Spectris swallows Millbrook, Go-Ahead steams through expectations

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 25 points higher on Friday, after finishing down 0.52% at 6,745.97 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

Productivity-enhancing instrumentation and controls company Spectris announced on Friday that it has completed the acquisition of the entire share capital of Millbrook Group from Rutland Partners and Millbrook's management shareholders. The FTSE 250 firm said the purchase consideration totalled £122m, on a debt and cash-free basis, and will be met from existing cash and bank facilities. A total of £3.4m of the purchase price will be deferred for 24 months. “Millbrook represents our largest purchase to date of a pure testing services business,” said chief executive John O'Higgins.

Passenger transport operator Go-Ahead Group posted its preliminary full-year results for the year to 2 July on Friday, with its overall results slightly ahead of management expectations. The FTSE 250 firm achieves its £100m bus target, with adjusted operating profit there up 8% to £100.4m. Regional bus operations saw a 9.4% rise in adjusted operating profit to £53.3m, while London bus adjusted operating profit rose 6.3% to £47.1m. Rail adjusted operating profit was £57m, with a margin of 2.3% and a contribution to the Department for Transport of £222.4m. Go-Ahead’s board proposed a 6.5% increase in the full-year dividend to 95.85p.

Trading at Segro since the end of June saw occupational demand remain strong. The property developer´s vacancy rate remained low and the firm saw net absorption of existing space. From 30 June, the company signed pre-let agreements for 188,600 square meters across Europe, which Segro expected would result in £6.0m of new annualised headline rent, while the pipeline of near-term opportunities remained encouraging.

Newspaper round-up

The battle for control of Poundland took a fresh twist after a voracious New York hedge fund raised its stake in the high street chain to nearly 25%. The board of Poundland has agreed to a £610m takeover by South African retail group Steinhoff, whose UK empire already includes furniture chains Bensons for Beds and Harveys. But the deal has been dogged by interventions from activist investor Elliott Advisors, which is run by Paul Singer, a self-made billionaire who has been criticised for presiding over a ‘vulture fund’. - The Daily Mail

A revived Scottish independence campaign unveiled today will bring “fresh uncertainty” to the country’s future and be a “major breach of trust” with voters from the 2014 referendum, a group of leading business figures have warned. Nicola Sturgeon will launch the nation’s “biggest ever political listening exercise” in Stirling to discover why “soft” No voters rejected independence two years ago. - The Scotsman

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called for the leaders of the world’s leading economies to make a positive case for globalisation after voicing concern that prolonged slow growth and rising inequality is eroding support for free trade and open markets. In a report published before this weekend’s gathering of the G20 group of developed and developing nations in China, the fund warned that slower than expected growth in the US and the knock-on impact of Brexit were likely to result in a fresh downgrade of its forecasts for global activity in 2016. - The Guardian

Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions took a knock yesterday when it was alleged that her husband used taxpayers’ money to subsidise their family charity. The Clinton Foundation has cast a shadow over the Democratic nominee amid allegations that donors sought special government favours when she served as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. She denies any conflict of interest, but her poll numbers have suffered amid doubts over her trustworthiness, fuelled in part by the controversy over the private email server she used at the state department. - The Times

Ireland may have to revise its annual GDP figures for the past decade following the European commission’s ruling that the majority of Apple’s overseas profits should have been taxable in the Republic. “If the European commission have ruled this profit should be taxable in Ireland, it should be reflected in the GDP numbers,” said Seamus Coffey, lecturer in economics at University College Cork. He believes the revision, which could be required by the European statistics agency Eurostat, could show that the Irish economy was growing between 6% and 8% a year from 2010 onwards. This would represent a dramatic change, at least on paper: Ireland’s GDP shrank in 2012 and growth was recorded at zero in 2011. - The Guardian

US close

US stocks ended relatively flat on Thursday as traders weighed worse-than-expected manufacturing data against a better-than-expected report on weekly jobless claims.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was last up 0.1% at 18,419.30 points, the S&P 500 was flat at 2,170.86 points and the Nasdaq 100 grew 0.27% to 4,783.94 points.

Oil prices plummeted after official data on Wednesday showed weekly crude inventories rose more than expected, adding to worries about the global supply glut.

West Texas Intermediate was last down 2.69% at $43.53 per barrel and Brent declined 2.47% to $45.76 per barrel.

On the data front, the Labor Department said initial jobless claims increased 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 263,000 in the week ended 27 August, compared to analysts’ forecasts of 265,000. The previous week’s reading was unrevised.

Continuing jobless claims rose by 14,000 to 2.16m in the week ended 20 August.