HarbourVest secures new credit facility, Johnson Service Group trading in line

Stocks to watch

Investment company HarbourVest Global Private Equity has secured a new $600m multi-currency credit facility with Credit Suisse AG and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Banking Corporation. The lenders will provide $300m each. The new facility is structured as a five-year evergreen with a two-year initial no-notice provision, giving a guaranteed initial term of seven years.

Johnson Service Group, the provider of work-wear and hospitality linen rental, said trading for the second half of the year had been in line with expectations and that it is planning to open a new laundry in the north of England. During the six months to 31 December, the company completed the £3.3m investment in its Stalbridge Linen unit in London and successfully integrated the August acquisition of South West Laundry into the Stalbridge brand.

Leaf Clean Energy announced on Friday that the Delaware Supreme Court had scheduled oral argument in its appeal of the damages awarded to it in the Invenergy lawsuit for 13 February. The AIM-traded firm said it anticipated that the court would issue its opinion within 90 days of oral argument. It said that, given the likelihood that the appeal would be resolved in the first half of calendar 2019, and desiring to reduce its expenses ahead of the pending resolution, its board had approved a 70% reduction to all directors' fees with effect from 1 January.

Newspaper round-up

The bosses of the UK’s biggest companies are facing renewed scrutiny over excessive pay deals, after new figures showed top executives earned the average worker’s annual salary within the first three working days of 2019. Dubbed “Fat Cat Friday”, 4 January is the date by which the average CEO of a FTSE 100 company pockets the equivalent take-home pay of a typical full-time worker in the UK. – Guardian

Google moved €19.9bn ($22.7bn) through a Dutch shell company to Bermuda in 2017, as part of an arrangement that allows it to reduce its foreign tax bill, according to documents filed at the Dutch chamber of commerce. The amount channelled through Google Netherlands Holdings BV was about €4bn more than in 2016, the documents, filed on 21 December, showed. – Guardian

Housebuilders have been told to stop blaming the planning system for holding back the supply of new homes as new figures show councils are speeding through applications at their fastest rate in over a decade. Around 87pc of major applications for residential planning permission were processed within 13 weeks or an agreed time limit in the year to last summer, compared with a low-point of just 47pc five years earlier. – Telegraph

Apple's shock profit warning has dragged it further down the list of the most valuable companies, as Alphabet became the third company to leapfrog the iPhone maker in less than two months. Shares in Apple plunged by almost 10pc after markets opened in New York, putting its valuation at around $675bn (£536bn). It is now worth less than Microsoft, which has a market capitalisation at around $755bn, Amazon, worth $738bn, and Alphabet, $717bn. – Telegraph

Three former Credit Suisse bankers were arrested in London yesterday on charges that they took part in a $2 billion fraud scheme involving state-owned companies in Mozambique. Andrew Pearse, Surjan Singh and Detelina Subeva were charged in an indictment filed in a New York court with conspiring to violate American anti-bribery laws and to commit money laundering and securities fraud, according to John Marzulli, a spokesman for federal prosecutors in Brooklyn. They have been released on bail. – The Times

US close

US stocks finished with some heavy losses on Thursday, as Apple’s move to slash its first-quarter sales guidance and a softer-than-expected manufacturing report spooked investors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the session down 2.83% at 22,686.22, the S&P 500 was off 2.48% at 2,447.89, and the Nasdaq 100 fell 3.36% to end at 6,147.13.

At the opening bell, the Dow had tumbled more than 550 points as a result of Apple warning investors after the close on Wednesday that its first-quarter revenues would be lower than expected due to weaker sales in China.

The tech giant said it now expects revenues of around $84bn over the three months to 29 December, down from previous guidance of between $89bn and $93bn.

It would mark Apple’s first quarterly year-on-year drop since 2016.

In a letter to shareholders, chief executive Tim Cook highlighted slowing growth in China and trade tensions with the US.