OneSavings and Charter Court reach merger agreement, Sports Direct offers Debenhams funding alternative

London open

The FTSE 100 is expected to open 11 points lower on Thursday, having closed up 0.11% at 7,159.19 on Wednesday.

Stocks to watch

OneSavings Bank and Charter Court Financial Services have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended all-share merger, under the same terms as suggested at the start of the week. The deal will be effected by means of a scheme of arrangement with each Charter Court shareholder receiving 0.8253 new OSB shares.

Sports Direct has offered Debenhams a new alternative to the £150m loan that the troubled department store group is seeking. Sports Direct said it would offer Debenhams a £150m unsecured 12-month term loan, in return for a further 5% of its shares or interest of 3% on the loan.

Wood Group announced on Thursday that it has secured a contract from Siemens to install a new Siemens HL-class gas turbine at a power generating station in North Carolina. The FTSE 100 company said the award would see it mobilise a team of around 400 people to the project site to deliver the project, for a period of approximately 11 months. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Newspaper round-up

Facebook is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors examining its data-sharing deals with other major technology companies, according to the New York Times. A New York grand jury has subpoenaed records from “at least two prominent makers of smartphones and other devices”, the Times reported, citing two unnamed sources. – Guardian

A California jury has awarded $29m to a woman who said asbestos in Johnson & Johnson’s talcum-powder-based products caused her cancer. Wednesday’s verdict, in California superior court in Oakland, marks the latest defeat for the healthcare conglomerate facing more than 13,000 talc-related lawsuits nationwide. The company said it would appeal, citing “serious procedural and evidentiary errors” during the trial, saying lawyers for the woman had fundamentally failed to show its baby powder contains asbestos. The company did not provide further details of the alleged errors. – Guardian

Load up the website of SoundCloud, a music streaming company, and you can purchase a monthly subscription to its on-demand service for £9.99. But to do the same thing on the SoundCloud iPhone app, and the monthly fee rises to £12.99. No extra feature or exclusive material explains that three pound difference; the two services are identical. The higher price on the app comes down to something invisible to consumers: the so-called “Apple Tax”. – Telegraph

Norwegian Air has ramped up the pressure on Boeing saying it will “send the bill” to the aerospace giant after its 737 Max jets were grounded in the wake of a crash at the weekend. On Sunday an Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 carrying 157 people crashed near Addis Ababa, killing all on board. – Telegraph

Business leaders voiced exasperation over the state of Brexit negotiations last night as expectations rose of a delay and fears grew over the impact of tariff changes should Britain depart the European Union without a deal. Senior executives branded the state of negotiations with Brussels “very embarrassing” before a parliamentary vote today on a possible extension to Brexit negotiations and a delay to Britain’s departure from the EU. – The Times

US close

US stocks finished in the green on Wednesday, as investors digested a slew of data releases, with Boeing shares regaining some poise.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was ahead 0.58% at 25,702.89, the S&P 500 added 0.69% to end the session at 2,810.92, and the Nasdaq 100 was up 0.77% to close at 7,256.98.

In macroeconomic news, US factory gate prices for February came in slightly below forecasts.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so-called total final demand prices increased at a 0.1% month-on-month pace last month versus consensus expectations of 0.2% as goods prices bounced back by 0.4% versus January while those in services were unchanged.

In January, goods prices had risen by 0.8% and those for services by 0.3%.