United Utilities profits dip, Hammerson splashes out in Europe
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to rise 28 points on Wednesday, according to pre-market trading.
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Underlying interim pre-tax profits at United Utilities fell £16m to £189m, as a £4m increase in underlying operating profit was more than offset by a £19m increase in underlying net finance expense. United said the increase in underlying net finance expense was mainly due to the impact of higher RPI inflation on its index-linked debt.
Property investor Hammerson has agreed to buy four outlet centres in Europe worth a combined €587m (£502m), in order to expand in the territory. The company, along with partners APG, Meyer Bergman and Value Retail in their joint venture VIA Outlets, have agreed to buy the outlets, which are close to major cities in Germany, Portugal, Spain and Poland.
As it closes in on the £6.6bn deal that will make it the UK's biggest software company, Micro Focus reported merging company Hewlett Packard Enterprise's revenues fell but margins improved. HPE saw revenues slide 6% in the fourth quarter, which resulted in a 12% decline to $3.2bn in the year to end-October, while margins widened to to 23.4%.
Newspaper round-up
Britain’s landlords will suffer a further blow on Wednesday as Philip Hammond announces a ban on letting agents charging fees to tenants. In his first Autumn Statement, the chancellor will take aim at the charges letting agents can levy on tenants which can include administrative services such as checking references, preparing a tenancy agreement, renewing a tenancy or ending a contract. – Financial Times
The boss of Heathrow’s biggest customer, British Airways, only discovered that building the airport’s planned third runway would require the demolition of his airline’s head office after looking at a map. Willie Walsh, the chief executive of BA’s parent company IAG, claimed that despite the group being responsible for about half of all flights at the London hub, he received no formal warning of the proposed demolition. – Guardian
Germany’s flagship carrier Lufthansa said it would cancel nearly 900 flights on Wednesday because of a strike by pilots, causing travel disruption for tens of thousands of passengers in the latest escalation of a long-running pay dispute. The stoppage, called by the pilots’ union Cockpit, would start at midnight and affect Lufthansa flights at airports across Germany. – Guardian
US close
US stocks ended in the black on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones closing above 19,000 for the first time ever, although oil prices retreated amid concerns that Iran and Iraq are not prepared to agree on a production cut at next week’s OPEC meeting.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 0.4% to finish at 19,023.87, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to its own record of 2,202.94 and the Nasdaq gained 0.3% to a record 5,386.35 too.
Oil prices settled mixed, with West Texas Intermediate down 0.7% at $47.92 a barrel and Brent crude up 0.3% at $49.04.