Inmarsat agrees partership, UBM nearing Newswire sale

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to fall 59 points on Monday morning, further extending the losses from the end of last week.

Stocks to watch

Inmarsat has formed a partnership with maritime broadband specialist SpeedCast International to roll out the satellite company's new Global Xpress (GX) service to around 2,000 vessels in five years. Under the new strategic alliance, the pair will work together in key maritime markets around the world to promote and roll out the maritime-focused Fleet Xpress services, powered by the new GX network of satellites, to existing and new customers as well as its FleetBroadband service as a primary back-up option.

UBM reached milestone in its sale of PR Newswire, with confirmation that the US Department of Justice has filed its proposed settlement under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, which it expects to conclude "shortly".
The FTSE 250 specialist trade publisher and events company, which initially announced the sale of the newswire service to a division of Cision in December last year, said it expects to be given an early termination to the Hart-Scott-Rodino approval.

Newspaper round-up

Retail tycoon Mike Ashley has opened a new front in the war of words surrounding the fate of BHS, claiming there is still time to save thousands of jobs as he made a third approach for the collapsed department store chain once owned by rival billionaire Sir Philip Green. However, people briefed on the process dismissed Mr Ashley’s interventions as a publicity stunt at a time when his Sports Direct retail group faces damaging revelations surrounding its treatment of contract workers. - Financial Times

One of Britain’s biggest housebuilders has begun to introduce “Brexit clauses” into its contracts that give buyers the right to pull out of a deal to buy a new home if Britain votes to leave the European Union. Galliard Homes, the largest privately owned property developer in London, said that its contracts now came with a clause allowing a housebuyer to pull out of a deal and get their money back. - The Times

George Osborne’s ambition to make London the go-to option for global trading in the yuan came a step closer to being realised last night when China’s state-owned currency marketplace revealed that it intends to open branches in the capital and in New York. The China Foreign Exchange Trade System said that the expansion of its network beyond national borders would allow it to serve more overseas institutions and become a “main trading platform and pricing centre” for the yuan globally. - Times

Britain should brace itself for a winter of tight electricity supplies that will force National Grid to use its last-resort measures and push wholesale prices up, according to a new analysis. Figures from Enappsys, which monitors wholesale electricity market data, show the grid will have an even more difficult job keeping the lights on than last year, when it took new emergency measures for the first time. - Financial Times

US close

Wall Street gave back some of its recent gains on Friday as traders turned more cautious, as increased uncertainty ahead of the 23 June referendum across the Atlantic cited as the main trigger behind the 'risk'-off' mood.

Upcoming monetary policy meetings from the Bank of England, Bank of Japan and the US Federal Reserve were also important risk events to be navigated over the coming week, especially those of the BoJ and the Fed.

A decision was also expected from MSCI on whether it would include Chinese shares listed on the mainland in its own international indices.