Closing summary
The British oil services company John Wood Group has rejected a £1.4bn takeover offer from Dubai-based rival Sidara, which it said “fundamentally undervalued” the company.
Aberdeen-based Wood, which trades on the FTSE 250, is the latest British company on the London Stock Exchange to face takeover speculation amid growing concerns that UK-listed stocks are undervalued compared with other markets.
High street bank TSB has revealed plans for 250 job cuts, prompting anger from unions including Unite, which called the move a “grave mistake”.
The cuts will primarily affect staff in fraud operations, central operations, as well as staff in 36 branches, which are now set to be closed. Most of the decisions will be made by June, with staff leaving the bank from September onwards, according to Unite.
A Boeing cargo plane has been forced to land at Istanbul airport without its front landing gear, in the latest setback for the embattled planemaker.
Nobody was hurt in the incident, in a flight operated by the delivery company FedEx, according to Turkey’s transport ministry.
James Watt, the co-founder and chief executive of BrewDog, is to step down after 17 years at the helm of the Scottish brewer and chain of bars.
BrewDog, based in Ellon in Aberdeenshire, said Watt, who navigated the brewer’s meteoric rise from “punk” challenger to mainstream beer brand, informed the board last year of his plan to step back.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe cited email traffic statistics to Manchester United staff as the basis for a ban on working from home and told them to seek “alternative employment” if they are not willing to come to club premises.
United have had a flexible work-from-home policy since Covid but Ratcliffe signalled an end to this during an all-staff meeting held in person and via video call last week as part of his tour of Old Trafford and the Carrington training base.
Alstom plans to raise €1bn (£861m) to help cut its debt as the world’s second largest train maker struggles with delayed orders amid concerns about the future of its Derby factory.
The Paris-listed company will tap investors with the aim of raising the funds by September. It also plans a €750m bond issue as part of a €2bn new finance plan.
AstraZeneca has begun the worldwide withdrawal of its Covid-19 vaccine due to a “surplus of available updated vaccines” that target new variants of the virus.
The announcement follows the pharmaceutical company in March voluntarily withdrawing its European Union marketing authorisation, which is the approval to market a medicine in member states.
More than 800,000 people in Europe and the US appear to have been duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a vast network of fake online designer shops apparently operated from China.
An international investigation by the Guardian, Die Zeit and Le Monde gives a rare inside look at the mechanics of what the UK’s Chartered Trading Standards Institute has described as one of the largest scams of its kind, with 76,000 fake websites created.
A trove of data examined by reporters and IT experts indicates the operation is highly organised, technically savvy – and ongoing.
Boohoo has cut more than 1,000 jobs and dived into debt after its losses soared and sales slumped 13% amid heavy competition from the Chinese online seller Shein and the revival of the high street after the pandemic lockdowns.
The online fashion specialist, which owns Debenhams, Warehouse, Dorothy Perkins and Pretty Little Thing, said it had built up net debts of £95m in the year to the end of February – down from almost £6m of net cash a year before – after losses widened 76% to £160m.
The bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has said it will be able to repay creditors the full $11bn (£8.8bn) it owes, as the boom-bust cycle repeats itself with a sharp increase in bitcoin prices.
John Ray III, who succeeded the disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried as the chief executive of FTX shortly after its collapse, said that once the exchange had sold off its remaining assets, it might have more than $16bn – well in excess of its debts.
The e-gates failure that left thousands of passengers queueing at UK airports has been resolved, the Home Office has said while ruling out a cyber-attack as a cause.
Airports said passengers could expect to travel smoothly again on Wednesday after widespread delays on Tuesday evening owing to a nationwide technical outage affecting UK Border Force e-gates.
Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol airports all confirmed problems with passengers being processed through the border yesterday.
Thank you for reading. We’ll be back tomorrow. Take care! – JK
FTSE 100 hits new record high; oil prices slide
A little while ago, the FTSE 100 index hit a fresh record high, rising to 8,364.04. It is now trading at 8,338, up 0.3% on the day.
Financial markets are fully pricing in a Bank of England interest rate cut by August, and see a 40% chance of a downwards move in June. The central bank will announce the outcome of this month’s meeting at noon tomorrow.
Katharine Neiss, chief European economist and deputy head of global economics at PGIM fixed income, thinks that “the possibility of a rate cut on Thursday is not beyond the realm of possibilities”.
She argues that “May is a forecast month” and that a “forecast publication months does allow more space for the Bank to communicate its views and outlook,” and reckons that April inflation could fall to or just below the central bank’s 2% target.
European markets have made moderate gains, with Germany’s Dax up 0.1% and France’s CAC rising 0.6% while Italy’s FTSE MiB lost 0.67%.
Crude oil prices are sliding, after industry data showed a rise in crude and fuel inventories in the US, according to Reuters, and as the US dollar strengthened, suggesting that demand for oil is coming under pressure.
Brent crude oil futures fell 72 cents, or 0.9%, to $82.43 a barrel while US light crude dropped 71 cents, or 0.9, to $77.67 a barrel. Earlier, crude fell by more than $1 a barrel.
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