Morning Financial Press Review 02/12/19
Below are the key morning and weekend press headlines, featuring the The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail & more - see the full Press section here.
Private equity barons trying to take private are facing a High Court legal challenge from hedge funds pushing for a higher price. A group of speculators has built stakes in the satellite operator since it agreed a $6bn (£4.5bn) take-private deal led by Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus in March. The group, led by Oaktree Capital, will urge the High Court not to approve the standard legal mechanism to finalise the deal, known as a scheme of arrangement. The challenge, first reported by The Sunday Telegraph, aims to force Apax and Warburg to up its offer to reflect potential income worth hundreds of millions of dollars from a separate venture, Ligado, which has sub-licensed radio frequencies from Inmarsat.
has opened talks with the City’s takeover referee as expectations rise that its two suitors will face off in a rare head-to-head auction over Christmas. Sources said that representatives from the delivery giant and the Takeover Panel are in discussions to lay the groundwork if Takeaway.com and Prosus fail to submit best and final offers to investors by Dec 27. Thereafter, strict City rules stipulate that regulators will take control of a five-day auction potentially ending in sealed bids. Prosus, the Dutch arm of South African internet titan Naspers, gatecrashed Just Eat’s all-share merger with Takeaway.com by pitching a £5bn cash approach in October.
is facing a backlash against its pay plans when shareholders meet to vote on its takeover of residential business. Leading shareholder advice group ISS has raised “significant concerns” about plans to increase potential bonus payouts. ISS is recommending shareholders vote against the changes at a meeting tomorrow. The new bonus plan is being put in place as Bovis Homes transforms into the country’s fourth largest housebuilder, producing up to 12,000 homes per year. It struck a £1bn deal in November to buy Galliford Try’s Linden Homes and Partnerships and Regeneration business, having sweetened an earlier all-share offer with £186m in cash.
The economy will pick up speed by 2021 if headwinds from Brexit are lifted, according to the CBI’s latest forecast. It predicted that GDP could be 1.8% by 2021, after more modest expansion of 1.3% this year and 1.2% in 2020. The CBI forecasts are based on the “assumption that Britain leaves the EU by January 31 next year and has clear line of sight to an ambitious trade deal” and that such a deal must involve “alignment with EU rules where essential for frictionless trade”. In the event of prolonged uncertainty over Brexit next year followed by a no-deal the following year, the CBI said growth would be 0.4%.
Insurer looks set to crash out of the FTSE 100 this week, to be replaced by rejuvenated budget airline . The Lloyd’s of London insurer, which has been hit by storm damage claims and fears over ballooning casualty payouts, is expected to be demoted from the leading index of listed companies on Wednesday. Its shares have dropped by 23% since the summer, including a fall early last month when it revealed it had set aside $165m (£125m) for claims from hurricane Dorian, which hit the Bahamas, and typhoons Faxai and Hagibis, which devastated Japan. The reshuffle by FTSE Russell, which compiles the index, is likely to see a return to the top tier for easyJet after a six-month absence.
has come under fire for paying its former boss nearly £5 million. Martin Sutherland received £4.8 million in pay for running the company since 2014 before stepping down in May after the first of three profit warnings which have pushed the company close to collapse. The crisis at the company follows the loss last year of a key £400 million contract to manufacture Britain’s new blue post-Brexit passports, which will now be made by Franco-Dutch rival Gemalto. On Tuesday, De La Rue warned that it could go bust if its turnaround plan fails. The company said there was a ‘material uncertainty that casts significant doubt on the group’s ability to operate as a going concern’. The announcement caused the shares to dive 20 per cent. Up to 2,500 jobs are at risk.
Saudi Arabia is planning to use its position at the head of the Opec oil cartel to buoy global oil prices before the $25bn stock market debut of its state-owned oil giant. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is due to meet its oil market allies this week to agree the cartel’s oil production policy for 2020. The world’s largest oil-producing countries are expected to maintain a tight rein on their oil output in an effort to keep global prices from tumbling below $65 a barrel. As Opec’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia is expected to use its position to push other members to tighten their compliance with the group’s agreed oil production limits, while cutting its own output even further than it needs to. The oil-rich kingdom hopes that if it keeps a lid on oil production next year the long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Aramco may fetch a good price on its market debut in the next two weeks. On Sunday, Iraq’s oil minister, Thamer Ghadhban, told reporters in Baghdad that Opec and allies outside the cartel, known as Opec+, would consider cutting supply further by about 400,000 barrels a day to 1.6m.
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