The Morning Call - GKN to return £2.5bn to shareholders

Highlights of the Day

Asian Markets

Asia-Pacific equity markets broke away from their recent lockstep trading, as the global stock rout over the past two weeks abated and local factors took center stage.

U.S. Markets

Wall Street climbed for a third straight session, buoyed by Amazon.com and Apple, while investors focused on inflation data on Wednesday

Today's News

Germany’s consumer price inflation slowed as estimated in January, final data from Destatis showed. The consumer price index rose 1.6% year-on-year after 1.7% increase in December, final data from Destatis showed Wednesday. The rate came in line with preliminary estimate.

Galliford Try has announced it will go cap in hand to investors to cover the impact on the group from the wind-down of Carillion through its joint-venture with the firm and Balfour Beatty on the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route contract. According to the company, that was expected to boost the group’s total cash commitment for that project by over £150m.

Serco Group said it had signed a revised purchase agreement with regards to its proposed acquisition of UK health facilities from collapsed developer Carillion. If all contracts were transferred to Serco under the revised purchase agreement process, the total consideration payable would be £29.7m, the company said. ‘Serco will continue to work with all relevant parties to seek to give effect to achieving the transfers,’ it added.

Spirax-Sarco Engineering said chairman Bill Whiteley would retire after the company’s annual general meeting in May, having served in the role for nine years. Senior independent director Jamie Pike, who joined the board in 2014, would take over as chairman at the close of the AGM. Clive Watson would also be appointed as a new senior independent director, the company said.

Coca-Cola HBC net profit jumped 24% to €426m in 2017 from €343.5m in the prior year as higher operating profitability and lower finance costs offset increased taxes. Net sales revenue rose 5.9% on a currency neutral basis to €6.52bn from €6.16bn in the previous year, supported by price increases in its emerging segment and better package and category mix.

GKN said it plans to return up to £2.5bn to shareholders under its previously announced ‘Project Boost’ improvement programme as it fights off a hostile takeover from Melrose Industries PLC. GKN is targeting the cash return to its shareholders over the next three years, and said a “significant” part of this will come from divestments over the first 12 to 18 months of the plan. These divestments will include a sale of its Powder Metallurgy division.

Sky and BT Sport have agreed to pay £4.464bn to broadcast Premier League football games for three seasons from 2019-20. Five of seven live packages have been awarded, with bidding for the remaining two ongoing. Interest from “multiple bidders” remains, the Premier League said. There has been speculation that online giants such as Amazon, Facebook, Twitter or Netflix could have entered the bidding process.

Contracts for difference platform provider Plus500 Ltd said it had a record year in 2017, with a steep rise in earnings driven by improved margins and customer growth ahead of expectations. Plus500’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation for 2017 rose 72% to $259.2m from $151.0m in 2016, with its Ebitda margin rising to 59% in 2017 from 2016’s 46%.

Gold rose for a third straight session to hit a one-week high, buoyed by a weaker dollar.

Oil Prices were stable, supported by a statement that Saudi crude output would drop in March, healthy economic growth and on a weakening U.S. dollar.

Companies Reporting this week

Day	Companies
Wednesday:	Shire
Thursday:	Relx * Nestle
Friday:	Segro

Early Market Movements

Market	Index	Change	% Change
UK 100	7,222.0	+54.0	+0.8%
UK 250	19,420.0	+99.9	+0.5%
GER 30	12,286.2	+89.7	+0.7%
FRA 40	5,131.4	+22.1	+0.4%
U.S. 30	24,640.45	+39.18	+0.2%
U.S. 500	2,662.9	+6.9	+0.3%
OIL (BRENT)	62.64	-0.08	-0.1%
GOLD	1,332.65	+3.10	+0.2%

UK Risers & Fallers (8:15am)

Company	Price	Change	% Change
Sky	1095	+34	+3.2%
Coca-Cola HBC	2306	+70	+3.1%
TalkTalk	108.5	+2.2	+2.1%
TUI AG	1579	-35	-2.2%
Kingfisher	355.2	-1.6	-0.5%
Galliford Try	854.25	-133.25	-13.5%

Latest Broker Views

Company	Broker	Recommendation	Price	Target
Direct Line	Berenberg	Hold	385.8	378
Virgin Money	RBC Capital	Underperform	261.7	250
Aviva	Goldman Sachs	Buy	489.9	590
Prudential	Goldman Sachs	Conviction Buy List	1799	2290

Forthcoming Economic Data

Time/Date	Previous	Forecast	Outcome
10.00am European Flash GDP q/q	0.6%	0.6%	–
1.30pm: U.S. CPI m/m	0.1%	0.3%	–
1.30pm: U.S. Core CPI m/m	0.3%	0.2%	–
1.30pm: U.S. Core Retail Sales m/m	0.4%	0.5%	–
3.30pm: U.S. Crude Oil Inventories	1.9m	2.8m	–