Aveva full-year profits improve, Experian appoints Mike Rogers as new chairman
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 51 points lower on Wednesday, having closed down 0.12% at 7,268.95 on Tuesday.
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Industrial and engineering software provider Aveva said full year pre-tax profits rose 21.7% to £46.7m driven by increasing demand for industrial software and good sales execution, including an increase in multi-year commitments from key customers.
Experian announced the appointment of Mike Rogers, an independent non-executive director of the company, as its chairman on Wednesday, effective from the end of its annual general meeting on 24 July. The FTSE 100 company said he was succeeding Don Robert. Rogers joined the Experian board in July 2017, and was also currently a non-executive director of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
Aviation, energy and civil engineering company Stobart Group said it was delivering underlying EBITDA results in line with management expectations, and continuing to make “strong” commercial progress, in its final results on Wednesday. The FTSE 250 firm reported a 39% improvement in revenue to £146.9m in the 12 months ended 28 February, although its underlying EBITDA fell 24% to £10.8m.
Newspaper round-up
The UK and its “corporate tax haven network” is by far the world’s greatest enabler of corporate tax avoidance, research has claimed. British territories and dependencies made up four of the 10 places that have done the most to “proliferate corporate tax avoidance” on the corporate tax haven index. – Guardian
It was deja vu for Brian Dennis last week when British Steel went into administration, putting 5,000 jobs at risk and endangering 20,000 in the supply chain, after failing to secure emergency government funding. Back in September 2015, Dennis had taken a day off from Redcar’s steel plant to attend the Labour party conference when his phone started buzzing. It was the news he had been dreading: after 26 years among the coke ovens and conveyor belts, he was out of a job. SSI, the plant’s Thai owners, were pulling the plug. – Guardian
The leaders of Britain’s biggest companies are backing the UK bid to host the UN’s most important climate talks since the Paris Accord was signed in 2015. FTSE 100 chief executives from Capita, National Grid and Centrica have appealed to government to do “everything in its powers” to secure the UN’s landmark 2020 climate talks. – Telegraph
The Greggs vegan sausage roll continued to boost meat-free brand Quorn as the rising popularity of vegan and vegetarian diets led to a 7pc surge in sales to £220m last year. Greggs said the vegan version mirrored some of the sausage roll’s “classic features”, including 96 layers of puff pastry, wrapped around a “bespoke” Quorn filling. – Telegraph
One of the last big British-owned automotive companies has fallen to a foreign takeover that will net Sir Brian Souter, the Stagecoach tycoon, and his sister Dame Ann Gloag £175 million. Alexander Dennis, best known as a maker of London red buses and reckoned to have the largest share of the UK bus market, has been bought by NFI Group, of Canada, for £320 million. – The Times
Shop prices have increased as retailers rein in discounting and begin to pass on rising costs to their customers. Shop prices inflation increased to 0.8 per cent year-on-year in May, up from 0.4 per cent in April, according to figures compiled by the British Retail Consortium, the trade body, and Nielsen, the consumer insights group. This was led by non-food prices for categories including furniture, health and beauty. – The Times
US close
Wall Street trading reversed its earlier fortunes to finish in the red on Tuesday following the long Memorial Day weekend, as the trade spat between the world's two largest economies remained firmly in focus.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session down 0.93% at 25,347.77, the S&P 500 lost 0.84% to 2,802.39, and the Nasdaq 100 was off 0.31% at 7,278.38.
At the open, the Dow was 65 points higher, even as all eyes remained firmly fixed on Washington and Beijing.
Donald Trump - who had predicted a swift end to the trade war last week - said at a press conference in Japan on Monday that he was "not ready" to make a deal with China.
"I think they probably wish they made the deal that they had on the table before they tried to renegotiate it.
“They would like to make a deal. We're not ready to make a deal," he said.