JTC to acquire Blackheath, Legal & General agrees Boots pension scheme buy-in

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 26 points lower on Friday, having closed up 0.19% on Thursday at 7,483.58.

Stocks to watch

JTC announced plans on Friday to acquire Blackheath, a UK-based boutique asset management firm specialising in investment fund services and regulatory oversight. It said the acquisition would enable it to offer comprehensive services for UK alternative investment funds, with Blackheath contributing around £0.7m in revenue for the financial year ending June 2023, expected to enhance earnings in the first full year of ownership, and subject to regulatory approvals with an estimated completion date in the first quarter of 2024.

Insurer and asset manager Legal & General said it has agreed to a full buy-in of the Boots Pension Scheme for £4.8bn. The buy-in secures the benefits of all 53,000 retirees and deferred members of the scheme, making it the UK's largest single transaction of its kind by premium size and, for L&G, the largest single transaction by number of members.

Newspaper round-up

P&O Cruises and fellow cruise firm Cunard have made provision to fire and rehire more than 900 UK-based crew unless they accept salary cuts and more flexible working arrangements. The affected crew include officers on the British flagship, the luxury ocean liner Queen Mary 2, and nine other ships operated under Carnival UK, which is part of the $18bn-listed Carnival group. – Guardian

John Lewis is to team up with Covid testing firm Randox Health to open clinics within its shops in the latest effort to draw in customers amid tough trading conditions. The clinics, which will be run by Randox staff, will offer full-body health checks including tests for vitamin deficiencies, hormone imbalances and key health concerns, among other services. – Guardian

The Armed Forces should be empowered to buy more foreign weapons to save money, a think tank has said. The Ministry of Defence should take more bids from foreign weapons contractors and get private companies to manage jobs like housing troops, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has said. – Telegraph

The UK’s competition watchdog has been ordered by ministers to support business and economic growth and speed up its decision-making processes following criticism over its handling of Microsoft’s $69 billion bid for Activision Blizzard. In a perceived rap over the knuckles for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the government told the regulator in a “strategic steer” that it needed to realise the importance of “minimising the burdens on businesses” that were engaging with it. – The Times

Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber is not named on the website of the Abu Dhabi fund bidding for the Telegraph titles and his Wikipedia page contains no reference to his role in shaping the country’s censorship regime. Al-Jaber is, however, poised to become a prominent figure in UK media as chairman of International Media Investors (IMI) and led his nation’s censorship agency for five years. The boss of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company — who is now heading the Cop28 climate talks — has been accused by human rights activists of overseeing laws against free expression. Amnesty International criticised him for “exercising strict control over local and international media” as chairman of the National Media Council between 2015 and 2020. During that time, a popular Dubai website was banned for reporting on the liquidation of failed property projects. – The Times

US close

Markets in the US remained closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

On Wednesday, Wall Street’s indices closed in the green, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.53% at 35,273.03.

The S&P 500 added 0.41% to 4,556.62, and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 0.46% at 14,265.86.