REA Group makes third pitch for Rightmove, AstraZeneca breast cancer drug trial fails

Rupert Murdoch’s REA Group has taken its third tilt at Rightmove with an increased offer for the UK housing portal valuing it at £6.1bn. REA’s offer is worth 770p per Rightmove share, made up of 341p in cash and 0.0422 new REA shares. The first approach on 5 September of 705p per share, or £5.6bn, was rejected by Rightmove which said it “fundamentally” undervalued the company. On Friday the offer was sweetened by £300m.

AstraZeneca announced on Monday that a phase three trial for with Daiichi Sankyo for datopotamab deruxtecan in metastatic HR-positive, HER2-low or negative breast cancer did not show a statistically significant improvement in overall survival compared to chemotherapy, although earlier results had indicated a benefit in progression-free survival and patient-reported outcomes. The FTSE 100 pharmaceuticals giant did report, however, that Fasenra had been recommended for approval in the EU for treating eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) based on a phase three trial that demonstrated that nearly 60% of patients achieved remission and 41% fully tapered off oral corticosteroids.

Newspaper round-up

Fifty pubs a month closed for good across England and Wales in the first half of this year, with experts warning that tax rises in 2025 could make it even harder for some businesses to keep their doors open. Analysis by the real estate intelligence company Altus found that 305 pubs were forced to shut their doors permanently in the first six months of the year, meaning the number of pubs in England and Wales fell to 39,096 at the end of June. – Guardian

The price of petrol and diesel in the UK is falling at the fastest pace this year, with households paying about £4 less to fill up a family car than they did a month ago. Analysis from the RAC found that the average price of a litre of unleaded petrol in the UK was now just above 136.15p, down 7p from the 142.86p recorded last month. Diesel now costs almost 141p a litre, compared with just under 148p a month ago. - Guardian

As many as 4m homes could be built on the green belt under Angela Rayner’s planning revolution, analysis shows. The Housing Secretary’s radical definition of so-called grey belt land could unlock sites for nearly 800,000 new homes across London and the South East alone, according to property data company LandTech. Hotspots in London’s commuter belt include the Tory constituencies of East Surrey and Orpington, which have potential grey belt sites for up to 115,000 and 89,000 homes respectively. – Telegraph

Manchester is growing as a competitive threat to Heathrow on routes to China after the number of seats being flown from the airport to the People’s Republic this winter rose by nearly fourfold. The increase comes as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have withdrawn services from Heathrow to China. – The Times

Britain’s open-ended fund management industry is growing increasingly passive and at a faster rate than the global average, figures suggest. Just under 30 per cent of open-ended funds domiciled in the UK follow the performance of the stock market rather than trying to beat it, according to estimates from Morningstar Direct, the web-based research platform. That compares with 19 percent five years ago. Open-ended passive funds are said to make up 24 per cent of the global total, excluding China and India. – The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks delivered a mixed performance on Friday following the previous session's strong rally.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.09% at 42,063.36, while the S&P 500 lost 0.19% to 5,702.55 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.36% weaker at 17,948.32.

The Dow closed 38.17 points higher on Friday, modestly extending gains recorded in the previous session as investors cheered the Federal Reserve Bank's decision to cut its base overnight interest rate by half a percentage point.

In terms of Friday's headlines, Nike revealed that chief executive John Donahoe had suddenly stood down from the role, while shares in logistics giant FedEx traded lower after it trimmed full-year earnings and revenue guidance.

No major data points were released on Friday.