Schroders to acquire Greencoat Capital, Hiscox taps Paul Cooper for CFO

Stocks to watch

Asset manager Schroders has agreed to acquire a 75% stake in specialist investment manager Greencoat Capital Holdings for an initial cash consideration of £358.0m.

Schroders said on Tuesday that the deal included a series of options for it to acquire the remaining 25% of Greencoat over time, at a price based on a fair market valuation at the time of the option exercise. The acquisition also includes a potential earn out payment, payable three years after completion and capped at £120.0m.

International specialist insurer Hiscox said it had appointed Paul Cooper as group chief financial officer.

Cooper is currently interim group CFO at M&G, the FTSE 100 asset manager and life insurer and has more than 25 years financial services experience including across both the retail and Lloyd's insurance markets, Hiscox said on Tuesday.

Newspaper round-up

Major retailers are having to offload Christmas trees for £1 or less after shoppers shied away from UK high streets and retail centres in the last weekend before Christmas. B&Q has cut the price of its fresh trees – some costing £49 or more – to £1 or less at stores around the country. One shopper posted a picture on social media of trees priced as little as 10p in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. - Guardian

Walmart illegally dumps more than 1.0m batteries, aerosol cans of insect killer and other products, toxic cleaning supplies, electronic waste, latex paints and other hazardous waste into California landfills each year, state prosecutors have alleged. In a lawsuit announced on Monday, the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, accused the retail giant of failing to properly dispose of discarded or returned goods. - Guardian

City traders toasting another successful year would normally pile into pubs and bars on the weekend before Christmas. But this year the wood-panelled rooms in pubs across London fell silent as revellers stayed away - so much so, that some were forced to shut their doors. Clive Watson, chief executive of parent company City Pub Group, has closed venues that survive on business from office workers after the Government's encouragement to work from home triggered an exodus from the City. - Telegraph

The Serious Fraud Office is facing another battle to defend its reputation after judges condemned the agency's prosecution of several former oil industry executives. Lawyers for Paul Bond, one of four men jailed in the Unaoil case, are poised to appeal against the 69-year-old’s conviction. A similar verdict against Ziad Akle was quashed earlier this month. - Telegraph

A £4.0bn takeover of Selfridges by Central Group, of Thailand, and Signa Group, of Austria, is close to being announced, The Times has learnt. A sale of the department stores group by the Canadian Weston family could be announced as early as this week as both sides try to seal a deal before the new year. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed sharply lower on Monday as market participants monitored a resurgence in global Covid-19 cases due to the omicron variant.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.23% at 34,932.16, while the S&P 500 was 1.14% weaker at 4,568.02 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 1.24% softer at 14,980.94.

The Dow Jones closed 433.28 points lower on Monday, extending losses recorded in the previous session as a volatile week for the blue-chip index drew to a close.