Cranswick acquires Grove Pet Foods, Pearson snaps up remainder of Credly

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was being called to open 57.5 points higher ahead of the bell on Monday after closing 1.17% lower on Friday at 7,466.07.

Stocks to watch

British food producer Cranswick said on Monday that it had acquired dry dog food manufacturer Grove Pet Foods for an undisclosed sum.

Cranswick stated the addition of Grove Pet Foods, which owns the Vitalin and Alpha Feeds brands and operates predominantly from Lincolnshire, represented a "platform for future growth" in the "attractive UK pet food market".

The FTSE 250-listed firm also highlighted that the combined business would benefit from vertical integration opportunities within the group, most notably within it fresh poultry and pork businesses.

Educational publisher Pearson said on Monday that it had bought the remaining 80% of skills verification operator Credly it does not own for an undisclosed sum.

Credly runs a platform for organisations, companies, educational institutions and learners to award digital credentials that verify an individual's skills.

"More than 2000 organisations use Credly and since its inception, the company has issued over 50.0m credentials to 25.0m people, making it the world's largest professional credentialing business," Pearson said in a statement.

Advertising and media firm WPP has appointed Simon Dingemans to its board as a non-executive director, with immediate effect.

WPP said on Monday that Dingemans will join the firm from The Carlyle Group, where he is a senior advisor, focussed on the healthcare sector and other investment opportunities in the UK. Prior to joining Carlyle, Simon was the chief financial officer of GlaxoSmithKline and a member of its main board between 2011 and 2019.

Newspaper round-up

Boris Johnson has announced plans for legislation to make it easier to rip up EU regulations and protections, amid criticism from Conservative MPs that the government has not taken sufficient advantage of Brexit. The plans claim to cut £1.0bn in red tape expenses for businesses, but Johnson gave no firm details on which regulations are intended to be repealed or enhanced, instead stating five principles that would be applied, including the value of sovereignty and creating new markets. - Guardian

Rishi Sunak is being urged by a leading centre-right thinktank to limit the impact of April's controversial £12.0bn increase in national insurance contributions by shifting the burden of tax from work to wealth. Highlighting disquiet in Tory ranks over the looming national insurance rise, a report from Bright Blue has called for higher taxes on capital, inheritance and rents as a way of making the system fairer. - Guardian

Rishi Sunak has sunk millions of pounds of taxpayer funds into an online betting company and a luxury Caribbean firm selling holidays on private islands as controversy over investments made by the Government's £1.1bn startups scheme grows. Taxpayer groups and gambling charities sounded the alarm over investments made under the Future Fund as criticism over wasteful Covid spending by the Chancellor mounts. - Telegraph

Richard Caring, the owner of the Ivy and Sexy Fish, is considering a bid for the restaurant group which houses The Wolseley and The Delaunay after a row with its largest shareholder plunged it into administration. Mr Caring, who also owns private members' club Annabel's, is due to meet with Corbin & King's majority shareholder Minor International early this week over a potential deal, The Sunday Times reported. - Telegraph

London has been chosen by the gambling operator behind Ladbrokes and Sportingbet as the location for a £40.0m global innovation technology hub. Entain may be one of the world's biggest betting groups, but it is increasingly turning its focus to entertainment and its first innovation lab will be in Farringdon, close to the UK headquarters of TikTok and Snapchat. - The Times

Vodafone is expected to accelerate its transformation after a Swedish activist investor with stakes in Aviva and Pearson trained its sights on the FTSE 100 telecoms group. Cevian Capital, one of Europe's biggest activists, has taken a stake in the company after a dismal share price performance, with the stock almost halving in value to 128.0p since the beginning of 2018, valuing Vodafone at £34.0bn. - The Times

US close

Wall Street stocks recorded solid gains on Friday as a rollercoaster week for major indices drew to a close.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.65% at 34,725.47, while the S&P 500 was 2.43% weaker at 4,431.85 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the session 3.13% stronger at 13,770.57.