Hipgnosis agrees fresh Blackstone takeover, Beazley trades as expected

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 41 points higher on Monday, having closed ahead 0.75% on Friday at 8,139.83.

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Music rights owner Hipgnosis said it it agreed terms on a new $1.57bn takeover by private equity investor Blackstone in the latest tit-for-tat battle with rival Concord. Blackstone on Monday upped its offer to $1.30 a share in cash, or 104 pence a share, beating Concord’s latest offer of $1.24 a share.

Insurance group Beazley said that first-quarter results were in line with guidance with insurance written premiums (IWP) growing at high single digits. IWP were up 7% at $1.48bn, matching the full-year target growth rate. Meanwhile, investments and cash jumped by 19% to $10.83bn, while the investment return held steady at 1.2%. Chief executive Adrian Cox said the board was confident of delivering gross IWP growth guidance for the full year of high single digits. "We remain optimistic about the outlook for our business in 2024 and beyond, focussing on continued, targeted growth and active capital management as the rate environment normalises," he said.

AstraZeneca announced on Monday that ’Truqap’, or capivasertib, in combination with ‘Faslodex’, or fulvestrant, had been recommended for approval in the EU for treating oestrogen receptor-positive, HER2‑negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer with specific genetic alterations. The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant said the recommendation was based on results from a phase three trial, which demonstrated a 50% reduction in disease progression or death risk with Truqap combination therapy compared to Faslodex alone. It also said that another phase three trial showed that ‘Enhertu’, or trastuzumab deruxtecan, significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with HR-positive, HER2-low metastatic breast cancer.

Newspaper round-up

Senior Whitehall officials fear Thames Water’s financial collapse could trigger a rise in government borrowing costs not seen since the chaos of the Liz Truss mini-budget, the Guardian can reveal. Such is their concern about the impact on wider borrowing costs for the UK, even beyond utilities and infrastructure, that they believe Thames should be renationalised before the general election. Officials in the Treasury and the UK’s Debt Management Office fear that, unless the UK’s biggest water company is renationalised as soon as possible, “prolonged uncertainty” about its fate could “damage confidence in UK plc at a sensitive time”, with elections in the UK and the US later this year. – Guardian

Ireland has landed a €700m (£600m) Brexit bonanza with a steep increase in tax revenues flowing from customs duties now applicable to imports of clothing, food and other goods from Great Britain. Before Brexit, Britain enjoyed customs-free exports to Ireland and the rest of the EU because it was part of the single market and customs union. But when Boris Johnson sealed a hard Brexit and quit the single market, it meant fresh controls, checks and duties would be payable on exports to the EU. – Guardian

A wave of luxury vehicle thefts on Britain’s streets is being fuelled by Chinese companies selling cheap jamming devices, experts have warned. The jammers, which can block GPS, mobile phone and radio signals, range from cheaper, low-powered devices covering a couple of metres to more powerful ones capable of blocking signals within a distance of 100 metres or more. This allows car thieves to steal vehicles and then car thieves to steal vehicles and then block signals from any tracking devices, making it much harder to discover their whereabouts once they have been taken. – Telegraph

The former boss of Persimmon, who stepped down as chief executive of the listed housebuilder amid an outcry over his “unfathomable” pay package, is on a collision course with the American hedge fund backer of his new venture. Jeff Fairburn, best known in the City for a £75 million bonus payout at Persimmon in 2018, teamed up with Elliott Advisors to buy Avant Homes as the housing market prospered from a cut to stamp duty during the pandemic. – The Times

HM Revenue & Customs is investigating the tax affairs of Babylon, the insolvent healthcare technology company that was championed by Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, and had links to the Conservative Party. Officials are investigating tax matters relating to the period before the appointment in August of administrators from Alvarez & Marsal over Babylon Partners, the main British operating company. – The Times

US close

US stocks bounced back strongly on Friday with the Nasdaq surging more than 2% with the Magnificent Seven tech giants providing a huge boost following strong results from Microsoft and Alphabet.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.02% while the Nasdaq surged 2.03%; however the Dow finished just 0.4% higher, with gains limited by heavy losses from heavyweight tech group Intel.

Markets were rising despite data showing that US inflation remained stickier than expected in March.

The US personal consumption expenditure rate rose to 2.7% in March, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, up from 2.5% in February and higher than the 2.6% expected by economists, suggesting that inflationary headwinds were still building.

Core PCE, the Federal Reserve's preferred inflationary barometer, which strips out volatile food and energy, was unchanged at 2.8% per year; analysts had pencilled in a drop to 2.6%.