Vodafone India agrees $23bn merger, Hansteen disposing of portfolios for £1.1bn
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open flat on Monday, after closing up 0.12% at 7,424.96 on Friday.
Stocks to watch
Vodafone has agreed terms of a $23bn merger between its Indian business and Idea Cellular, which is part of the Aditya Birla Group. Vodafone will own 45.1% of what will be India's largest telecoms company, which as a joint venture will reduce its net debt by approximately $8.2bn and is expected add to Vodafone's cash flow from the first full year post completion.
LondonMetric Property said it it had bought two last mile distribution warehouses in Leeds for £12m, reflecting a blended net initial yield of 6% and a reversionary yield of 6.5%. One warehouse is let to Vision Alert Automotives on a new 15 year lease at £5.00 per square foot (PSF) with open market rent reviews. The other is let to Siemens at £5.25 PSF with three years remaining of the 10 year lease.
Facilities manager Carillion has won a £90m contract from the UK Defence Infrastructure Organisation to design and build a communications centre in Cyprus. Construction of the centre will being in April and is expected to be completed by the end of January 2019.
Hansteen announced on Monday that it agreed to dispose of its German and Dutch portfolios for €1.28bnm to entities owned by funds advised by affiliates of The Blackstone Group and M7 Real Estate. The FTSE 250 firm said the portfolios were being sold on a debt free basis for cash, and the value given to the German and Dutch portfolio remained subject to a net asset value adjustment post-completion. Its board said the price represented a premium of about €76m, or 6%, to the year end valuation - which itself included a valuation uplift of €34m over the 31 December 2015 valuation.
Newspaper round-up
Ministers from the world’s leading economies have agreed to review banking regulations in a move that could start to unpick reforms made since the financial crisis. The decision was taken at the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Baden-Baden, Germany, over the weekend. - The Times
Surging share prices are making households wealthier, boosting confidence and offsetting some of the squeeze from rising inflation and sluggish wage growth. Britons’ net financial wealth has jumped by 12.5pc in the past year according to economists at the EY Item Club - rising four times more quickly than wages. - Telegraph
An oil company has drilled a well in the green belt without permission and ignored repeated warnings that it would need consent, a council has said. Angus Energy continued to drill at Brockham, Surrey, in January despite the county council writing to the company twice to say that it required planning approval. - The Times
Embattled Barclays executives facing criminal charges over a fundraising deal have made a last-ditch plea for leniency. Eight former bosses have been investigated by the Serious Fraud Office, which is examining a rescue by Middle Eastern investors who pumped £7bn into the bank in 2008 as it teetered on the brink of collapse. - Mail
Theresa May will face demands from the leaders of the UK’s devolved governments to radically rethink her approach to the union as she begins a four-nation tour before beginning Britain’s exit from the EU. Downing Street said the visits, which will begin on Monday in Swansea with the Welsh first minister, Carwyn Jones, would ensure the government was “engaging and listening to people from right across the nation” before triggering article 50. - Guardian
US close
US stocks were little changed on Friday as investors kept an eye on proceedings at the G20 meeting of finance ministers in Germany, although bank shares did end the week on a down note.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.10% at 20,914.62, the S&P 500 drifted lower 0.13% or 3.13 points to end at 2,378.25 and the Nasdaq Composite was flat at 5,901.00.
From a sector standpoint the best performance was to be seen in the following industry groups: gambling (2.23%), Defence (1.56%) and Real Estate Holdings (1.35%).
As of Friday evening, little progress had apparently been made by the assembled finance ministers in reaching a common position on international trade, with US concern over the size of Germany and China's trade surpluses vis-a-vis the States one of the main sources of friction.
Elsewhere, a meeting at the White House between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Donald Trump in Washington ended with a frigid press conference, as the US leader continued to voice his position that current trade arrangements between the two nations were "very, very unfair" for his country.