Unilever appoints new CEO, Shaftesbury reports 'buoyant' trading over Xmas

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was called to open 25 points lower at 7,740.

Stocks to watch

Property manager Shaftesbury said its estate in London’s West End saw "buoyant" footfall and trading through the Christmas period, despite the broader cost-of-living crisis.

The company said occupier turnover grew 42% year on year in the three months to December 31 and 6% vs pre-pandemic December 2019.

Consumer goods giant Unilever has appointed Hein Schumacher as its new chief executive officer.

Schumacher will replace Alan Jope, who announced his intention to retire in September 2022.

Hein is currently CEO of the global dairy and nutrition business Royal FrieslandCampina and became a non-executive director of Unilever in October last year. He will begin as Unilever CEO on 1 July 2023, after a one-month handover period.

Newspaper round-up

The regular dividends that investors receive from owning shares in UK-listed companies soared by 16.5% in 2022, far outstripping wage growth in either the private or public sector. Investors’ returns from underlying dividends – excluding volatile one-off payouts – reached £84.8bn during the year, partly owing to a £3.8bn boost from the weakness of the pound, which inflated the figures for dividends paid in dollars. – Guardian

British households cut more than 2m subscriptions to services such as Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ last year, as the cost of living crisis fuelled the first annual decline since the UK streaming revolution began a decade ago. Despite a boost from the royal family, with viewers flocking to the Harry & Meghan documentary and enduring demand for episodes of The Crown, almost 900,000 UK households gave up on the streaming services last year, as the total number having at least one paid-for subscription fell from 17.12m in 2021 to 16.24m. – Guardian

BBC, ITV and Channel 4 shows streamed on YouTube will be counted alongside traditional viewing figures under major changes being proposed by the industry. The Telegraph has learnt that the Broadcasters Audience Research Board (Barb), the official TV ratings agency, has approached YouTube asking it to apply to join the organisation. – Telegraph

Frasers Group will launch new financial services this year that will allow shoppers to buy its products on credit. The FTSE 100 tracksuits-to-computer games retail empire plans to lend customers up to £2,000 under its new “Frasers Plus” brand. – The Times

Caffè Nero has returned to pre-pandemic sales in its core British business, culminating in December sales averaging 110 per cent of pre-Covid levels. Results being published today show that in the half-year to November it achieved UK sales of £150 million, up 17 per cent on the same period in 2021 and averaging 104 per cent of its pre-pandemic levels. Like-for-like sales growth was also strong. – The Times

US close

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.1% on Friday, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended up 0.3% and 1% higher, respectively.