Next lifts profit guidance, 3i Infrastructure buys majority of DNS:NET

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 12 points higher on Thursday, having closed down 0.86% on Wednesday at 6,713.63.

Stocks to watch

Clothing retailer Next lifted current year profits guidance as online sales continued to soar during the Covid lockdown, despite reporting a slump in annual profits, although in line with expectations. The company on Thursday said it now expected profits of £700m, up £30m after a boom in sales during February and March. Pre-tax profits for the year to January 31 more than halved to £342m. Dividend payments remained suspended and debt was cut by £502m to £610m.

3i Infrastructure has agreed to invest €182m (£155.03m) to acquire a 60% stake in DNS:NET, it announced on Thursday, and to provide additional funding for the future growth of the business. The FTSE 250 infrastructure investor described DNS:NET as a “leading independent telecommunications provider” in Germany, and said it was buying its stake from Deutsche Beteiligungs (DBAG), DBAG ECF, a private equity fund managed by DBAG, and founder and chief executive officer Alexander Lucke, who was reinvesting alongside 3i to retain a 40% stake. Completion was expected in June.

Newspaper round-up

The boss of gambling website Bet365, Denise Coates, was paid nearly half a billion pounds in salary and dividends last year, as the latest in a string of record-breaking awards took her total pay since 2016 to nearly £1.3bn. After an unusual delay in filing its accounts at Companies House, Bet365 revealed that its highest-paid director, understood to be Coates as chief executive, received £421m – or £48,000 every hour of every day throughout the 12-month period. In its accounts, the company said its pay arrangements were “appropriate and fair”. - Guardian

Approximately 2 million of the UK’s lowest-paid workers will receive a raise from Thursday after increases to statutory minimum wage rates. However, many workers are unlikely to feel better off as the pay rise comes on the same day as inflation-busting increases hit household bills. Workers aged 23-24 are expected be the biggest beneficiaries after the government announced that they will start receiving the new minimum living wage of £8.91 a hour – up from the £8.20 a hour they are currently entitled to. - Guardian

Homeworkers banished to studies and spare bedrooms did not suffer a productivity slump at most firms after Covid hit - with a third of businesses even finding they could get more done, according to new research. A report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that remote working did not cause a fall in productivity at 71pc of firms, suggesting many could make the shift permanent after the crisis ends. - Telegraph

A key part of Sanjeev Gupta’s metals empire is on the brink of insolvency, threatening the entire GFG Alliance group, as Credit Suisse seeks a winding-up order of Liberty Commodities. Citigroup, acting on behalf of the Swiss bank, has applied to a UK court for the order, Bloomberg reported. - The Times

The company that oversaw the business of Neil Woodford has revealed that it knew of his relationship with an American firm that was selling assets in his former fund only by reading about it in the press. Link Fund Solutions, which ultimately was in charge of the failed Woodford Equity Income Fund, said that it had had no idea that he was an adviser to Acacia Research. - The Times

US close

Wall Street trading finished in a mixed state on Wednesday, with markets closing not long before president Joe Biden took the wraps off his $2trn infrastructure spending plan.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.26% at 32,981.55, while the S&P 500 managed gains of 0.36% to 3,972.89, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 1.54% to 13,246.87.

The Dow closed 85.41 points lower on Wednesday, extending losses recorded in the prior session.

After the closing bell, Biden said in a speech that his $2trn plan would turn around America’s “crumbling” infrastructure, promising massive cash injections for roads and bridges, railways and mass transit, electric vehicles, ports and airports, and the country’s electricity network.

The president said his plan would bring “transformation progress” in the way the US handles climate change.