Weekly review

Equity view

Multinational bank Barclays has agreed to acquire UK specialist mortgage lender Kensington Mortgage Company as part of a deal valued at approximately £2.3bn. The FTSE 100-listed group said on Friday that the acquisition of Kensington Mortgage Company will be financed from existing resources and enable the bank to broaden its product offering and capabilities in the UK mortgage market.

The £2.6bn takeover of British defence manufacturer Ultra Electronics by a US private equity firm looks set to be waved on by the UK government after the Department for Business said it was minded to accept the deal. Cobham last year launched a takeover of Ultra Electronics, which makes systems such as sonar and radio communications used by military and civilian aircraft. Cobham itself was controversially taken over and broken up by US private equity investor Advent over 2019 and 2020.

Essential components manufacturer Essentra has chosen to dispose of its ESNT Packaging & Securing Solutions and Essentra Packaging US divisions to Austria's Mayr-Melnhof for a cash consideration of £312.0m. Essentra said on Friday that it intends to use the proceeds of the sale of its packaging division, which was still subject to various conditions, to further strengthen its balance sheet and make "a small contribution" to its defined benefit pension schemes.

Manufacturer Trackwise Designs warned on Friday that short-term group sales were now expected to be below previous market expectations. Trackwise said it now has an Improved Harness Technology sales pipeline with 95 customers and opportunities across its primary target markets of electric vehicles, medical, and aerospace.

UK residential landlord Grainger on Thursday said it had agreed to forward fund and buy the build-to-rent element of a Bristol development for £128m. The “Redcliff Quarter” comprises 374 private rental homes, as well as 94 affordable homes and six commercial units, the company said.

Real estate investment trust Urban Logistics saw net rental income grow over the 12 months ended 31 March amid "significant" capital deployment and a 25.4% increase in the group's property valuation to £153.0m. Urban Logistics said on Thursday that net rental income had surged 59.8% to £36.5m, leading to a total property return of 30.3%, up from 17.1% a year earlier, and an IFRS pre-tax profit of £172.0m.

Gambling and gaming group 888 Holdings said on Thursday that it expects interim revenues to be "broadly" in line with expectations. The Gibraltar-based firm, which is in the process of acquiring William Hill, said revenues were likely to come in between £330m and £335m for the six months to 30 June.

Trainline chief financial officer Shaun McCabe is leaving the online ticketing platform to join fast-fashion outfit Boohoo, the company said on Thursday. McCabe has been with Trainline for six years and will step down on September 15. Peter Wood, vice-president of finance, will assume the role of interim CFO whilst the process to appoint a successor is underway.

Software and information technology business Micro Focus posted a drop in first-half underlying earnings on Wednesday as revenues slipped on the back of an unstable macroeconomic environment. Micro Focus said adjusted underlying earnings for the six months ended 30 April had fallen to $449.0m, down from $511.0m at the same time a year earlier, while interim revenues dipped 6.8% at constant currency to $1.3bn.

Anglo American reported provisional rough diamond sales at De Beers of $650m (£533.13m) in its fifth cycle on Wednesday, up from $604m in cycle four of this year, and $477m in the same cycle of 2021. The FTSE 100 company said it had continued to take a “more flexible approach” to rough diamond sales during the cycle, extending the sight event beyond its usual week-long duration.

Vertu Motors said in an update on Wednesday that constrained supply of new vehicles in the UK was continuing, due to “dislocation” in global supply chains and the impact on vehicle production. The AIM-traded firm, which was holding its annual general meeting, said margins in both the new retail and fleet channels had remained strong as a result.

Semiconductor wafer and advanced materials supplier IQE announced the signing of a multi-year deal with Lumentum on Wednesday. The AIM-traded firm said the agreement was for the supply of epiwafers supporting 3D sensing, lidar for automotive, and optical networking applications.

Packaging business DS Smith posted significantly improved full-year profits on Tuesday despite experiencing "another year of volatile trading conditions". DS Smith posted a 21% year-on-year improvement in reported revenues to £7.24bn, partly driven by price increases implemented to offset significant cost inflation, pushing adjusted operating profits up by 23% to £616.0m and pre-tax profits ahead by 64% to £378.0m.

Budget airline easyJet on Tuesday said it was buying 56 Airbus A320neo aircraft for delivery between 2026 and 2029. The purchase will almost complete an aircraft supply arrangement with Airbus struck in 2013, easyJet said. It added that it planned to convert an order for 18 A320neo aircraft planned for delivery between 2024 and 2027 to A321neo planes.

Engineering and consulting business John Wood Group named Ken Gilmartin as its new chief executive officer on Tuesday, effective from 1 July. Wood Group said Gilmartin will succeed current CEO Robin Watson, who announced his intention to retire in April but will remain with the company until 30 September in an advisory role in order to support a smooth transition.

Telecom Plus - better known under its trading name Utility Warehouse - posted record full-year results on Tuesday, ahead of expectations, as it lifted its FY23 profit expectations. In the year to the end of March, adjusted pre-tax profit rose 10.3% to £61.9m, while statutory pre-tax profit was up 8.5% to £47.2m amid solid demand. Revenue grew 12.3% to £967.4m and the full-year dividend was maintained at 57p per share.

Gambling outfit Rank Group warned on full-year profits on Monday following a "softer performance" in its UK venues throughout the third quarter. Rank, which highlighted that it had entered Q4 with visitor numbers down across its Grosvenor casinos portfolio, said it had seen "some improvement" in Grosvenor's post-April performance, but noted that it was still "considerably weaker than expected", principally due to a slower than expected return of higher spending overseas customers to its London casinos, continued softness in visitor numbers across the UK, and a lower-than-average casino win margin in the quarter.

Moneysupermarket.com said chief financial officer Scilla Grimble was stepping down after four years with the group to take up a new position at fast-food delivery platform Deliveroo. The online price comparison platform said a search for Grimble's successor was underway and a further announcement on succession will be made in due course. She will remain as CFO to "support a smooth transition into 2023".

Hydrocarbon exploration and production firm Energean has extended its growth drilling programme by exercising options to drill two further wells with Stena Drilling. Energean said on Monday that its first new well will target the Hermes prospect, located in Block 31, and was expected to spud in August, while the primary target was the Tamar A sands.

Specialist recruitment firm SThree reported a 23% improvement in net fees in its second quarter on Monday, against a non-Covid impacted comparative period, as it hiked its full-year profit expectations. The London-listed firm said that for the first half ended 31 May, group net fees were up 25% year-on-year.

Economic news

UK retail sales fell in May as households cut spending on food amid the cost-of-living crisis, according to figures released on Friday by the Office for National Statistics. Retail sales were down 0.5% on the month following a 0.4% increase in April, which was revised down from 1.4% growth. This was mainly due to a 1.6% decline in food store sales and leaves sales volumes 2.6% above their pre-Covid 2020 level.

Consumer confidence has fallen to an historic low, a survey showed on Friday, as soaring inflation and the weakening economic outlook weighed heavily. The GfK Consumer Confidence Barometer's overall index was -41 in June, down on May’s -40 and April’s -38. The lowest score recorded during the pandemic was -36, in the first lockdown.

The summer of industrial action looks set to grow, with British Airways workers at Heathrow voting on Thursday to walk out at the height of the summer holidays. Members of both the GMB and Unite unions both overwhelmingly backed a strike over pay at the IAG-owned airline.

Retail sales fell in June, a survey published on Thursday found, as surging inflation weighed heavily on demand. According to the latest CBI Distributive Trades Survey, the retail sales volumes balance slipped in the year to June, to -5% from -1% in May.

UK economic activity stalled in May, a closely-watched survey showed on Thursday, weighed down by a slowdown in manufacturing. The S&P Global CIPS UK PMI Composite output index was 53.1 in June, unchanged on April’s 15-month low. Consensus had been for a fall to 52.4.

London's Heathrow airport raised passenger forecasts for the year on the back of stronger-than-expected travel demand. The West London airport said it now expected 54.4 million passengers this year, up from 53 million forecast last month, adding it was working closely with airlines and ground handlers to match supply and demand.

Public sector borrowing exceeded forecasts in May, official figures showed on Thursday, after surging inflation pushed up debt interest costs. The Office for National Statistics said public sector net borrowing, excluding public sector banks, was £14.0bn last month, well above forecasts for £12.0bn and the third-highest May borrowing since records began in 1993.

Households are facing steeply higher energy bills after Ofgem failed to build a resilient supplier market, parliament’s spending watchdog has found. The National Audit Office said customers will need to pay an estimated £2.7bn to cover the costs of the 28 energy suppliers that have failed since June 2021, in addition to the cost of running Bulb Energy. As the costs are distributed across all energy bills, and not just customers of collapsed companies, that equates to around £94 per customer.

UK house prices grew 12.4% in the year to April to a new record high, according to data released on Wednesday by the Office for National Statistics. This was up from 9.7% growth in March, and meant the average UK house price in April stood at £281,000, up £31,000 on the same time a year earlier. It also marked the second-largest annual rise since 2006.

UK inflation rose to a fresh 40-year high in May as energy and food prices continued to surge, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Office for National Statistics. Consumer price inflation ticked up to 9.1% from 9% in April, in line with analysts' estimates and hitting the highest level since March 1982.

Growth in manufacturing output eased last month, a closely-watched survey showed on Tuesday, while price expectations fell to a nine-month low. The CBI Industry Trends Survey's output growth balance was +25 for the three months to June, compared to +30 in May. Growth was also expected to ease further over the next three months, with a balance of +20, although it remains above the long-run average of +9.

International events

German business sentiment unexpectedly deteriorated in June, according to a survey released on Friday by the Ifo Institute. The business climate index fell to 92.3 from 93.0 in May, coming in below expectations for a reading of 92.9.

Output from America's private sector increased in June at its slowest pace since the appearance of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in January and was at its second-softest since July 2020, the results of two closely-followed surveys revealed. Nonetheless, while the survey compiler said the decline in business confidence added to the risk of recession, price gauges contained in the surveys also suggested that inflation had peaked.

The number of Americans filing fresh unemployment claims fell by 2,000 in the seven days ended 18 June to hit 229,000, below expectations for a print of 227,000 and pointing to an exceptionally tight labour market. According to the Labor Department, on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, initial claims fell by 3,255 from the previous week to 202,844, with notable decreases seen in Missouri, while the main increases were in California and Pennsylvania.

Business growth in the eurozone eased in June to a 16-month low as prices continued to surge and demand stalled, according to a survey released on Thursday. The S&P Global flash eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index - which measures activity in both the services and manufacturing sectors - fell to 51.9 from 54.8 in May, coming in below consensus expectations for a reading of 54.0.

The head of the US central bank said the Federal Reserve was "strongly committed" to reining in inflation and believed that further rate increases would be "appropriate" and that policy decisions would be made meeting by meeting. Nevertheless, he said that the Fed would strive not to add uncertainty at what was already an "extraordinarily challenging and uncertain time".

Sales of existing homes in America slowed for a fourth month running, returning to the levels seen in 2019 before Covid-19. According to the National Association of Realtors, in seasonally adjusted terms, existing home sales fell by 3.4% month-on-month to reach an annualised pace of 5.41m (consensus: 5.4m).

The Eurozone’s construction sector faltered in April, official data showed on Monday. According to initial estimates published by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office, seasonally-adjusted production in the construction sector fell by 1.1%, down on March’s marginal 0.1% rise. March's figure was revised upwards from 0.0%.

Producer prices continued to soar in Germany last month, official data published on Monday showed, driven by the growing cost of energy. According to Destatis, Germany’s Federal Statistics Office, producer prices surged 33.6% in May year-on-year, the fastest increase since the series began in 1949, or by 1.6% on the previous month. Destatis said increased energy prices were "mainly responsible" for the jump.

The People’s Bank of China kept its main lending rates unchanged on Monday, in line with expectations. The central bank left the key one-year loan prime rate (LPR) at 3.70%, and the five-year LPR at 4.45%. Consensus had been for no change for either rate.

Reporting by staff and contributors at Sharecast.com.