Entain lifts FY profit expectations, Vodafone Q3 revenues fall

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was called to open 10 points higher at 7,781.

Stocks to watch

Entain lifted its full-year earnings expectations as it reported a record fourth quarter for both net gaming revenues and active customers.

The Ladbrokes owner now forecasts FY22 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of between £985m and £995m, up around 12% year-on-year and ahead of expectations.

Telecoms giant Vodafone said revenues fell in the third quarter as the economic slowdown hit trading in Continental Europe and offset a good performance in the UK.

The company said service revenue fell 1.3% to €9.52bn and continued to target its updated full-year guidance of adjusted core earnings after leases of €15-15.2bn and adjusted free cash flow of €5.1bn.

Newspaper round-up

Almost 13,000 offshore companies holding UK property have failed to declare their ultimate owners and may now face fines and a ban on selling their land, the government has said. Martin Callanan, a business minister, praised the introduction of the new register of overseas owners of UK properties, saying it had been “invaluable for tax and revenue services, bringing transparency to opaque offshore trusts often used to obscure assets for tax purposes”. – Guardian

Stealth taxes are hitting higher earners more than expected, with rising wages helping the Treasury to rake in an extra £12bn alone last year, according to the Government's spending watchdog. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said a stronger jobs market meant more people were dragged into paying the 40p rate of income tax rate than previously thought, pushing up employee tax and national insurance revenues sharply. – Telegraph

Lotus is to list its electric car business in the US in a $5.4bn deal backed by the world’s richest man, Bernard Arnault. Lotus Technology, the EV division of the British car marquee, is to merge with a special acquisition company (SPAC) listed in New York. The SPAC is backed by L Catterton, a private equity business part-owned by the Arnault family. – Telegraph

British boardrooms have been warned to brace for a further wave of investor activism after a record number of new campaigns at European companies propelled global activity by corporate raiders to its highest level since 2018. A report released yesterday by Lazard, the boutique investment bank, showed there were 235 new initiatives started by activist shareholders around the world last year, a 36 per cent increase on 2021 and a resurgence after three years of falling interventions. – The Times

PayPal announced plans to lay off about 2,000 employees, reducing its global workforce by 7 per cent, as it became the latest technology group to cut costs ahead of an expected slowdown. The payments group said it needed to take further action to address “the challenging macroeconomic environment” amid fears of a recession. Shares in PayPal rose 2.3 per cent, or $1.85, to close at $81.49 in New York last night. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Tuesday as market participants awaited the outcome of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting and digested a number of earnings reports.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.09% at 34,086.04, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.46% to 4,076.60 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.67% firmer at 11,584.55.