Standard Life and Aberdeen agree £11bn merger, BT secures rights to UEFA Champions and Europa leagues

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open eight points lower on Monday, after closing down 0.11% at 7,374.26 on Friday.

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Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management agreed terms for an £11bn merger, having revealed talks over the weekend. The deal will see Aberdeen shareholders own roughly a third of the enlarged company and Standard Life's the rest, though the two companies will initially have an equal number of seats on the board.

FTSE 100 budget airline easyJet reported 8.2% rise in passenger numbers in February. Passenger numbers last month grew to 5.33m from 4.93m in February 2016, as the load factor – which gauges how full the planes actually are – rose 1.6 percentage points to 92%.

BT Group said on Monday it would pay £1.5bn for the rights to broadcast all UEFA Champions League and Europa League football. The company said the deal had secured the exclusive rights to all live games, highlights and in-match clips of both competitions. It added that it would enhance coverage via social media coverage by making clips, weekly highlights, UEFA's magazine show, and both finals available for free on social media. It will pay around £394m each year for the rights.

Strong cash generation and order intake helped Ultra Electronics drive full-year bottom-line growth despite delays to a small number of export contracts. The defence electronics specialist saw full-year 2016 top-line growth of 8.2% to £785.58m, while underlying profits before tax increased 6.9% to £120.1m.

Informa posted its final results for the 12 months to 31 December on Monday, with revenue rising 11% to £1.35bn during the year, and adjusted operating profit improving 13.8% to £416.1m. The FTSE 100 firm said adjusted diluted earnings per share were up 6.6% at 42.1p, and the board confirmed the total dividend was 4.3% higher at 19.3p. Statutory operating profit was lower, however, at £198.8m against £236.5m in 2015.

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China has cut its growth target to around 6.5 percent for 2017, as Beijing focuses on stability ahead of a sensitive political gathering later this year. The Chinese economy slowed to a growth rate of 6.7 per cent last year, the lowest since 1990 as Beijing acts to transform its export-driven economy to a more stable, consumer-led model. - Telegraph

ITV has scored a court victory over services that retransmit its broadcasts without permission, setting the scene for a battle this summer with its biggest shareholder, Liberty Global, the owner of Virgin Media. The broadcaster took TVCatchup.com to the European Court of Justice to stop it offering ITV’s channels for free streaming online. Channel 4 and Channel 5 also backed the challenge. - Telegraph

Philip Hammond is expected to use Wednesday’s budget to announce that tax revenues will be used to build up a reserve to deal with uncertainties arising from Brexit, rather than increase spending on the health service. The chancellor has indicated that some extra money will be allocated for social care. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has warned that £12bn should be immediately redirected to the NHS, warning that “the crisis is happening now”. - Guardian

More than 600 NHS quango chiefs are now on six-figure salaries, with a doubling in the number earning more than the Prime Minister, new figures show. Many of the highest earners have made repeated demands on Government to increase NHS funding as it battles against its worst financial deficit in history. - Telegraph

Germany’s largest lender has announced plans to raise €8 billion through a share sale and selling part of its asset management business. Deutsche Bank’s fundraising plans come less than two years into a restructuring by John Cryan, the lender’s chief executive who had said that he wanted to avoid selling shares in a fundraising that risked diluting existing shareholders. - The Times

US close

Wall Street finished the last session of the week with slight gains even as Fed chair Janet Yellen and other top US central bank officials flagged the likelihood of another interest rate hike on 15 March, when the country's rate-setters were next due to meet.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 0.01% higher at 21,005.71, the S&P 500 edged up 0.05% to 2,383.12 and the Nasdaq was 0.16% stronger to 5,870.75.

Meanwhile, oil prices gained with West Texas Intermediate up 1.12% to $53.20 per barrel.

In remarks to the Executives' Club of Chicago, Yellen said "at our meeting later this month (March), the Committee will evaluate whether employment and inflation are continuing to evolve in line with our expectations, in which case a further adjustment of the federal funds rate would likely be appropriate."

According to Bloomberg data, her remarks saw Fed funds futures move to price in a 96.0% probability of a 25 basis point interest rate hike on 15 March, up from 40% the week before.