Essentra kicks off strategic review, Synthomer appoints new CFO

London open

The FTSE 100 was expected to open 219 points lower on Friday, having closed up 0.33% at 7,310.37 on Thursday.

Stocks to watch

Essentra said it had decided to start a strategic review of its packaging division as it continued to move towards becoming a pure play components business. The company said the review would run in parallel with the previously announced strategic review of its filters unit. It also said chief financial officer Lily Liu was leaving to take up a new role at Synthomer in mid-2022. “The Board remains focused on maximising shareholder value and it is anticipated that both reviews are likely to conclude in Q2 2022 at the earliest,” the company said on Friday.

Synthomer announced the appointment of Lily Liu as its chief financial officer on Friday, to succeed Steve Bennett who announced that he would step down once a suitable successor was in place in August. The company described Liu as a “highly experienced” CFO, with a track record of building strong performing finance teams and creating business value through organic and inorganic growth. She was currently a non-executive director and a member of the audit committee of DCC.

Diageo announced it was starting the next tranche of its return of capital programme of up to £4.5bn on Friday. Under the first phase of the programme, which was completed on 31 January, Diageo repurchased shares to a value of £1.25bn. The company initiated the second phase of the programme of up to £1bn on 12 May, to be completed by the end of the 2022 financial year. Under the first tranche of the second phase, which was completed on 12 November, Diageo repurchased shares to a value of £0.45bn.

Newspaper round-up

StubHub has been accused of failing to disclose when customers are buying tickets from professional touts, in breach of a legal undertaking given to the consumer watchdog. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) requires sites such as Viagogo and StubHub to let customers know when tickets are being sold by professional ticket traders, who dominate resale listings for gigs and other events, leading to fans paying massively inflated prices. - Guardian

Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s flagship £2bn pandemic jobs scheme to get young people into work may not be delivering value for money, the spending watchdog has said. A report by the National Audit Office (NAO), and a separate one by a group of peers, has highlighted concerns that youth unemployment policies are either insufficient or flawed. - Guardian

Marks & Spencer has become the target of a row over plans to demolish its flagship London store, as fears rise over the death of Britain's high street heritage architecture. Since plans to redevelop its Marble Arch site were voted through on Tuesday night, opposition from heritage charities and architecture aficionados has been brewing against the 137-year-old retail institution. - Telegraph

The energy regulator is facing “serious questions” over its handling of the domestic supply market after two more firms collapsed. Ofgem said that Entice Energy, which supplies around 5,400 households, and Orbit Energy, which supplies another 65,000, had ceased to trade on Thursday as a crisis gripping the industry continued to gather pace. - Telegraph

Car production slumped by 40 per cent in Britain last month as manufacturers grappled with a shortage of semiconductors on top of disruption caused by the Covid pandemic. It was the fourth monthly drop in a row and contributed to the weakest October output since 1956, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). - The Times

US close

Markets were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday on Wall Street on Thursday, having finished in a mixed state on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.03% at 35,804.38 ahead of the holiday, while the S&P 500 added 0.23% to 4,701.46 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.44% to 15,845.23.