Network International preparing response to criticisms, BHP confirms restarts at Samarco complexes

Stocks to watch

London-listed payments company Network International Holdings said it would publish in January a response to criticisms by Shadowfall Research over its $288m (£213m) acquisition of African business DPO Group and links to collapsed German fintech Wirecard. “We take any critique of the company seriously. While we believe many of the issues raised have already been addressed, the historical nature of certain statements in the report means that a full response will take some time. Network expects to publish a response by the end of January 2021,” the company said on Thursday.

BHP said on Thursday that its Samarco Mineração joint venture has met the licensing requirements to restart operations at the Germano complex in Minas Gerais and the Ubu complex in Espírito Santo, Brazil, and had commenced iron ore pellet production. The FTSE 100 company said operations were suspended following the failure of the Fundão dam on 5 November 2015. It said the gradual restart of operations for Samarco, in which it owns 50% alongside Vale, incorporated concentrator three at the Germano complex and pelletising plant four at Ubu, as well as a new system of tailings disposal combining a confined pit and tailings filtering system for dry stacking.

Newspaper round-up

Chinese regulators have launched an anti-monopoly investigation into Alibaba and called in for talks its online finance spinoff, Ant Group – increasing pressure on the e-commerce company founded by the Chinese tech entrepreneur Jack Ma. On Thursday the state market supervision administration said it had filed an investigation into Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd over “suspected monopolistic practices”. – Guardian

About 30,000 customers of Now:Pensions face an anxious Christmas after a serious data breach at the pensions provider led to their sensitive personal details being posted on the internet. In an email sent to affected customers, the workplace pensions firm warned that names, postal and email addresses, birth dates and National Insurance numbers all appeared in a public forum online. – Guardian

More than 170,000 businesses have already been forced to shut by Tier 4 restrictions amid a disastrous slump in footfall just before Christmas - with another 50,000 to close from Boxing Day as the rules are expanded. The new regime has already closed more than 130,000 shops, 8,500 pubs, 3,700 hair and beauty salons and 1,000 gyms in London and swathes of the South east and east of England , according to consultant Altus Group. – Telegraph

Shareholders at Informa have staged a revolt over a new executive pay plan that has less onerous targets. The FTSE 100 company said in a stock market statement that a resolution to adopt the share award scheme had passed, but that 40.6 percent of votes had been cast against it. Informa, the world’s largest exhibitions group, arranges more than 500 events a year, including the Monaco Yacht Show. It also owns Taylor & Francis, the academic publisher, and the Lloyd’s List shipping news service. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks finished mixed on Wednesday, as investors digested the concern expressed by president Donald Trump over the Covid-19 relief package agreed by Congress.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.38% at 30,129.83 and the S&P 500 added 0.08% to 3,690.01, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.29% to 12,771.11.

The Dow closed 114.32 points higher on Wednesday, cutting into losses recorded in the previous session that came despite Congress finally passing a long-delayed Covid-19 stimulus package.

Futures had been in the green prior to the open as well, despite Trump's labelling of the bill as a "disgrace" being seen as a likely further hurdle the deployment of funds to struggling Americans.

The president implored lawmakers to alter the contents of the bill, most notably the amount allocated for direct payments to Americans but did not threaten to veto the legislation and rather insisted that if he was not sent a "suitable bill" the next administration "will have to deliver a Covid relief package".