Informa to hive off two Dutch units
London open
The Footsie is being called to start 17 points lower from Tuesday's closing level of 6,268.76.
Stocks to watch
Informa has announced it is disposing of its two Dutch conference businesses. The FTSE 250 company announced its plans on Wednesday. The company will get rid of the two businesses based in Amsterdam and Eindhoven, as well as a small local publishing operation. The disposals are part of the company’s portfolio management strategy. It follows the recent disposal of its two Scandinavian businesses in Sweden and Denmark, as well as the previous sale of its Consumer Information business and the closure of operations in Johannesburg and Melbourne.
LondonMetric Property has acquired a 230,000 square ft distribution warehouse from a private vendor for £28.8m, which will be funded from existing resources, reflecting a net initial yield of 5.8%. The warehouse is situated in a prime distribution location on a 11.5 acre site in Reading, next to Junction 11 of the M4, and close to Tesco's 1mn sq ft regional hub. Other companies nearby include Royal Mail and Proctor & Gamble.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals said it had overcome concerns raised by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over environmental monitoring issues at its Portugal plant. The FDA in October 2014 sent the company a "warning letter" flagging issues the issues. In a statement, Hikma said it had received a further letter from the FDA "closing out" the warning letter from last year.
In the press
Barclays faces the prospect of paying a further $100 million fine over allegations that it rigged foreign exchange markets.
The sum could be finalised as soon as next month, coinciding with the arrival of Jes Staley as the bank’s incoming chief executive. The Wall Street veteran has said that he wants the bank to cultivate a better relationship with industry regulators, as well as customers. - The Times
Britain will stop burning coal for electricity within a decade and build a new fleet of gas power plants to keep the lights on, Energy Secretary Amber Rudd is expected to announce today. Unveiling a new energy strategy, Ms Rudd will say it is “perverse” that coal, the “dirtiest fossil fuel” is still such a major part of the UK’s energy system – providing 29pc of the UK’s electricity last year. - The Daily Telegraph
The gulf between Britain’s challenger banks and their larger counterparts may be too big to bridge, the head of the country’s banking watchdog has admitted. Andrew Bailey, chief executive of Prudential Regulation Authority, which is responsible for the regulation of banks and insurers, told MPs on the cross-party Treasury Select Committee that Britain’s biggest banks typically have a balance sheet of more than £500bn each while the next tier, Santander and Nationwide, have up to £200bn each. - The Daily Telegraph
US close
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up marginally at 17489.50, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were 2.75 points lower and 1.4 points higher, respectively.
On the macroeconomic front, US consumer prices rose for the first time in three months in October.
According to the Labor Department, CPI declined 0.2% month-on-month last month, up from the 0.2% decline recorded in September and in line with expectations.
On a year-on-year basis, the rate of growth rose from 0.0 to 0.2% in October, slightly above analysts’ estimates for a 0.1% gain.