IPF accepts £543m takeover offer, Everyman CEO steps down
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Monday 29 Dec 2025
(Sharecast News) - LONDON PRE-OPEN
The FTSE 100 was expected to open 7.4 points higher ahead of the bell on Monday after wrapping up the previous session 0.19% weaker at 9,870.68.
STOCKS TO WATCH
International Personal Finance said on Monday that it had accepted a takeover offer from BasePoint Capital in a deal worth £543m. IPF Shareholders will get 235p per share in cash, a 31% premium to the stock's closing price when talks between the two specialist lenders started in July.
Cinema operator Everyman Media's chief executive Alex Scrimgeour has stepped down from the role with immediate effect. Everyman said on Monday that non-executive director Farah Golant will assume the role of CEO on an interim basis until a permanent replacement can be found.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
A surge in the price of silver to record highs this month has prompted a warning from Elon Musk that manufacturers could suffer the consequences. Silver has risen sharply during December, part of a precious metals rally that also pushed gold and platinum to record levels on Boxing Day. Analysts have attributed the jump in prices to expectations of US interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in 2026, leading to increased demand for hard assets that protect against inflation and currency debasement. - Guardian
Gambling companies have spent nearly £5m to advertise on the London transport network since Sadiq Khan pledged to stop them from doing so, amid a prolonged impasse between the mayor's office and the government. Khan said during his 2021 mayoral election campaign that he would order Transport for London to extend a ban on junk food ads to cover online casinos and bookmakers as well, citing the "devastating" impact of addiction. - Guardian
Wasted wind power has cost Britain nearly £1.5bn this year as Ed Miliband's net zero rollout battles grid bottlenecks that threaten to send household bills spiralling. The cost of switching off wind turbines and firing up alternative power sources in 2025 has jumped by nearly a fifth compared to last year, new data shows. Households and businesses ultimately bear these costs through their bills. - Telegraph
A start-up founded by a former adviser to Boris Johnson has raised millions of pounds from an early investor in Klarna to develop artificial intelligence-powered polling. Electric Twin, which was launched by ex-No 10 data expert Ben Warner, has secured almost £7m from investors for its technology that generates synthetic focus groups using AI. - Telegraph
The chief executive of Rolls-Royce is poised to receive a share-based reward that could exceed £100m, underscoring the scale of the turnaround he has delivered at the British engineering group. Tufan Erginbilgic, who took charge at the start of 2023, was awarded 8.3m shares as part of a recruitment package designed to lure him from private equity. - The Times
US CLOSE
Major indices were little changed at the close of trading on Friday as traders returned from the Christmas break.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.04% at 48,710.97, while the S&P 500 shed 0.03% to 6,929.94, and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.09% softer at 23,593.10.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
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