Croda buys French fragrance firm Parfex, Hilton Food Group posts solid growth

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 26 points higher on Wednesday, having closed up 1.28% on Tuesday at 6,823.55.

Stocks to watch

Croda International said it had bought French fine fragrance business Parfex for €45m. Based in the perfume hub of Grasse in the south of the country, Parfex creates fragrances mainly for the premium personal care and fine perfumery markets, Croda said on Wednesday. Established in 1985 and now employing 75 people, Parfex generated €3.6m in earnings last year and now sells its fragrances in more than 50 countries.

Hilton Food Group said its turnover was up 50% in its preliminary results on Wednesday, to £2.77bn, with strong growth reported in Australia. The FTSE 250 food packaging company put growth there down to the end of a transition for its joint venture with the purchase of its assets, and a full-year at its “state-of-the-art” facility in Brisbane. Its adjusted operating profit was up 22.5% for the 53 weeks ended 3 January, at £67m, and the board proposed a 21.5% hike in the total dividend for the year, to 26p.

Newspaper round-up

Gambling firms have profited during the pandemic but are leaving the NHS to “pick up the pieces” of addiction and should be hit with a compulsory levy to fund treatment, the head of mental health in England has said. Claire Murdoch – national mental health director for NHS England – denounced the voluntary system that lets the industry dictate how much it contributes to helping addicts. - Guardian

The government has been accused of “unreasonably targeting” the hospitality sector through the proposed introduction of Covid status checks for customers entering pubs, bars and restaurants, as three nationwide pub and bar chains and the UK’s largest nightclub operator voiced their opposition to the plans. “This feels like a measure which is unreasonably targeting our sector, they are not proposing this to go into a supermarket,” said Alex Reilley, founder of Loungers, a bar and restaurant operator which has 170 sites in the UK. - Guardian

A Japanese motor sport enthusiast has vowed to make Caterham Cars match-fit for the electric era after buying the British manufacturer famed for its stripped-down, high-performance road and racing machines. Kazuho Takahashi’s business VT Holdings snapped up Caterham - best known for its “Seven” range of cars - from its Malaysian previous owners as the UK prepares for a ban on sales of new cars with petrol engines from 2030. - Telegraph

The boss of M&G accepted a bonus of almost £1.5 million last year, as well as a car and chauffeur costing £250,000, as the investment group prevented thousands of customers from withdrawing money from its main property fund. John Foley, 64, chief executive of the FTSE 100 company, took a bonus of £1.46 million last year, lifting his pay by £600,000 to £3.88 million. His basic salary rose by 8.4 per cent to £980,000 and he received long-term incentives worth £995,000, up 64 per cent. - The Times

The crisis engulfing Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance metals empire has spread to alleged sharp practices on the internet. It said yesterday that it had launched an internal investigation into allegations that its companies were using web domain names uncannily similar to those of rivals. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed slightly lower on Tuesday, breaking a three-day winning streak for the S&P 500.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.29% at 33,430.24, while the S&P 500 was 0.10% weaker at 4,073.94 and the Nasdaq Composite ended the day 0.05% softer at 13,698.38.

The Dow closed 96.95 points lower on Tuesday, cutting into gains recorded in the previous session.

Initially, market participants continued to cheer Friday's stellar jobs report and a surge in the gauge of services industry activity as a result of a rebounding US economy amid the nation's accelerated Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

Also in focus throughout the session, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note slipped off recent highs to around 1.66%, easing fears around inflation, while Joe Biden's $2.0trn infrastructure proposal and his intention to up the corporate tax to 28% to fund it also continued to draw an amount of investor attention.