UK govt to take no action over Drahi's BT stake; Wood Group operating profit falls

London pre-open

The FTSE 100 was called to open 11 points lower at 7,522.

Stocks to watch

BT said on Tuesday that the UK government will not be taking any action over French billionaire and Altice owner Patrick Drahi’s stake in the telecoms group.

Drahi increased his stake in BT in November 2021 to 18% from 12.1% through Altice, making him the biggest shareholder. This prompted the UK government to review the investment on the grounds of national security.

However, BT said the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has decided to take no further action in relation to the stake.

Wood Group posted a drop in half-year operating profit as revenue dipped. In the six months to 30 June, operating profit before exceptional items fell 8.9% to $41m, while revenue was 0.4% lower at $2.6bn.

Newspaper round-up

British Airways has announced another round of cancellations, axing 10,000 flights to and from Heathrow until the end of March next year as it adapts to the persistent staff shortages that have hit aviation. The carrier’s decision to shrink its short-haul timetable by 8% comes after the London airport extended the summer’s 100,000 daily cap on passenger numbers by another six weeks until the end of October and asked airlines to sell fewer flights. – Guardian

Sony has been overcharging PlayStation gamers for six years, a new legal claim alleges, and could be forced to pay almost £5bn in damages if the claim succeeds. According to Alex Neill, the consumer champion who has filed the case with the UK’s competition appeal tribunal, Sony has been abusing its dominance in the British market to impose unfair terms and conditions on the PlayStation Store, where it sells digital games, downloadable content and subscriptions. – Guardian

Europe’s population will halve this century as soaring house prices combined with the fallout from Covid lockdowns force couples to have fewer children. The continent could be home to fewer than 350m people by the end of the 21st century, according to economist James Pomeroy at HSBC, down from more than 700m today. - Telegraph

One of the UK’s most promising science-based start-ups has threatened to leave the country over what its boss called political “paralysis” and a lack of clarity in national industrial strategy. Paragraf, a leader in efforts to commercialise graphene for electronic devices, is likely to move its base to the United States because the UK government “just doesn’t know what it’s doing”, according to Simon Thomas, its co-founder and chief executive. – The Times

The taxpayer bill for running Bulb could hit £3 billion by the spring because of the government’s “crazy” decision not to buy energy in advance for the failed supplier. A fresh surge in wholesale energy prices means that government-backed administrators running Bulb will have to buy gas and electricity at far higher costs than they are allowed to charge customers under the energy price cap. – The Times

US Close

US stocks closed in negative territory on Monday, with the Dow tumbling more than 600 points, as investors looked towards the Fed’s symposium at Jackson Hole on Thursday as European gas futures spiked.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.91% at 33,063.61, as the S&P 500 lost 2.14% to 4,137.99 and the Nasdaq Composite was 2.55% weaker at 12,381.57.