Grainger buys building in Newcastle, Sanne in talks with Cinven

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open one point higher on Friday, having closed up 0.1% on Thursday at 7,088.18.

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Residential landlord Grainger said it has bought an apartment building in the English city of Newcastle for £57m. The building, housing 283 rental apartments and a ground floor commercial, was bought from Moorfield Real Estate Fund III.

Asset management services provider Sanne Group said it was in talks with Cinven after the buyout firm made a new 875p-a-share offer for the firm. Sanne had previously rejected a £1.35bn proposal last month as too low, The current proposed offer would value Sanne at £1.42bn.

Newspaper round-up

The French president last night ramped up the pressure on Boris Johnson over the Northern Ireland protocol by insisting “nothing is negotiable” as the G7 summit of world leaders risked being overshadowed by the bitter standoff over Brexit. In a defiant intervention as he prepared to travel to the UK, Emmanuel Macron warned Boris Johnson that France is not open to renegotiating any aspect of the protocol – and even appeared to raise questions about whether the UK could be trusted. - Guardian

Camelot is facing its biggest ever struggle to retain control of the National Lottery, its boss has said, as bidders jockey to seize control of what has become the world’s largest online draw. The operator of the National Lottery announced record-breaking revenues and money raised for good causes after Britons switched to buying their tickets over the internet during the pandemic. - Telegraph

The billionaire Canadian owners of Selfridges are considering a sale of the upmarket department store chain. The Weston family have drafted in advisers at Credit Suisse to advise on a possible sale after an unsolicited takeover approach, React News first reported. It is understood that offers in excess of £4bn are likely to be sought for Selfridges, with its property portfolio accounting for about half that sum. - Telegraph

A German digital sports retailer has snapped up Wiggle, the British online bike brand, and agreed to ride on to the American stock market as part of a $3.2 billion blank-cheque deal. Signa Sports United is buying WiggleCRC, which also owns the Northern Irish seller Chain Reaction Cycles, in a bid to create one of the largest e-commerce platforms for cycling and outdoor activities as it goes public in New York. - The Times

Wm Morrison has suffered one of the biggest shareholder revolts over pay in British corporate history. A total of 70.1 percent of votes were cast against the supermarket’s remuneration report at its annual meeting yesterday as investors rebelled over the company stripping out the cost of the Covid-19 crisis from bonus calculations. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed above the waterline on Thursday, as market participants rifled through a consumer price index that revealed a bigger-than-expected increase in price pressures and a fresh batch of jobless claims data.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed gains of 0.06% to 34,466.24, while the S&P 500 added 0.47% to 4,239.18, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.78% firmer at 14,020.33.

The Dow closed 19.1 points higher on Thursday, reversing losses recorded in the previous session, as the S&P 500 touched new record highs.

Thursday’s primary focus was the monthly consumer price index, which revealed inflation in the US bounded ahead in May with big gains evident across nearly all categories of products and services.

According to the Department of Labor, headline consumer prices jumped at a month-on-month pace of 0.6%, pushing the annual rate of increase from 4.2% for April to 5.0%.