Anglo American rejects BHP's bid, GCP Infra offloads wind farm notes

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The FTSE 100 is expected to open 60 points higher on Friday, having closed up 0.48% on Thursday at 8,078.86.

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Anglo American on Friday rejected an "opportunistic" £31bn bid from rival miner BHP, saying it significantly undervalued the company. "The BHP proposal is opportunistic and fails to value Anglo American's prospects, while significantly diluting the relative value upside participation of Anglo American's shareholders relative to BHP's shareholders," Anglo said in a statement. "The proposed structure is also highly unattractive, creating substantial uncertainty and execution risk borne almost entirely by Anglo American, its shareholders and its other stakeholders."

GCP Infrastructure Investments announced the disposal of its interest in loan notes secured against Blackcraig Wind Farm at a 6.4% premium to the project's valuation on Friday, generating £31m in net cash proceeds. The FTSE 250 company said the wind farm in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, had been operational since May 2018, and benefitted from renewable obligation certificate subsidy support. It said the disposal aligned with the its capital allocation policy, aiming to reduce leverage, decrease equity exposure, and return capital to shareholders, with a target of releasing £150m from disposals or refinancings by the end of 2024.

Newspaper round-up

Microsoft beat Wall Street estimates for its third-quarter revenue last night, driven by gains from artificial intelligence adoption across its cloud services and business software products. The company said its revenues had risen to $61.9 billion, up by 17 per cent and exceeding the $60.8 billion, or 15 per cent rise, that had been forecast. Its net income was $21.9 billion, up by 20% from the year before. - The Times

Tory commuter towns have suffered the biggest hit from soaring mortgage costs, new figures reveal. Homeowners in Conservative strongholds outside of London experienced the sharpest rise in housing costs last year, as 1.4 million fixed-term mortgages were up for renewal. Analysis from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that families in towns in districts such as Uttlesford, Tonbridge and Malling, and Tandridge were at the sharp end of rate rises. - Telegraph

Boeing burned through nearly $4bn in the last quarter as it scrambled to contain a safety crisis unleashed by a mid-flight blowout of a cabin panel on a brand-new 737 Max 9 jet. The US planemaker has been left reeling by the incident in January, which raised questions about its bestselling commercial plane, and warnings from a whistleblower about other sections of its production line. - Guardian

Google owner Alphabet announced its first-ever dividend of 20 cents a share on Thursday, despite spending billions of dollars on data centres to catch up with rivals on generative artificial intelligence. Alphabet, which has faced tough competition for advertising budgets from other online platforms such as Facebook, ­Instagram, TikTok and Amazon, reported a 15 per cent rise in quarterly revenue to $80.5 billion in the three months to the end of March compared with $69.8 billion a year ago. It also said it would buy back an extra $70 billion of Alphabet shares. - The Times

Former president Donald Trump qualified for a bonus worth $1.2bn after shares in his social media company remained above a certain value despite falling sharply. Trump is poised to receive 36m additional shares in Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), owner of his Truth Social platform, under an “earn-out” windfall which boosts the paper value of his stake in the business to about $3.7bn. - Guardian

US close

US stocks fell sharply on Thursday after data confirmed the stickiness of inflation in the first quarter despite a drop in economic growth which pushed bond yields to their highest in six months.

Despite paring losses by the close, the Dow still finished down 0.98%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.46% and the Nasdaq dropped 0.64%, as investors continued to digest a barrage of corporate earnings from some heavyweight names.

US GDP growth slowed by more than anticipated in the first quarter, the Department of Commerce reported on Thursday, yet price pressures unexpectedly picked up.

Annual GDP growth slowed to just 1.6% from 3.4% in the fourth quarter and well below the 2.5% consensus forecast.

However, the closely watched core PCE deflator surged from 2.0% to 3.7% – nearly double the rate seen in each of the preceding two quarters.