Diploma lifts annual guidance, Unite offloads six properties
By Josh White
Date: Monday 13 May 2024
(Sharecast News) - London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open nine points lower on Monday, having closed up 0.63% on Friday at 8,433.76.
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Specialist distribution business Diploma on Monday lifted annual guidance after a 17% rise in adjusted earnings, boosted by acquisitions. It now expects constant currency revenue growth of around 16%, up 5 percentage points from previous guidance, made up of 6% organic revenue growth and 10% from acquisitions. It also forecast a 15% rise in EPS. Adjusted pre-tax profit came in at £115.2m in the six months to March 31, while revenue jumped 10% to £638.3m.
Student accommodation provider Unite announced the sale of six properties to PGIM Real Estate on Monday, for £184m, of which £76m was its share. The FTSE 100 firm said the sale comprised 2,948 beds across various cities, with an average age of 18 years. It said the strategic sale would increase its alignment with high and mid-ranked universities, supporting sustainable rental growth. The sale, priced in line with book value, would recycle proceeds into asset management and meet redemption requests, with no change to Unite's financial year 2024 earnings guidance of 45.5 to 46.5p.
Savings and retirement group Phoenix has announced that its chief financial officer of four years is to step down later this year. Rakesh Thakrar, who joined the company in 2001, has held various strategic and finance positions, including deputy CFO from 2014 before being promoted to group CFO in 2020. The company did not give a reason for his departure but said he will leave the company "at a date to be agreed". The board said it will start a formal process to find a permanent successor.
Newspaper round-up
BT has said it is increasingly using artificial intelligence to help it detect and neutralise threats from hackers targeting business customers amid repeated attacks on companies. The £10.5bn group is aiming to build up its business protecting customers from online criminals and has patented technology that uses AI to analyse attack data to allow companies to protect their tech infrastructure. British businesses are routinely facing hacking attempts, and some recent high-profile victims have included including the outsourcer Capita, Royal Mail and British Airways. - Guardian
Homebuyers are increasingly being forced to "gamble" with their retirement prospects to get on the housing ladder by taking on ultra-long mortgages lasting beyond the end of their working life, it has been claimed. More than a million mortgages that stretch beyond the borrower's state pension age have been arranged in the last three years, figures show. The data, obtained via a freedom of information (FoI) request by the former Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb, show the proportion of home loans arranged to last into retirement increased from 31% in the final quarter of 2021 to 42% in the same period last year. - Guardian
The sale of new petrol-fuelled motorcycles is set to be banned from 2040, under plans due to be announced by ministers as part of the Government's net zero crackdown. The move would affect all vehicles classed as "L3" and upwards, including scooters and light, medium and higher-powered motorcycles. There are around 1.3m motorcycles registered in the UK. - Telegraph
Women are driving record worklessness because of ill health, analysis has found, as a growing number drop out of the jobs market because of neck and back pain. More than 1.5m women have dropped out of the workforce because of long-term sickness, according to analysis by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which blamed rising NHS waiting lists for the crisis. The figure marks a 48pc increase compared with five years ago, equivalent to 503,000 women. - Telegraph
Fever-Tree is teaming up with one of the leading makers of French rosé wine as it seeks to grab a slice of the lucrative spritz market from Aperol. The mixers group, which is best known for its range of upmarket tonics, will uncork a pale pink rosé spritz today, created in a collaboration with the Provence-based Maison Mirabeau winery. - The Times
US close
Stocks on Wall Street closed in a mixed state on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.32% at 39,512.84.
The S&P 500 managed gains of 0.16% to 5,222.68, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.03% to settle at 16,340.87.
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