Informa sails away with Yachting Promotions, Capita reports 33pc slump in profits

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open two points lower on Thursday, after closing up 1.64% at 7,382.90 on Wednesday.

Stocks to watch

Informa has agreed to buy Yachting Promotions Inc, the operator of some of the largest yachting and boat shows in the US, for £106m, from Active Interest Media. The exhibitions, events and business intelligence group said the addition of YPI will combine several major US-based international yachting exhibitions with Informa's Monaco Yacht Show, the leading event of its kind in Europe. The YPI portfolio includes the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, which is the largest in the world.

Outsourcing firm Capita, booted from the FTSE 100 index on Wednesday, reported a 33% slump in profits to £74.8m as its chief executive Andy Parker announced his resignation after a string of earnings warnings. The company, criticised over its behaviour when carrying out its TV Licensing contract, said it would take a £58.3m charge over contracts. It added that the headwinds faced in the second half of 2016 will affect trading performance in the first half of 2017, which it expected to be slightly weaker than the second half of last year excluding the write down of accrued income.

Legoland and Madame Tussauds owner Merlin Entertainments reported a rise in revenue and visitors for 2016 following a recovery in its resort theme parks. Revenue grew 11.7% in 2016, or 3.6% in a constant currency basis, to £1.45bn, compared to the previous year, as visitors increased 1.3% to 65.1m.

Cobham has announced a £500m rights issue after it sank to a huge £848m loss last year. With new chief executive David Lockwood appointed in December, chairman Michael Wareing said he intended to carry out a sizeable "rolling programme" to reshuffle of the board over the next two years.

Medical technologies provider ConvaTec posted its unaudited results for the year to 31 December on Thursday, with adjusted revenue growing 2.3% to $1.69m, or 4% at constant exchange rates. The FTSE 100 firm said adjusted EBITDA was up 7.1% at $508m, or 6.5% at constant currencies, while operating profit improved 8.1% to $472m, or 7.1% at constant exchange rates. “2016 was a transformative year for ConvaTec, culminating in a successful IPO and the refinancing of our debt,” said CEO Paul Moraviec.

Newspaper round-up

Nearly 1,400 UK jobs are at risk as pharmacy chain Boots, Walkers crisps and bakery Greggs all cut costs. Both Walkers and Greggs are restructuring their manufacturing operations in an attempt to improve efficiency. The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union said more than 600 jobs were at risk at nine Greggs bakeries around the UK. – Guardian

Dominic Chappell, the last owner of BHS, has pledged to fight legal action by the Pensions Regulator designed to force him to pay millions of pounds into the failed retailer’s pension scheme, saying the black hole in the scheme was not his fault. The regulator has agreed a £363m cash settlement with Sir Philip Green to rescue the BHS pension scheme and halted legal proceedings against the billionaire. However, it is continuing with legal action against Chappell and his company Retail Acquisitions and is understood to be seeking as much as £17m.- Guardian

Britons should brace for two years of stagnant real pay as inflation surges while cautious employers hold back wage hikes, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Even after that living standards will grow only slowly, meaning families will only be modestly better off in 2021-21, the analysts believe. The sudden squeeze may come as a surprise as wages have outstripped price rises by a substantial margin in the past two years. - Telegraph

The City watchdog wants to give independent analysts the chance to produce research on flotations so that investors can have access to information free of professional conflicts of interest. The Financial Conduct Authority said yesterday it intended to ensure that any company planning a listing would give analysts not working on the float the same access offered to banks leading the deals. – The Times

The parent company of the popular messaging app Snapchat is to be valued at almost $20 billion after setting a price for its initial public offering at $17 a share. Snap, which will begin trading later today on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SNAP”, has priced its long-awaited float above the $14 to $16 a share targeted by the company, in an indication of strong investor demand. The offer was several times oversubscribed. – The Times

US close

The Dow closed above the 21,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday as US equity markets were buoyed by an expected March interest rate hike and a more conciliatory tone from President Donald Trump on Tuesday when he addressed Congress, while the dollar gained.

Investors were also looking at a slew of economic releases and more speeches from Federal Reserve officials.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 1.46% to 21,115.55, the S&P 500 rose 1.37% to 2,395.96 and the Nasdaq 100 was up 1.14% to 5,390.99.

On the oil front, prices dropped, with West Texas Intermediate last down 0.62% to $53.68 per barrel and Brent crude losing 0.41% to $56.28.

On Tuesday, Federal Reserve President William Dudley said the case for an interest rate rise had become "a lot more compelling", while San Francisco Fed President John Williams told CNN that a hike was "on the table for serious consideration" at the next Fed meeting in March.