JD Sports partners with Nike, 3i Infrastructure's portfolio continues to outperform expectations
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Friday 30 Sep 2022
(Sharecast News) - London pre-open
The FTSE 100 was being called to open 3.5 points weaker ahead of the bell on Friday after closing 123.80 lower in the previous session.
Stocks to watch
Sportswear retailer JD Sports has struck a "connected partnership" with footwear giant Nike that will give the group's customers "unprecedented access" to select member-only shoes and apparel.
JD Sports said on Friday that the agreement made it Nike's first European retail partner, further cementing the duo's "trusted partnership" as they look to harness their "technological and digital expertise" to serve consumers.
Water services company Pennon Group said on Friday that first-half trading was in line with expectations given the current "volatile" macroeconomic environment.
Pennon reported a "resilient operational delivery" amid "challenging conditions" and also stated it was "strategically well positioned" to maintain cumulative doubling of RORE base returns.
3i Infrastructure said on Thursday that in the period from 1 April to 29 September, its portfolio continued to perform robustly and ahead of the expectations set in March. The group also said it now expects to report net asset value growth ahead of its target return for the period.
Scott Moseley and Bernardo Sottomayor, managing partners and co-heads of European Infrastructure at 3i Investments, said: "This is a high quality and differentiated portfolio, with proven resilience, that is structurally positioned to continue to deliver value growth in real terms. The market for infrastructure investments remains competitive, with significant fund-raising activity amongst our private markets' competitors and strong demand for quality infrastructure assets."
Aston Martin successfully completed a financing round for £654.0m on Friday as boss Lawrence Stroll also welcomed two new shareholders to the company, The Public Investment Fund, which took an 18.7% stake in the iconic sportscar maker, and Chinese automotive giant Geely.
According to Stroll, the new financing round would allow the manufacturer to significantly bolster its financial position and enhance its pathway to becoming sustainably free cash flow positive.
Newspaper round-up
Partners at Deloitte in the UK and Switzerland will receive an average income of more than £1.0m each for the second year in a row, after the accountancy firm enjoyed another successful year. Each partner will receive an average distributable profit of £1,058,000 in the year to the end of May, about 33 times the UK's average annual pay. This is the first time the sum has exceeded £1.0m and is an increase of about 24% compared with the same period the year before. - Guardian
Germany's finance minister has vowed that he will not follow the UK "down the path of an expansionary fiscal policy" as his government announced a €200.0bn fund designed to protect consumers and businesses from rising gas prices driven by Russia's war in Ukraine. Europe's largest economy will reactivate an economic stabilising fund previously used during the global financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, said the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, at a joint press conference with the finance minister, Christian Lindner, and the economic minister, Robert Habeck, on Thursday afternoon. - Guardian
The eurozone's financial system is facing "severe risks" from the chaos gripping global markets, the European Central Bank said in an unprecedented warning as Germany unveiled a €200.0bn borrowing binge. The institution told the region's banks to prepare for financial turmoil caused by huge falls in investments and potential disaster in the house market. - Telegraph
Britain exported a record amount of electricity to the Continent during spring as Russia's war on Ukraine and outages on France's nuclear fleet sparked a power crisis across the European Union. Eight percent of the electricity generated in Britain in the three months to June 2022, or more than five terawatt-hours, was sent to other European countries through undersea power cables. - Telegraph
Market turmoil and higher interest rates will result in constraints on lending to small businesses and a surge in borrowing costs, experts have warned, just as companies are asking for short-term loans to navigate rising prices and the threat of waning demand. About half of small and medium-sized business borrowers are on variable-rate loans that rise in price in line with higher interest rates, adding to the pressure on companies with inflation at a four-decade high and the UK economy poised to sink into a recession. - The Times
US close
Stocks on Wall Street were still in the red at the close on Thursday, with hawkish remarks from top Fed officials a chief reason for the moves.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.54% at 29,225.61, while the S&P 500 lost 2.11% to 3,640.47 and the Nasdaq Composite shed 2.84% to 10,737.51.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
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