New York arbitrator rules in favour of Flutter in Fox spat, Croda FD to retire

Stocks to watch

Sports betting giant Flutter revealed on Monday that Fox had secured the right to purchase an 18.6% stake in FanDuel, ending a more than year-long legal battle between the two.

However, the price Fox will be required to hand over for the stake will based on a valuation of $20.0bn, according to a ruling from New York arbitrator, and not an implied valuation of $11.2bn that it had been fighting for. If Fox choses to exercise its option, it will be forced to fork out no less than $3.72bn.

Chemicals company Croda International said on Monday that group finance director Jez Maiden will retire from the group after eight years in the role.

Maiden will be succeeded by former Meggitt chief financial officer Louisa Burdett on 13 March. Burdett served four years as Meggitt's CFO before it was acquired by Parker-Hannifin in September.

Energean said its Zeus-01 exploration well off the coast of Israel had made a commercial gas discovery of 13.0bn cubic metres of gas and it was now conducting post-well analysis of the find.

It added that an audit of its Athena discovery had upgraded reserves by 3.0bcm to 14.75bcm after post-well studies of drilling data.

Newspaper round-up

More than 138,000 residential and commercial properties in England and Wales are owned by offshore companies, with holdings in London worth a combined £55.0bn, according to research shared with the Guardian. The findings come as the government begins a crackdown to dismantle the secrecy that surrounds offshore property ownership, which it says has been used by "corrupt elites laundering money through UK property". – Guardian

Jeremy Hunt will set out tax rises and spending cuts totalling £60.0bn at the autumn statement under current plans, including at least £35.0bn in cuts, the Guardian understands. Ministers must submit the key points of the autumn statement to the Office for Budget Responsibility by Monday morning. – Guardian

Potential customers of Britishvolt were quoted prices of up to a third higher than competitors as the company prepares to battle cheaper Chinese rivals. One potential buyer told The Telegraph that he was put off by quoted prices for delivery in a few years' time exceeding today's prices. Battery prices are generally predicted to decline over time as production methods and technology improve. – Telegraph

Waitrose has insisted its supermarkets are better-stocked than some of its rivals despite claims that a bungled IT project has left many of its stores with empty shelves. The supermarket, which is owned by the John Lewis Partnership, said independent data showed product availability at its branches was higher than at competitors. – Telegraph

Meta is planning to begin large-scale layoffs this week, it emerged last night, in what may be among the largest round of recent culls in tech. The layoffs were expected to affect thousands of employees, with an announcement planned for as soon as Wednesday, according to the Wall Street Journal. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks rounded out the week with gains on Friday as investors digested a hotter-than-expected non-farm payrolls report.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.26% at 32,403.22, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.36% to 3,770.55 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.28% stronger at 10,475.25.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com