UK approves Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, GardaWorld lifts offer for G4S
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open 16 points lower on Wednesday, having closed ip 1.89% on Tuesday at 6,384.73.
Stocks to watch
GardaWorld on Wednesday lifted its offer for G4S to 235p a share, valuing the company at £3.68bn. The new, and final, offer is a premium on Tuesday’s closing price of 229p. GardaWorld, which first launched its bid in September, reduced its acceptance level to 50% plus one share and said it reached an agreement with the G4S UK pension trustees on a £770m support package comprising cash and other measures.
Tesco said it would repay £585m of Covid-19 business rates relief to the UK after Britain's supermarkets came under pressure to return the money. The supermarket chain said it had used all the money to respond to the pandemic but that its business had proved resilient. Tesco has paid dividends to shareholders during the crisis. Tesco said it would work with the UK's governments to find the best way of returning the money. It said excluding the repayment it guidance for annual retail operating profit was unchanged.
Avon Rubber reported a 30.8% improvement in revenue in its final results on Wednesday, to £168m, as its adjusted operating profit grew 33.6% to £30.2m. The FTSE 250 company said that growth was driven by the acquisition of 3M’s helmets and armour business. It declared a final dividend of 18.06p per share for the year ended 30 September, up 30%, resulting in a full-year total dividend of 27.08p, also up 30.0%.
Newspaper round-up
For nearly a month festive shop windows and twinkling fairy lights have been wasted on empty high streets but that changes on Wednesday when the end of shopping restrictions in England hands retailers 23 days to save Christmas. Retailers have drawn up the battle plans they hope will enable them to safely concertina two months’ worth of Christmas shoppers into a Covid-secure one, from round-the-clock shopping in Primark to virtual queues outside John Lewis. - Guardian
The UK has become the first western country to license a vaccine against Covid, opening the way for mass immunisation with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to begin in those most at risk. The vaccine has been authorised for emergency use by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA), ahead of decisions by the US and Europe. The MHRA was given power to approve the vaccine by the government under special regulations before 1 January, when it will become fully responsible for medicines authorisation in the UK after Brexit. - Guardian
Mike Ashley has come under fire from a landlord for offering a £50m lifeline to Arcadia before the retailer collapsed - despite refusing to pay rents on some of his stores. The tycoon was attacked for “inexcusable” payment delays by Ben Habib, chief executive of First Property Group and a landlord for Mr Ashley's Sports Direct empire.- Telegraph
Caffè Nero could face a legal challenge despite winning backing from creditors to pursue a company voluntary arrangement. The coffee chain’s plan was thrown into confusion by an eleventh-hour bid from EG Group, controlled by the billionaire Issa brothers. The approach was rebuffed, although it is understood that Mohsin, 49, and Zuber, 48, who are buying Asda from Walmart, remain interested. Under EG’s bid, landlords would have been paid in full for rent arrears during the pandemic, compared with 30p in the pound under the CVA. - The Times
The battle to cater for increased home working intensified last night when Salesforce said that it was buying Slack Technologies, the workplace messaging app, for $27.7 billion. The biggest deal in the cloud computing company’s history is intended to bolster its challenge to the much larger Microsoft. - The Times
US close
Wall Street stocks closed at fresh records on the first day of trading for December as last month's historic rally spilt over into the new one.
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.63% at 29,823.92, while the S&P 500 was 1.13% firmer at 3,662.45 and the Nasdaq Composite ended the session 1.28% stronger at 12,355.11.
The Dow Jones closed 185.25 points higher on Tuesday, cutting into losses recorded a day earlier, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both saw out the session at record highs.
In focus on Tuesday, Fed chair Jerome Powell called the US economic outlook "extraordinarily uncertain" in prepared remarks to Congress.
"The rise in new Covid-19 cases, both here and abroad, is concerning and could prove challenging for the next few months," Powell said.