrop of mounting job losses, Labour said the Treasury support scheme was gathering dust after only one company qualified for emergency bailout funding. - Guardian
The Treasury has told a new bank customer complaints body to prepare for an influx of grievances over government-backed Covid loans. The Business Banking Resolution Service (BBRS) - set to launch in mid-November - was preparing to tackle cases dating back to 2001. - Guardian
British banks have been accused of enabling fraudsters, criminals and money-launderers, following a leak of secret files. A cache of more than 2,000 suspicious activity reports (SARs) - those filed to the authorities by banks who suspect wrongdoing - reportedly contains allegations that a number of major UK lenders allowed dirty money to flow through their accounts. - Telegraph
An £18 billion gold and silver business is to unveil plans to list in London in what could be the City's largest listing in almost a decade. Wheaton Precious Metals is planning a secondary listing on the main market in London alongside its existing listings in Canada, where it is based, and in New York. - The Times
The economy faces a hit of £250 million a day from a second wave of Covid-19 infections if partial lockdowns reverse the increase in people going to pubs and restaurants and returning to work, according to a new report. The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), a think-tank, warned that GDP could fall by between 3 and 5 per cent in the last three months of the year compared with the third quarter. Douglas McWilliams, the CEBR's deputy chairman, said that a second national lockdown could "knock the stuffing out of consumer and business confidence", with an impact on investment, business closures and jobs. - The Times
US close
Stocks on Wall Street finished weaker on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending the session down 0.88% at 27,657,42.
The S&P 500, meanwhile, lost 1.12% to 3,319.47, and the Nasdaq Composite was off 1.07% to 10,793.28.
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