Melrose selling Nortek Air Management, Energean lifts annual core earnings

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The FTSE 100 is expected to open flat on Monday, having closed up 0.52% on Friday at 7,019.53.

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Melrose Industries has agreed to sell its Nortek Air Management business to Chicago-based Madison Industries, it announced on Monday, for £2.62bn in cash. The FTSE 100 company said it would use part of the proceeds to reduce debt and contribute around £100m to the GKN UK defined benefit pension schemes, which would mean that the funding deficit would be reduced to £200m. A portion of the net proceeds would also be returned to shareholders.

Oil and gas producer Energean lifted annual core earnings and continued to work towards first gas from its Karish field in the first quarter of 2022 along with an inaugural dividend payment in the same year. The company on Monday reported a rise in earnings to $107.7m from $35.6m a year ago as sales rose to £3356m from $75.7m.

LondonMetric said 98% of March quarterly and monthly rents have been collected with a further 0.8% expected soon. Rent collection is high across all sectors with distribution at 99%, long income at 98%, offices at 99% and retail parks at 95%. For the year to March 2021, LondonMetric has demanded £114.1 million rent, of which 98.1% has been collected or is being collected, 1.1% was subject to asset management initiatives, 0.4% was forgiven and 0.4% remains unpaid.

ThreeArc Mining's initial ore reserve estimate for the Tomtor niobium and rare-earth metals project in the northwestern Russian province of Yakutia has confirmed it as one of the top-three rare-earths projects in the world. FTSE 100 listed Polymetal owns a 9.1% stake in ThreeArc. The open pit mine envisaged is expected to provide enough ore for more than 67 years of processing at the Krasnokamensk Hydrometallurgical Facility which is to be built near the town of Krasnokamensk. A bankable feasibility study was already in progress.

Newspaper round-up

Leon has been sold for an estimated £100 million to the billionaire brothers who are buying Asda. EG Group, Mohsin and Zuber Issa’s petrol forecourt and convenience retail business, said that it planned to step up the pace of expansion of the self-styled “naturally fast food” chain by opening about 20 Leon outlets a year, including several drive-throughs. - The Times

A frenzy of activity has driven UK property prices to a record high this month, just as the government launches a mortgage guarantee scheme to help people with small deposits onto the housing ladder. Online property portal Rightmove said the average asking price jumped by 2.1% in April to a new all-time high of £327,797, an increase of £6,733 from March. - Guardian

Almost one in four workers hope never to set foot in the office again, with 7.5m people keen to permanently work from home every day of the week. At the same time slightly more (28pc) are desperate to get back and hope never to have to turn their kitchen or spare bedroom into a home office, according to a new survey by Deloitte. - Telegraph

Netflix is expected this week to report the lowest number of new subscribers in the first quarter for four years, perhaps signalling the end of the home entertainment pandemic boom. For Netflix, which passed 200 million subscribers last year as record numbers signed up to beat lockdown boredom, the first quarter is traditionally its strongest for new sign-ups, with families in key markets including North America and Europe looking to be entertained while stuck at home during winter weather. - Guardian

Several large audit firms will be blacklisted in this year’s annual shareholder meetings by Pirc, an advisory service that believes they are not doing enough to tackle corporate fraud. Pirc is recommending that investors vote against the reappointment of PwC, KPMG, EY and Grant Thornton at any British company where they are the auditor. It has adopted the position - which is likely to cause a stir during the annual meetings season and to be unpopular with companies - because it believes the firms have not made strong enough undertakings to improve processes to detect fraud. - Guardian

US close

Stocks closed in positive territory on Wall Street on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.48% at 34,200.67.

The S&P 500 ended the day ahead 0.36% at 4,185.47, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.1% higher at 14,052.34.