AstraZeneca to buy drug developer Alexion, Polypipe to beat expectations on profit
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The FTSE 100 is expected to open 11 points lower on Monday, having closed down 0.8% on Friday at 6,546.75.
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Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said it was buying US drug developer Alexion in a cash and shares deal worth $39bn. Both companies have approved the deal, which still needs regulatory and shareholder approval. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. "This acquisition allows us to enhance our presence in immunology," AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot said in a statement.
Polypipe Group said annual profit would beat expectations after revenue rose 8% in November. Underlying operating profit for the year to the end of December will be about £40m, exceeding the consensus forecast range of £35m to £37m, the company said.
Newspaper round-up
The online furniture retailer Made is giving share options worth more than £10,000 to all its staff after the company benefited from new shopping habits forged during the lockdown. Coronavirus restrictions, coupled with the shift to working from home, proved the catalyst for a boom in home furnishings sales, with consumer cash usually spent on foreign holidays and socialising funnelled instead into interior makeovers, sofas and desks. - Guardian
Buy-to-let landlords are joining the rush to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday, with the proportion of property sales agreed with investors hitting its highest level in four years. In November, landlords made 15% of agreed property purchases in England, Wales, and Scotland, more than at any time since December 2016, according to research from the estate agent Hamptons. - Guardian
Hundreds of senior employees at British banks HSBC and Standard Chartered have been members of the Chinese Communist Party, according to documents seen by the Daily Telegraph. The lists show that at least 335 HSBC employees were CCP members. Current members include the senior vice president of HSBC China, the president of HSBC’s Shenzhen office and the deputy manager of Hong Kong Corporate and Consumer Products are listed as members. - Telegraph
A no-deal Brexit will cause “significant damage” to a manufacturing sector that has already suffered a 12 per cent drop in output this year, an industry body has said. Make UK warned that the sector was lagging behind the broader economy in its recovery from the pandemic, as it downgraded its forecasts for economic growth even without the threatened impact of no-deal. - The Times
A collection of fashion retailers and investors including Primark and River Island are in the running to buy parts of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia empire. Sources suggest that 40 parties have registered an interest in the auction of Arcadia’s brands being handled by administrators at Deloitte, despite suggestions that the collapse of Arcadia and Debenhams could spell the death of high street retail. - The Times
US close
Stocks on Wall Street finished in a mixed state on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average managing gains of 0.16% to close at 30,046.37.
At the same time, the S&P 500 was down 0.13% at 3,663.46, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.23% to 12,377.87.