Philip Morris swoops for Vectura Group, Derwent London rent collections improve

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The FTSE 100 is expected to open 30 points higher on Friday, having closed down 1.68% at 7,030.66 on Thursday.

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Tobacco giant Philip Morris on Friday swooped for UK pharmaceuticals company Vectura Group with a £1.045bn recommended offer. The 150p-a-share offer trumps a 136p offer from private equity group Carlyle in May that valued Vectura, which focuses on inhaled medicines, at £958m. Philip Morris said it was expanding into products beyond tobacco and nicotine “as part of a natural evolution into a broader healthcare and wellness company” with the ultimate aim of disrupting its own industry and ending smoking.

Derwent London said on Friday that it has received 93% of its June quarter day office rents, up from the 75% it reported at the same time in 2021. The FTSE 250 company said it had now received 89% of total rent, with a further 5% expected later in the quarter. Rent-free periods had been granted on 1% of total rents, primarily for retail and hospitality tenants.

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Airlines on Thursday reported a surge in flight bookings from the UK after the government announced that fully vaccinated passengers and their children could return from amber-listed countries without quarantine after 19 July. EasyJet said that bookings to destinations rated as amber for coronavirus rose by 400%, and holiday bookings increased by 440 week-on-week in the hours since the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, confirmed the change in policy on Thursday morning. - Guardian

Sadiq Khan is being urged to “get a grip” of the ballooning cost to finish Crossrail after a £218m funding hole opened up in the finances of London's new tube line. Crossrail, also known as the Elizabeth Line, will now cost taxpayers £19bn, according to a report by the National Audit Office (NAO). The public spending scrutineer said that Crossrail is now “low value for money” for taxpayers as costs spiral and post-pandemic demand for public transport dwindles. - Telegraph

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s chemicals empire is signing up to a major carbon capture project in Scotland in a boost to the emerging technology considered key to meeting the UK’s climate goals. Ineos aims to use the planned Acorn carbon capture and storage system to help get rid of emissions from its Grangemouth petrochemicals plant and oil refinery. - Telegraph

The chairman of HSBC has been accused of prioritising profit over upholding international law by a coalition of senior politicians after he refused to discuss calls for the bank to unfreeze the assets of Hong Kong activists. Mark Tucker, 63, is understood to have told the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), a cross-party group including Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, that he would meet them only if they agreed not to discuss actions that would break a security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing last year. - The Times

Britain is uniquely positioned to become a hub for a multibillion-dollar marketplace in carbon offsets, the City of London’s policy head has claimed. Catherine McGuinness, chairwoman of the policy and resources committee of the City of London Corporation, told the Institute of International Finance yesterday that the corporation had spent more than a year working with organisations to understand how carbon markets could be scaled. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed sharply lower on Thursday amid rising global Covid-19 cases and falling bond yields.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.75% at 34,421.93, while the S&P 500 was 0.86% weaker at 4,320.82 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 0.72% softer at 14,559.78.

The Dow Jones closed 259.86 points lower on Thursday, erasing gains recorded in the previous session.

Confidence regarding a global economic rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic appeared to be shaken on Thursday after Japan declared a state of emergency in Tokyo for the upcoming Olympics, with spectators set to be banned from the games.

News that the global Covid-19 death toll topped 4.0m on Wednesday was also in focus, with multiple countries around the world being confronted with rising cases due to variants of the coronavirus.