Playtech confirms approach from JKO consortium, Royal Mail to return £400m to shareholders

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open nine points lower on Thursday, having closed down 0.49% on Wednesday at 7,291.90.

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Gambling software maker Playtech confirmed it has received an approach from the JKO consortium that includes former Formula One team owner Eddie Jordan about a potential bid. It is the third approach after Gopher Investments expressed an interest in Playtech a couple of days after it accepted Aristocrat Leisure's £2.1bn offer. “JKO Play Limited seeking access to certain due diligence information, in order to explore terms on which an offer for all of the issued and to be issued share capital of Playtech might be made,” Playtech said on Thursday.

Royal Mail said it would return £400m of cash to shareholders as the delivery service swung to a statutory profit in the first half of the year. Operating profit for the six months to 26 September was £311m compared with a £20m loss a year earlier as revenue rose 7.3% to £6.07bn. Pretax profit rose to £315m from £17m. Royal Mail declared an interim dividend of 6.7p a share and said it would pay out £200m in a special dividend. The company also said it would start a £200m share buyback immediately.

Investec reported a 30.5% jump in first-half revenue on Thursday, which it put down to the strength of its client franchises and improved market conditions, while adjusted earnings per share increased 134.8% to 26.3p, ahead of comparable pre-Covid-19 levels two years ago. The board of the FTSE 250 company proposed an interim dividend of 11.0p, up from 5.5p year-on-year and resulting in a payout ratio of 41.8%, and said it had also resolved to distribute a 15% holding in Ninety One to shareholders.

Newspaper round-up

Ranjit Singh Boparan, the owner of East Anglian turkey producer Bernard Matthews, said the first workers would arrive in the next few days as it prepared for the busy festive season. Boparan said: “With just a few weeks to go until Christmas, it is very good news to be able to report that here we are in mid-November, and we’re well on the way to plugging the job gaps for the massive volume increases we get during this time of year. - Guardian

Faster train journeys will be delivered up to 10 years sooner than planned, the government has insisted amid anger over an expected decision to axe key schemes. The Department for Transport (DfT) said its Integrated Rail Plan (IRP) will feature £96bn of investment in the Midlands and the North. The plan, which will be published on Thursday, is expected to confirm that the eastern leg of HS2 will be scrapped between the east Midlands and Leeds, saving tens of billions of pounds. - Guardian

Workers need a pay rise of more than 7pc next year just to stand still as surging inflation and looming tax rises erode their spending power, the Institute of Fiscal Studies has warned. Prices jumped 4.2pc in the 12 months to October, according to official statistics. This is more than double the Bank of England’s 2pc target, as energy prices soar and global supply shortages bite. - Telegraph

The editor of the Daily Mail, Geordie Greig, has been ousted after three years in a move that paves the way for a merger with its Sunday sister title and a greater focus on digital journalism. Mr Greig is to be replaced by Ted Verity, currently editor of the Mail on Sunday, who will take a new job as editor of Mail Newspapers that puts him in control of both titles. - Telegraph

More than half of younger investors get stock-trading tips from social media sites such as TikTok and Reddit, research has revealed. Fifty-six percent of 18 to 34-year-olds use the platforms for inspiration before buying and selling shares, according to a survey of 2,000 people by Opinium for Hargreaves Lansdown, the investment platform. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks closed in negative territory on Wednesday, with a number of stocks taking large tumbles in late trading.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.58% at 35,931.05, as the S&P 500 lost 0.26% to 4,688.67 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.33% to 15,921.57.

The Dow closed 211.17 points lower on Wednesday, erasing the gains it recorded in the previous session as a better-than-expected retail sales report gave sentiment a boost.

“US markets continue to struggle in their bid to regain lost ground, with the prospect of tighter monetary policy serving to dampen economic sentiment,” said IG senior market analyst Joshua Mahony.

“Interestingly, the US banking sector has lost traction today, despite the fact that bank lending margins typically improve as rates increase.”