GVC gets German betting licences, AstraZeneca advances Covid-19 antibodies

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open five points higher on Monday, having closed up 0.65% at 6,016.65 on Friday.

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Gambling group GVC said it had been given four betting licences to operate in Germany. Following expected implementation in early 2021, GVC estimated that group core earnings would be cut by up to £40m on an annualised basis. The German regulator last Friday issued licences for the bwin, SportingBet, Ladbrokes and Gamebookers brands, the company said on Monday.

AstraZeneca said on Monday that its long-acting Covid-19 antibody combination, AZD7442, would advance into two phase 3 clinical trials in more than 6,000 participants at sites in and outside the US in the coming weeks. The FTSE 100 drugmaker said it received support of around $486m (£372.51m) from the US government for the development and supply of AZD7442 under an agreement with Washington’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. One trial would evaluate the safety and efficacy of AZD7442 to prevent infection for up to 12 months in around 5,000 participants, and the other would evaluate post-exposure prophylaxis and pre-emptive treatment in about 1,100 participants.

IAG has replaced Alex Cruz as chief executive of British Airways with Aer Lingus's Sean Doyle in a shake-up under the group's new boss Luis Gallego. Cruz has stepped down as BA's CEO immediately and will stay as the carrier's non-executive chairman. Doyle, Aer Lingus's chairman and CEO has taken over as BA's CEO and will become chairman after a transition. Donal Moriarty, Aer Lingus's chief corporate affairs officer, will become the Irish airline's interim CEO. Fernando Candela, CEO of IAG's Level budget carrier, will join the group's management committee as chief transformation officer.

Newspaper round-up

Business leaders are mounting a legal challenge to the government’s lockdown restrictions, which they say have decimated the hospitality industry. The challenge to the legality of emergency legislation is due to be handed to Downing Street on Monday as swathes of the country prepare for stricter lockdown rules. – Guardian

UK cinema admissions are set to hit their lowest level since records began almost a century ago, with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic wiping almost £1bn from box office sales. When the final ticket stubs are counted at the end of the year, it is expected that British cinemagoers will have attended between 40m and 44m times this year, the fewest since records began in 1928. It is well below the previous nadir of 53.8m set in 1984, when hits included Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters and The Karate Kid. – Guardian

Another lockdown would be the Government’s “biggest blunder”, according to the chairman of Ocado. Lord Stuart Rose, the former executive chairman of Marks & Spencer, described the 10pm curfew that has been imposed on pubs and restaurants across England, Wales and Scotland for more than a fortnight as “bungled”. It demonstrated ministers’ “lack of foresight and strategic thinking” and risked millions of workers losing their jobs, he claimed. – Telegraph

Arm is facing a race against time to hit ambitious hiring pledges the British microchip company made when it was bought by Japan’s SoftBank. The Cambridge-headquartered company has to hire 490 staff in Britain in the next 12 months to meet legally-binding pledges to double Arm’s UK headcount by September 2021. – Telegraph

Banks may outsource the recovery of billions of pounds of state-supported loans to debt collectors on the grounds that the task will be too onerous to manage directly. Lenders have been talking to the government about shifting bounce back loans — standing at £38 billion to 1.3 million small firms — to agencies. – The Times

US close

Stocks on Wall Street closed in the green on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.57% to 28,586.90.

The S&P 500 advanced 0.88% to 3,477.13, and the Nasdaq Composite was ahead 1.39% at 11,579.94.