LXi exchanges contracts for Travelodge sale, LondonMetric buys warehouse

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 27 points lower on Monday, having closed down 0.43% on Friday at 7,689.61.

Stocks to watch

LXi REIT has unconditionally exchanged contracts to sell 66 Travelodge branded hotels to the Travelodge group for £210m, aligning with their latest book value as of 30 September. The FTSE 250 firm said the majority of the sale proceeds would be used to reduce debt, resulting in a decrease in group loan-to-value from 38% to 34% and Travelodge's share of group rent from 18% to 11%. It said the sale and debt reduction were expected to have no significant impact on the company's earnings due to the associated cost savings, with completion scheduled for 28 February.

LondonMetric Property said it had bought a warehouse in Doncaster for £21.2m which will be let to fashion retailer Next for 13 years. The deal represented a net initial yield of 6.3%, the company said on Monday. Next will pay annual rent of £1.42m with fixed rental uplifts of 2.5%, increasing the purchase NIY to 7.1% within three years. Separately, LondonMetric has sold an 18,000 sq ft office investment in Chiswick for £7.4m.

Newspaper round-up

The Post Office is suspected of wrongly prosecuting dozens more operators who took part in a pilot scheme of the faulty Horizon system, the Guardian has been told. Amid growing anger over the treatment of postmasters whose lives have been ruined in the scandal, Whitehall sources have confirmed that a precursor scheme was rolled out in 1995 and 1996 to hundreds of branches in north-east England. – Guardian

Channel 4 is drawing up plans to cut potentially as many as 200 jobs in its biggest round of layoffs in more than 15 years, as it seeks to make savings to weather the worst TV advertising downturn since 2008. The broadcaster, which has undergone a rapid expansion in recent years with staff numbers swelling to a record level of more than 1,200, aims to dramatically reduce a wage bill that now stands at more than £108m a year. – Guardian

Britain is more attractive than Europe for manufacturing firms, factory bosses have said, as “a newfound sense of optimism” sweeps the industry. Most manufacturing chiefs believe the UK is now a competitive location for their business, according to a new report from industry group Make UK and PwC, and is set to pull further ahead of European rivals. The majority of bosses also believe Britain’s competitive edge over Germany, France, Italy and Spain will grow rather than shrink this year, the report found. – Telegraph

The record rise in the national living wage in April is taking Britain into a new era of government-directed pay deals, a leading retailer has warned. James Timpson, chief executive of the family-owned Timpson retail group, employs 5,600 people in its 2,100 shops, including 10 per cent who are ex-offenders with criminal convictions. – The Times

More people than ever before were prepared to splash out several hundred thousand pounds on a new Rolls-Royce last year, despite the cost of living crisis. Initial deliveries of its first zero-emission vehicle helped Rolls-Royce Motor Cars to another record, selling 6,032 cars last year, beating the 6,021 record achieved in 2022. – The Times

US close

Stocks on Wall Street closed marginally higher on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.07% at 37,466.11.

The S&P 500 added 0.18% to 4,697.24, and the Nasdaq Composite closed ahead 0.1% at 14,524.07.