CD&R confirms final offer for UDG Healthcare, Barratt hires Countryside's Scott as new finance chief
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 11 points higher on Tuesday, having closed down 0.88% at 7,072.97 on Monday.
Stocks to watch
US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice on Tuesday confirmed its increased final £2.7bn offer for Dublin-based UDG Healthcare. CD&R, which is also seeking to take over the UK supermarket chain Morrisons, lifted its bid to £10.80 a share, UDG said in a statement to the stock market, adding that the board had agreed to its terms.
Barratt Developments has hired Mike Scott from Countryside Properties as its next chief financial officer. Barratt said Scott's arrival date would be announced in due course and Countryside is looking for a replacement.
John Laing Group has committed to invest an additional $14m (£10m) to increase its shareholding in the Denver Eagle public-private partnership in Colorado to 50% from 45%, it announced on Tuesday. The FTSE 250 company said the availability-based public-private partnership between the Regional Transportation District and Denver Transit Partners had expanded transit across the region with the addition of three new commuter rail lines. It said the additional investment would enable the firm to increase its stake in an existing asset with “considerable opportunities” for further value creation and growth, working with “global” partners.
Newspaper round-up
Hopes have been raised of summer holidays in Europe for fully vaccinated Britons as a deal with Brussels on Covid passports neared completion and Germany failed to convince popular destinations to pull an “emergency brake” on UK visitors. Restrictions on travel are tightening across the continent for tourists coming from the UK who have not had two jabs, owing to concerns over the highly transmissible Delta variant now dominant in Britain. - Guardian
The UK government has held emergency talks with retailers, logistics groups and wholesalers as a shortage of lorry drivers threatens to leave gaps on supermarket shelves. Officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are understood to have discussed potential solutions, including relaxing restrictions on drivers’ working hours and increasing capacity for HGV driving tests and training to help bring in new local drivers. - Guardian
Ministers are refusing to disclose how much a row over a HS2 contract has cost taxpayers after striking an out of court settlement with a spurned Spanish train manufacturer. Madrid-listed Talgo agreed a “mutual resolution” with the Government following a lawsuit against the state-funded line when it failed to win a £2.8bn contract to build 54 trains. The Department for Transport is refusing to reveal the terms of the deal or to say how much the dispute cost in legal fees. - Telegraph
The stock market value of Facebook rose above $1 trillion last night after the social media company won a significant legal battle against an American regulator. A federal judge yesterday dismissed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook that sought to force the social media company to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, saying that the Federal Trade Commission’s action was “legally insufficient”.- The Times
The co-founder of BrewDog is selling off personal property assets linked to the craft brewer ahead of a planned flotation amid concerns over potential conflicts of interest. James Watt told The Times that his remaining property holdings rented to the Scottish brewer were “in the process of being divested” and that three sites he owned and leased to BrewDog had been sold in the past two years. - The Times
US close
Major indices put on a mixed performance on Monday amid renewed hopes for the passing of Joe Biden's $1.0trn bipartisan infrastructure deal, a strong session for tech stocks and losses for some big-name energy firms.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.44% at 34,283.27, while the S&P 500 ticked up 0.23% to 4,290.61 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.98% firmer at 14,500.51.
The Dow Jones closed 150.57 points lower on Monday, taking a bite out of gains recorded on Friday, while the S&P 500 managed to extend upon the record high it notched up in the previous session.
In focus on Monday was news that Joe Biden's huge, bipartisan infrastructure deal appeared to have been revitalised on Sunday after the President clarified that he had no intention of vetoing the legislation if it came without a separate reconciliation bill including funding for issues like climate change, child care, health care and education, as favoured by Democrats, leading Republican senators to then agree to push the deal through.
On the macro front, the Dallas Fed's manufacturing index came in at 31.1 in June, short of an expected print of 32.5 and down from the previous month's reading of 34.9.