Greencore lifts full-year guidance, Imperial Brands strengthens shareholder returns

Stocks to watch

Convenience food producer Greencore lifted full-year profit guidance after a strong fourth quarter performance. The company, which makes sandwiches, soups and ready meals, on Tuesday said it expected adjusted operating profit of £95m-97m for the 12 months to September 27. Like-for-like revenue growth in the final three months was 3.7% and 3.4% for the year.

Imperial Brands has beefed up its shareholder returns programme by £400m after confirming it finished the fiscal year with in-line results, with growth in both tobacco and next generation products. Group adjusted operating profit growth over the 12 months to 30 September was “close to the middle” of the mid-single digit range guidance, the company said. For the current fiscal year, Imperial is targeting £2.8bn of returns, up from a £2.4bn commitment in the year just gone, comprising a 13.6% enlarged share buyback plan of £1.25bn and £1.5bn in cash dividends.

Harworth Group announced the acquisition of a newly-developed 285,000 square foot grade A urban logistics estate, ‘Catalyst’, in South Yorkshire on Tuesday, for £43.7m, reflecting a net initial yield of 5.4%. The FTSE 250 company said the acquisition aligned with its strategy to expand its investment portfolio and increase its proportion of grade A assets, with Catalyst adding significant frontage to its flagship Advanced Manufacturing Park. It said the estate was 90% let, with an anticipated annual rent of £2.5m once fully occupied, contributing to Harworth's goal of reaching £0.9bn in portfolio value by 2029.

Newspaper round-up

Ticket sales for the Oasis reunion tour helped to increase non-essential spending by British consumers to the highest level this year in September, amid a bumper month for retailers. In a sign of resilience despite a pre-budget hit to consumer confidence, industry figures show retail sales and discretionary spending on entertainment, meals out and little luxuries rose sharply last month. – Guardian

The risk of winter blackouts in Great Britain has tumbled to its lowest in four years even after the shutdown of the UK’s last coal plant, thanks to investments in low-carbon electricity sources. The National Energy System Operator (Neso) expects Britain’s winter power supplies to outstrip demand by almost 9% this year in its base case scenario, the greatest margin since the winter of 2019 to 2020. – Guardian

Britain is set to suffer the biggest exodus of millionaires in the world ahead of the Government’s planned raid on non-doms, analysis has found. The share of the population who are millionaires is expected to plunge by 20pc over the course of this Parliament, from 4.55pc now to 3.62pc over the next five years, according to an Adam Smith Institute analysis of UBS forecasts. This is in contrast to Germany, France and Italy, all of which are predicted to grow their share. – Telegraph

Saudi Arabia has struck a deal to become the junior partner in the iconic London department store Selfridges after buying out a bust Austrian property tycoon. In a tie-up with Thailand’s Central Group, a family-owned retail conglomerate, Saudi’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has acquired a 40pc stake in Selfridges from Rene Benko’s property business Signa. Under the terms of the deal, Central will have a 60pc stake in both the property and operating businesses of Selfridges, while PIF will significantly increase its 10pc position. – Telegraph

Richemont has struck a deal to offload Yoox Net-a-Porter, its struggling online luxury business, to its German rival Mytheresa after a previous sale agreement collapsed. The Swiss luxury conglomerate, which owns Cartier and other high-end jewellery and fashion brands, had been looking to sell YNAP after a previous plan to sell it to Farfetch fell apart last December. – The Times

US close

US stocks fell sharply on Monday with the Dow pulling back from record highs as investors adopted a cautious approach ahead of the third-quarter earnings season, while oil prices surged on the back of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.94% to 41,954.24, with just five of the index's 30 constituents finishing in positive territory.

The benchmark surged to a new closing high of 42,352.75 on Friday following a bumper jobs report for September, which showed that the American economy created significantly more jobs than expected.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 dropped 0.96% while the Nasdaq fell 1.18%.

No major corporate earnings were slated for release on Monday, but traders were patiently awaiting the beginning of Q3 earnings season later in the week, with heavyweights PepsiCo, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and BlackRock all set to report over the coming days.