Playtech being bought by Australia's Aristocrat, Tesco begins planned buyback

The FTSE 100 is expected to open eight points lower on Monday, having closed at 7,242,43 on Friday.

Stocks to watch

Australian gaming machine maker Aristocrat Leisure is buying European gambling software manufacturer Playtech after making a £2.1bn cash offer, the two companies said on Monday. Sydney-based Aristocrat is paying 680p a share, a 58% premium to the company’s last closing price on October 15. It will raise AUD$1.3bn in a share sale to help fund the acquisition, an 8.6% discount to Friday’s closing price.

British supermarket giant Tesco on Monday said it had started its planned buyback of up to £500m in shares. It announced the move with its interim results on October 6, saying improved profits had given it room to start a multi-year repurchase to return cash to shareholders.

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca on Monday recommended shareholders of its American depositary shares reject a $115m 'mini-tender' offer from TRC Capital Investment, due to a low bid price. It said the TRC offer of $57.88 per ADS in cash was 4.5% less than the closing price on the Nasdaq exchange on October 8, 2021, the last trading day before the mini-tender offer started.

Newspaper round-up

Ford has announced it will invest £230m in a Merseyside transmission factory to upgrade it to make parts for electric vehicles, in a significant fillip for northern England’s automotive industry. The US carmaker’s investment will help maintain about 500 jobs at the plant in Halewood, Knowsley, which currently makes transmission systems for petrol and diesel vehicles. Ford will receive UK government support worth about £30m, according to a source with knowledge of negotiations. - Guardian

Amazon is offering signing-up bonuses of up to £3,000 in areas of Britain with labour shortages, to attract workers in time for the Christmas surge in demand. The Food and Drink Federation says there is a “battle for labour” in the run-up to Christmas, with Amazon trying to recruit 20,000 temporary staff. Many food and hospitality firms cannot compete with the pay now being offered by the online giant and this may affect Christmas deliveries and supplies. - Guardian

Rishi Sunak is stepping up plans for an online sales tax to level the playing field between tech behemoths and high street retailers after delaying an overhaul of business rates. Treasury officials have accelerated work on a new e-commerce tax in the past few weeks and are scoping out details of a potential levy, including what goods and services will be covered, sources told The Daily Telegraph. - Telegraph

A battery storage developer spun out of the University of Sydney plans to list in London to raise more than £16m to commercialise its technology. Australia-based Gelion Technologies is expected to be valued at around £120m when it floats on Aim next month, having already raised cash from investors including Regal Funds Management and Elphinstone Group. - Telegraph

The restaurant group behind Quaglino’s and Coq d’Argent in London and 20 Stories in Manchester estimates that staff shortages are costing it 10 percent of its revenues. Des Gunewardena, chairman and chief executive of D&D London, said the company’s workforce of 1,700 UK staff was already about 100 to 150 short and the problem would become more serious as Christmas approached. - The Times

US close

Stocks closed in the green on Wall Street on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.09% at 35,294.76.

The S&P 500 added 0.75% to 4,471.37, and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.5% firmer at 14,897.34.