Frasers' offer for MySale now unconditional, 888 Holdings Q3 revenues slip 7% YOY

Stocks to watch

Mike Ashley's Frasers Group said on Tuesday that its offer for Australian retailer MySale was now unconditional after passing the 50% threshold.

The company launched a 2.0p per share offer in August, which MySale initially rejected, but last week advised shareholders to accept after Frasers secured commitments from the founding Jackson family to sell their shares.

Bookmaker 888 Holdings said on Tuesday that group revenues had slipped 7% year-on-year to £449.0m in the three months ended 30 September, primarily due to enhanced UK online player safety measures and the shuttering of its Dutch operations.

Retail revenue was stable year-on-year at £124.0m, despite a £4.0m hit from three days of temporary closures and sporting fixture cancellations/postponements during the period of national mourning for Queen Elizabeth II, while total online revenues slumped 10% to £325.0m.

Newspaper round-up

The business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has opened talks with Britain's steelmakers amid concerns that thousands of jobs could be lost from the struggling industry. The government confirmed on Monday it had entered discussions with Tata Steel, owner of the UK's largest steelworks in Port Talbot, South Wales, and Jingye Group, which bought British Steel out of insolvency in 2020. – Guardian

Bensons for Beds has bought Eve Sleep hours after the online mattress specialist called in administrators, having succumbed to what its chief executive described as an "economic tsunami". Bensons, which has 166 stores and is owned by the private equity group Alteri Investors, said it had bought the website, brand and other related assets of Eve, including its creative content, in an attempt to widen its appeal to a younger customer. – Guardian

Europe must slash its gas consumption by more than a tenth to prevent the risk of power rationing and widespread blackouts this winter, the global energy watchdog has warned. The International Energy Agency said the Continent and the UK needed to voluntarily reduce gas demand by 13% in order to remain "safe and secure" if Russia cuts off supplies completely. – Telegraph

SoftBank is offloading its stake in THG, the UK e-commerce group, for about £31.0m, bringing to an end a disastrous investment that was once worth about £500.0m. The Japanese company is selling its 6.4% holding to THG founder and chief executive Matthew Moulding and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund for about 39.0p a share. That is a fraction of the 500.0p a share at which THG was floated in 2020. It is unclear how much SoftBank paid for the stake, but the company said last year it was worth more than £500.0m. – The Times

The American activist hedge fund Elliott Management paid the 106 staff at its British business a combined £137.0m last year after the division enjoyed a return to profit. The salary bill for Elliott Advisors equates to almost £1.3m a person and is up from the £113.3m that it paid in total to its employees in 2020, accounts filed at Companies House showed. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks were in the green at the end of trading as market participants digested more Q3 earnings reports from major banks.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.86% at 30,185.82, while the S&P 500 advanced 2.65% to 3,677.95 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 3.43% stronger at 10,675.80.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com