Legal & General sells CALA Group, PZ Cussons reports fall in revenue
By Josh White
Date: Wednesday 18 Sep 2024
(Sharecast News) - London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 18 points lower on Wednesday, having closed up 0.38% on Tuesday at 8,309.86.
Stocks to watch
Legal & General Group said it had sold UK house builder CALA Group for £1.35bn to Ferguson Bidco, an entity owned by funds managed by Sixth Street Partners and Patron Capital. The insurer said it would receive cash proceeds of £1.16bn, of which £500m will be paid at closing with the remaining consideration being paid over the next five years.
PZ Cussons reported a 10.6% drop in revenue to £527.9m for the year ended 31 May on Wednesday, with a significant impact from the devaluation of the Nigerian naira. Despite that, like-for-like revenue grew by 4.4%, driven by price increases in Nigeria, although overall profit before tax fell 39.7% to £44.7m. The company said it was continuing its strategic focus on portfolio transformation, including plans to sell its St Tropez business and potential divestment of its Africa operations, while also seeing positive revenue growth early in the new financial year.
Newspaper round-up
Employers who force staff to return to the office five days a week have been called the "dinosaurs of our age" by one of the world's leading experts who coined the term "presenteeism". Sir Cary Cooper, a professor of organisational psychology and health at the University of Manchester's Alliance Manchester Business School, said employers imposing strict requirements on staff to be in the office risked driving away talented workers, damaging the wellbeing of employees and undermining their financial performance. - Guardian
One of America's biggest carmakers, Stellantis, could face fresh strikes after the United Auto Workers (UAW) announced plans for members to vote on authorising a walkout. The UAW president Shawn Fain accused executives at the automotive giant of being "out of control" on Tuesday evening. "The company wants you to be scared," he told his union's members, "but we are 100% within our rights and within our power to take strike action if necessary." - Guardian
Britain's worklessness crisis is costing taxpayers £16bn a year through lost tax revenue and an inflated benefits bill, top economists have warned. The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) and the Commission on the Future of Employment Support warned that the country's workforce was shrinking at the fastest rate since the 1980s, leading to a shortfall in employment-related taxes. At the same time, the number of people claiming benefits because of ill-health has also spiked, leading to a rapid rise in the cost of benefits, while a growing number has never worked. - Telegraph
The boss of ITV has hit out at plans to ban junk food adverts on TV before 9pm, warning it could force the broadcaster to make programming cuts. Dame Carolyn McCall said the company had been fighting the ban "for some time" and warned it would lead to millions of pounds in lost revenues. Speaking at the Royal Television Society convention in London on Tuesday, she said: "We've done loads of research to say this is not going to make a dent in childhood obesity. But it is a political thing and so we're going to have to mitigate it in any way we can. - Telegraph
Philip Morris International has offloaded Vectura for just £150 million, three years after its contentious £1 billion acquisition of the respiratory drugs company triggered a backlash from the public health sector. The maker of Marlboro cigarettes has sold the Chippenham-based company to Molex, a US company that owns the contract development and manufacturing organisation Phillips Medisize, in a setback for its transformation away from tobacco. - The Times
US close
Wall Street saw mixed results on Tuesday as investors awaited the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates, due on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped slightly by 0.04% to close at 41,606.18.
In contrast, the S&P 500 managed a modest gain of 0.03%, finishing at 5,634.58, while the Nasdaq Composite rose by 0.2% to 17,628.06.
Market attention was focused on the Fed, with a 25-basis-point rate cut already priced in ahead of the policy meeting set to conclude on Wednesday.
However, uncertainty remains about whether the central bank will opt for a larger, 50-basis-point reduction in response to weakening economic conditions.
In economic news, US retail sales edged up by 0.1% in August, reaching $710.8bn, indicating cautious consumer spending.
While the increase was lower than July's revised 1.1% gain, it surpassed economists' expectations of a 0.2% decline.
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