IP Group taking on Parkwalk, Rentokil to team up with Haniel

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open two points lower on Friday, after closing up 0.72% at 6,999.01 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

Developer of intellectual property-based businesses IP Group announced on Friday that it has agreed to acquire Parkwalk Advisors, the UK's leading university spin-out focused EIS fund manager, for an initial consideration of £10m. The FTSE 250 company said Parkwalk, founded in 2009, is the largest EIS growth fund manager focused on university spin-outs, having raised over £100m to date with the majority of funds coming from leading private wealth platforms and having backed over 60 companies across its managed funds since inception. In 2016, Parkwalk committed over £40m to UK university spin-outs and has been a long-term co-investment partner of IP Group, having co-invested over £17m in 14 investment rounds during 2015/2016.

Rentokil Initial has agreed to merge its Workwear and Hygiene divisions with Germany's Haniel & Cie Holding Co. The joint venture will bring together Rentokil Initial's Workwear and Hygiene businesses in 10 countries principally in the Benelux and Central & Eastern Europe regions, together with Haniel's businesses in 17 countries which operate under the CWS-boco brand. Rentokil said the JV will have combined revenues of about €1.1bn and adjusted profit before interest, tax and amortisation of about €130m.

Construction company Balfour Beatty has sold its 80% stake in five street lighting private finance initiative projects to funds managed by Equitix, an investment firm, for £33m. The sale of the street lighting projects will be retained within the company.

Newspaper round-up

The manufacturer of Nurofen has been fined $6m for misleading consumers. The federal court increased the penalty from $1.7m to $6m after an appeal by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. In December 2015 the federal court found the British company Reckitt Benckiser, the manufacturer of the painkiller, had engaged in “misleading conduct” by representing that its Nurofen Specific Pain products targeted a type or area of pain despite being identical, and ordered they be removed from supermarket shelves within three months. – Guardian

The top 10% of highest paid workers in Europe together earn almost as much as the bottom 50%, according to a report from the International Labour Organization that calls on governments and companies to do more to ensure the fruits of economic growth are shared out. The UN agency used its latest report into global wage trends to examine earnings inequality between different earners within firms and between firms. It also found startling discrepancies between men and women’s salaries at senior level in Europe with a gender pay gap of more than 50% for chief executives. – Guardian

Britain will be presented with a £50 billion “exit bill” by the European Union as soon as Theresa May triggers Article 50, the chief negotiator for Brussels is warning. Michel Barnier has told colleagues that the UK must keep paying “tens of billions” annually into the EU budget until 2020. - Telegraph

House price growth in London has slowed to the lowest rate in more than three years, according to research. A report by property market analysts Hometrack found that the rate of house price growth in the 12 months to November in the capital fell to 7.6pc, the lowest level for 39 months, and far below the same period last year, when growth was at 11.8pc. – Telegraph

London could be deprived of one of its most lucrative areas of financial business in clearing certain euro-denominated transactions, under new rules being considered by the European Commission. The precise form of any rule change has yet to be decided by Brussels, although the commission is reported to be considering regulations to give the European Central Bank an oversight on the location of key market infrastructure, such as clearing houses. – The Times

Policymakers at the Bank of England voted unanimously to keep interest rates at a historic low of 0.25 per cent this month and said the rate of inflation would rise at a slower pace than expected due to the recent rise in the value of the pound. All nine members of the rate-setting monetary policy committee (MPC) voted to retain the Bank’s three main stimulus measures, including maintaining the asset purchase programme, known as quantitative easing. – The Times

US close

Wall Street bounced back on Thursday as US government bond yields steadied after the previous day's losses, with the rest of global capital markets playing catch-up.

The Dow Jones Industrials added 59.71 points to 19,852.24, the S&P 500 tacked on 8.75 points to close at 2,262.03 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 20.18 points to 5,456.85.

Nonetheless, all eyes were on the US dollar which bounded higher, sending the European single currency below a key level of technical support and to its lowest mark in over a decade, as traders moved to price-in a 'hand-off' from monetary policy to fiscal policy in the world's single largest economy.

From a sector standpoint, Airline stocks did best, with the group rising 2.01%, followed by Tires (1.67%) and Coal (1.57%).

Gold Mining stocks on the other hand got thrashed as the yellow metal continued its recent retreat, followed by shares in Clothing & Accessories (-2.63%) and Gambling (-2.38%).