AJ Bell lifts full-year guidance, Domino's Pizza Group selling Iceland business
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The FTSE 100 is expected to open flat on Monday, having closed up 0.99% on Friday at 6,740.59.
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Financial services platform AJ Bell lifted full-year revenue guidance as it continued to see rising customer numbers in the first half. The company on Monday said it expected revenue for the 12 months to September 30 to be at least £6m higher than its own compiled forecasts of £136m.
Domino's Pizza Group has agreed to sell the entire issued share capital of Pizza Pizza, trading as Domino's Iceland, to PPH for ISK 2.4bn (£13.7m) in cash on a cash-free, debt-free basis, it announced on Monday. The FTSE 250 company said the proceeds would initially be used to reduce group debt.
LXi announced seven separate long-income acquisitions in the grocery sector from six different developers and vendors on Monday, following its £125m capital raise on 11 March. The FTSE 250 real estate investment trust said the acquisitions were for a total cost of £85m, comprising both pre-let forward fundings and built investments, secured to “strong” tenant covenants in the structurally supported grocery sector. It said they benefited from an accretive average net initial yield of 5.25% net of acquisition costs, a long average unexpired lease term to first break of 19 years, and were let on sustainable, low rents with 100% of the income being inflation-linked via contractual rental uplifts.
Newspaper round-up
Concerns for the future of Liberty Steel and its 3,000 UK workers have grown after the government rejected its parent company’s plea for a £170m rescue loan. The rejection has added to the pressure on Liberty Steel, part of the business empire built up by the industrialist Sanjeev Gupta. Gupta has been urgently seeking extra funding for the business in the three weeks since the collapse of a key financial backer, Greensill Capital. - Guardian
The City watchdog is under pressure from cross-party MPs to explain why it is allowing the sub-prime lender Amigo to push ahead with a rescue plan that will cap compensation payments for nearly one million customers, while giving executives the chance to earn £7m in long-term bonuses. The shadow City minister, Pat McFadden, and the head of the Conservative-led Treasury committee, Mel Stride, said the Financial Conduct Authority had questions to answer about how it was regulating firms like Amigo, and whether it was fulfilling its obligation to protect consumers. - Guardian
After a year of rolling lockdowns and shuttered offices, light and airy housing has never been more important to Britain’s legions of city dwellers. Alongside the old staples of a lively local high street, good pub and short commute, a new box has been added to typical home-hunter’s checklist – how much sun their property lets in. But the demand for natural light is threatening to put occupiers at odds with developers at a time when space is at a premium and planning reform is seen as essential to solve the country’s housing crisis. - Telegraph
Sir Philip Green’s failed Arcadia empire is to sell off furniture and fittings at its distribution and data centres in a bid to raise cash for creditors. The move follows what clearance company Hilco called a “healthy response” to a two-day auction for furniture and equipment at Arcadia’s headquarters in London. Hilco is overseeing the sale to raise millions of pounds for those owed cash by Arcadia. - Telegraph
A plan by the London Metal Exchange to abandon its trading floor could risk its status as the leading price-setting venue in the global metals market, a leading broker has warned. The Ring is the last open outcry market in Europe, but its future is in doubt after the exchange revealed in January that it was planning to close the trading venue in favour of electronic pricing. - The Times
US close
Stocks ended the week in positive territory on Wall Street on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.39% at 33,072.88.
The S&P 500 finished 1,66% higher at 3,974.54, and the Nasdaq Composite was 1.24% firmer at 13,138.72.