Frasers Group takes stake in AO World, Glencore offers to buy Teck's coal business

Stocks to watch

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has said it had taken an 18.9% stake in electrical retailer AO World for £75m. The owner of Sports Direct, House of Fraser and other retail clothing chains said it bought 109.4 million shares at 68p each. “The investment is the culmination of productive talks over the last two years about establishing a strategic partnership,” AO World said in a statement.

Glencore on Monday said it had offered to buy Teck Resources' steelmaking coal business as a standalone unit. The Swiss mining and trading giant said it had made the alternative proposal “ as it is expected to allow for a value accretive demerger of the combined coal and carbon steel materials business”. “We also note continued strong support from shareholders for a transaction between Glencore and Teck,” it added.

Newspaper round-up

Britain will be left with deep scars from the pandemic despite narrowly escaping a second recession within three years and growing signs of an economic pick up, according to new forecasts. A new report by the accountancy firm KPMG has found that the economy has enjoyed a better start to the year than it had thought, and is now expected to grow by 0.3% this year, compared with its previous prediction of an uplift of just 0.1%. – Guardian

Waitrose has cut the price of bread, beef mince, chicken and other kitchen staples as the supermarket battles to recover from an IT meltdown that caused widespread empty shelves. The grocer is slashing the cost of hundreds of items for the second time this year, after pledging to spend £100m on making its prices more affordable. – Telegraph

London homeowners will see their annual bill jump by up to £7,300 when they remortgage this year as 3.5 million borrowers face a rate shock. Nationally, homeowners will have to spend nearly an extra £9bn in interest over 2023 and 2024 as they are forced to refinance at rates that are double what they are used to, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. – Telegraph

HMRC’s delayed programme to digitise the tax system is expected to cost five times its estimate in real terms, according to the spending watchdog. The National Audit Office (NAO) warned that “significant delivery risks” continued to loom over the “making tax digital” scheme, which was announced eight years ago. It has been delayed four times. – The Times

Just days after fresh allegations surfaced of sexual misconduct by Crispin Odey, one of Britain’s most high-profile financiers, partners at the firm he founded moved quickly to oust him. Peter Martin, the chief executive of Odey Asset Management, and Michael Ede, chief financial and operating officer, signed a statement on Saturday from its executive committee announcing that Odey, 64, was leaving the firm that he founded 32 years ago. – The Times

US close

Stocks on Wall Street closed marginally higher on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.13% at 33,876.78.

The S&P 500 added 0.11% to 4,298.86, and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 0.16% at 13,259.14.