Sirius Real Estate raises EUR 59.9m, Unilever kicks off share buyback

Stocks to watch

Business park owner Sirius Real Estate said it had raised €59.9m through a bond note issue to fund a “significant pipeline” of potential acquisitions. The issue was backed by a single unnamed international institutional investor which had approached the company “wishing to support our long term strategy”, Sirius said. "This tap Issuance follows our successful €165m equity raise last November and further demonstrates the continued appeal of our strategy, platform and portfolio to both credit and equity investors,” said finance chief Chris Bowman.

Unilever announced the start of its share buyback programme worth up to €1.5bn on Friday, confirming an initial tranche of up to €850m in shares. The FTSE 100 consumer goods giant said the initial tranche would run to 30 August, in a bid to reduce its capital within the limits set by the general meeting on 1 May 2024. Goldman Sachs International had been instructed to conduct the first tranche independently of Unilever.

Newspaper round-up

The number of UK bank branches that have shut their doors for good over the last nine years will pass 6,000 on Friday, and by the end of the year the pace of closures may leave 33 parliamentary constituencies – including two in London – without a single branch. The tally is being published by the consumer group Which? as it seeks to make the “avalanche” of closures and the “disastrous” impact they can have on local communities an election battleground. – Guardian

Three UK banks have announced cuts to the cost of fixed-rate mortgages, reversing some of the price rises seen in recent weeks. Barclays Bank has announced it will reduce the price of five-year fixed-rate deals for new borrowers and remortgagors by up to 0.45 percentage points from Friday. Its five-year fixed-rate for borrowers with a 40% deposit is decreasing from 4.47% to 4.34%. – Guardian

Swathes of nuclear waste are set to be buried in the English countryside after ministers agreed to dig a 650ft pit starting this decade. The facility, which has yet to be allocated a site, will hold some of the 5m tonnes of waste that was generated by nuclear power stations over the past seven decades. This will ease pressure on the 17 nuclear waste disposal plants currently in operation around the country, which consist of giant sheds and cooling ponds. – Telegraph

A group fighting for compensation for 150,000 Northern Rock shareholders whose shares were seized in the lender’s 2007 collapse and nationalisation is to resuscitate its campaign. The Northern Rock Shareholder Action Group accused the government of grabbing profits of as much as £9 billion after it took control of the mortgage bank in the wake of a depositor run. – The Times

The prospect of government opposition to a proposed £3.5 billion acquisition of the Royal Mail’s parent company has receded after the business secretary welcomed contractual undertakings being negotiated as part of a Czech tycoon’s takeover. In a potentially politically significant moment for the deal, on Thursday Kemi Badenoch met Martin Seidenberg, the chief executive of International Distributions Services, Royal Mail’s parent company, after Wednesday’s 370p-per-share “non-binding” proposal from EP Group, a conglomerate controlled by Daniel Kretinsky, a billionaire investor. – The Times

US close

US stock markets finished lower on Thursday, dropping into the red in afternoon trade, as investors took profits amid a barrage of economic data after Wall Street's three main indices all hit record highs the previous session.

The Dow closed down 0.10% at 39,869.38, after briefly topping the 40,000 mark for the first time in history, pulling back from the previous day's all-time closing high of 39,908.

The S&P 500 also slipped from back from record highs, falling 0.21% to 5,297.10, while the Nasdaq declined to 16,698.32, down 0.26% from Thursday's peak of 16,742.39.

US building permits fell by 3% to 1.44m in April, according to the Census Bureau, the lowest reading since December 2022 and below market expectations of 1.48m, while housing starts rose 5.7% month-on-month to 1.36m, below forecasts of 1.42m.

Seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims fell by 10,000 over the week ending on 11 May. Economists had anticipated a drop to 220,000.