Auction Technology reports growth, Me Group flags revenue below guidance

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 14 points higher on Thursday, having closed down 0.43% on Wednesday at 7,423.46.

Stocks to watch

Auction Technology reported a 13% increase in revenue in its final results on Thursday, to £135.2m, driven by growth in value-added services, diversification of revenues, contributions from EstateSales.NET (ESN), and favourable foreign exchange movements. Adjusted EBITDA reached £64m, up 19% year-on-year, with a margin of 47%, primarily due to growth in high-margin digital marketing and recurring event fee revenue. Operating profit increased by 34%, and adjusted net debt improved significantly, reflecting strong cash generation and the impact of the ESN acquisition.

Vending machine operator Me Group International said it expects to deliver annual revenues below guidance despite a record financial performance for the year. In a year-end trading update for the 12 months to 31 October, the company said revenues will be "marginally below" the lower end of the previous guidance range of £300m to £320m but no less than £298m.

Newspaper round-up

More than a quarter of adults in the UK will use buy now, pay later to help with festive spending, research suggests, with the proportion rising to more than half of parents with young children. The survey for Citizens Advice also found 11% of respondents used such credit schemes to pay for groceries, a proportion that rose to 35% for regular BNPL users. – Guardian

As champagne crashed over the bow of Saga’s new Spirit of Discovery cruise ship in 2019, Saga’s management team, flanked by the then-Duchess of Cornwall, were in high spirits. The group toasted a landmark moment for the insurance-to-travel specialist. The ship was one of two built to order for Saga and was meant to usher in better times for the business, which has offered package holidays and insurance to millions of over-50s for decades. – Telegraph

Office landlords are facing a £34bn cash crunch in Europe as staff shift to working from home, economists have warned. High interest rates and a slump in office values after the pandemic mean Europe’s commercial real estate sector will be hit by a funding shortfall between 2023 and 2026, according to S&P Global Ratings. – Telegraph

Signa, the investment group and Selfridges shareholder, has become the biggest casualty yet of a crash in European commercial property as its last-ditch attempts to secure fresh capital failed. The insolvency of the heavily indebted group will heighten concerns about the health of the property industry, which is battling rising debt costs and faces pressure on valuations, linked to changing working habits. – The Times

Shares in Farfetch, the London-based, New York-listed luxury fashion retailer crashed by 50 per cent after it delayed publication of its results and said previous guidance “should not be relied upon”. The shock update sent the company’s value to an all-time low, five years since it floated at £6.3 billion in 2018. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks delivered a mixed performance on Wednesday following the release of US GDP figures that came in ahead of expectations,

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.04% at 35,430.42, while the S&P 500 lost 0.09% to 4,550.58 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.16% weaker at 14,353.79.

The Dow closed 13.44 points higher on Wednesday, narrowly extending gains recorded in the previous session.

Comments from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller were still in focus on Wednesday after he seemed to indicate that he thinks current monetary policy appears to be sufficiently restrictive to cool inflation back down to the central bank's 2% target. On the back of the news, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell below 4.3% for the first time since September.

However, Wednesday's primary focus was news that the US economy grew more than initially estimated in the third quarter, according to the Commerce Department. GDP grew 5.2% in the three months to September, ahead of the initial estimate of 4.9% growth. On the other hand, the figures also showed that consumer spending rose 3.6% from July to September, a downward revision on a previous estimate of 4%.