Informa acquires Dove Medical Press, AA appoints Simon Breakwell as permanent chief executive
London open
The FTSE 100 is expected to open six points lower on Tuesday, having closed down 0.13% at 7,301.29 on Monday.
Stocks to watch
Events and publishing company Informa announced the acquisition of Dove Medical Press on Tuesday, in a deal in which financials were not disclosed to the market. The FTSE 100 firm said the addition of Dove added “strength and capability” to its open access journals portfolio, which it claimed increased “choice and flexibility” for researchers across a “widening range” of subject areas.
As well as hitting half-year targets, the AA has appointed former Expedia and Microsoft executive Simon Breakwell its permanent chief executive to "sharpen focus" on the parts of the businesses where there are "most value and future profit opportunity". Profit before tax in the six months ended 31 July rose 67% on revenue up 1% to £471m, with adjusted earnings per share down 1% to 10,0p.
A competition investigation has been launched to find out if a UK price comparison website is increasing prices for home insurance, while also laying down new rules for how all sites use data and display information. The Competition and Markets Authority on Tuesday published its final report following a market study into the use of price comparison sites and other apps.
Newspaper round-up
The Brexit secretary, David Davis, and the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, have clashed over the UK’s exit bill and Britain’s request for a transition period after Theresa May’s speech in Florence last week failed to unlock the stalemate in negotiations. On the first day of the fourth round of talks, Barnier said the prime minister’s €20bn (£17.6bn) offer did not mean the UK would be given a transition period or that negotiations could move on to the detail of a future trading relationship. - Guardian
Political deadlock in Germany is likely to delay the start of Brexit trade talks for several months, senior ministers fear. Downing Street had hoped for Theresa May’s concessions last week to “unlock” negotiations in Brussels and allow talks on a transition deal and a future relationship to begin after a meeting of European leaders next month. - The Times
Labour has pledged to seize control of up to £200 billion of contracts running schools, hospitals and prisons in an expansion of nationalisation plans that business leaders warned would send investors “running for the hills”. John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, delighted party activists and union leaders yesterday with a promise to “bring back in-house” assets built and maintained under the private finance initiative (PFI). - The Times
The microchip designer ARM is attempting to position itself as a white knight ready to save its struggling rival Imagination if a Chinese takeover is blocked. The Cambridge giant, acquired by Japan’s SoftBank in a £24bn swoop last year, is understood to be circling the controversial sale in the hope of snatching a bargain. - Telegraph
Low-cost airline easyJet appears to have beaten its rivals in snapping up parts of the insolvent European carrier Air Berlin. The Luton-based airline will enter into discussions with the German carrier to snap up some of its fleet with Lufthansa set to taking control of the company and two subsidiaries of Air Berlin - Luftverkehrsgesellschaft Walter (LGW), a Dortmund-based airline, and the Austrian holiday airline NIKI. - Telegraph
US close
US stocks finished lower on Monday, as investors looked ahead to speeches from various Federal Reserve policymakers and digested the German election results over the weekend.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 0.24% at 22,296.09, while the S&P 500 was off 0.22% at 2,496.66 and the Nasdaq 100 ended 1.1% lower at 5,867.35.
Weakness in the euro was on the back of news at the weekend that Angela Merkel had secured a fourth term as German chancellor but with the tricky task of setting up a coalition.
Merkel's conservative bloc saw its worst result in nearly 70 years, taking 33% of the vote as anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) took 12.6% of the vote.
Also putting a bid into the greenback, speaking earlier in the session New York Fed chief William Dudley reiterated the Federal Reserve's long-standing stance that the factors bearing down on inflation were temporary and idiosyncratic in nature.