Dairy Crest completes dairies sale

London’s FTSE 100 is expected to open 14 points higher at 6,269.

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Dairy Crest confirmed it had completed the sale of its Dairies operations to Müller UK & Ireland Group.

Chief Executive Mark Allen said the sale was a “transformational moment for Dairy Crest and the wider dairy industry and helps bring much needed stability to the UK dairy sector”.

"Dairy Crest can now focus on growth, through both our branded cheese and spreads operations and new revenue streams from manufacturing products for the fast-growing global infant formula market," he said.

In the Press

The chief executive of Cairn Energy has written to India’s prime minister seeking a resolution to a bitter $1.6 billion tax dispute. Simon Thomson has told Narendra Modi that the dispute between Cairn and the Indian government has been dragging on for two years, forcing the company to sell assets, delay investment and slash its workforce by 40 per cent. – The Times

Deutsche Bank is to sell its stake in the Chinese lender Hua Xia for up to €3.7bn as Germany’s biggest bank steps up efforts to strengthen its balance sheet under John Cryan. Regulators around the world have been pushing global banks like Deutsche to hold more capital to avoid a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis. The German bank historically operated with higher debt levels than most rivals. – Financial Times

Wealthy buy-to-let landlords could be excluded from the higher rate of stamp duty on second homes under proposals to classify them as “large scale investors”. The chancellor unveiled a 3 per cent stamp duty surcharge on second home purchases in the autumn statement, but carved out an exemption for “corporates and funds”, such as companies, pension schemes and property investment trusts. – The Times

British manufacturers will shed tens of thousands of jobs next year as they battle a tough export market, the fallout from steel plant closures and a collapse in demand from the embattled North Sea oil industry, an industry group has forecast. The manufacturers’ organisation EEF said the factory sector will shrug off this year’s recession and eke out modest growth in 2016 but it warned a number of risks loom on the horizon, chief among them a sharper downturn in China that could trigger a global slump. – Guardian

US close

US equity markets ended off lows but in the red on Monday, with energy stocks under pressure as oil prices fell.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.1%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both ended off 0.2%.