WPP acquires Corebiz, Direct Line revises combined operating ratio target

Stocks to watch

Public relations and advertising giant WPP has acquired Latin American eCommerce agency Corebiz for an undisclosed sum as part of an effort to strengthen its digital commerce capabilities in the region.

WPP said on Monday that the acquisition was aligned with its accelerated growth strategy, building on existing capabilities in the areas of commerce and technology.

Direct Line Insurance has revised its combined operating ratio target range to 96-98% after a spike in motor claims inflation.

"We have already taken actions including increasing prices and deploying new pricing capability to restore margins, which mean we expect our 2023 combined operating ratio will improve to around 95% and we reiterate our medium-term target range of 93-95%," the company said on Monday.

Newspaper round-up

Loot boxes in video games will not be banned in the UK, despite a government consultation finding evidence of a "consistent" association between the features and problem gambling. Loot boxes have attracted comparison with gambling because they allow players to spend money to unlock in-game rewards, such as special characters, weapons, or outfits, without knowing what they will get. - Guardian

Amazon's grocery arm is to take on Tesco with a new price match promise as it becomes the latest retail giant to pledge it will keep prices low for customers amid the cost of living crisis. Amazon Fresh will start its Tesco Clubcard Price Match campaign on Monday, matching and freezing hundreds of prices in line with discounts by the supermarket giant. - Guardian

A new £6.0bn business loan scheme is to be given the green light by ministers within days, providing firms more cheap debt to survive the looming downturn. Whitehall sources said a longer-term successor to the Recovery Loan Scheme is expected to be signed off by the Treasury and the business department this week after the unveiling of the new state-backed lifelines was hampered by delays. - Telegraph

More people are cancelling their video subscriptions to save money in the face of the cost of living squeeze, with under-24s most likely to walk away. In the second quarter of the year, almost 1.66m services were dropped from the likes of Netflix, Now and Disney in the UK and more than a third of these were directly attributable to people tightening their belts. Half a million households cancelled all their subscriptions, according to Kantar, the market researcher. - The Times

The architect of a failed plan to sell one of Britain's oldest mutual insurers to an American private equity firm is to leave the company. Mark Hartigan, chief executive of LV=, will go in the autumn in a departure orchestrated by his board colleagues, Sky News first reported. The announcement could come as early as today, though it is not clear whether Hartigan will receive a pay-off. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed higher on Friday as market participants digested more bank earnings.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.15% at 31,288.26, while the S&P 500 was 1.92% firmer at 3,863.16 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.79% stronger at 11,452.42.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com