The Morning Call - Hammerson agrees offer for Intu Properties

Highlights of the Day

Asian Markets

Asia markets fell sharply almost across the board as the main index in Japan lost nearly 2 percent.

U.S. Markets

U.S. markets were flat, as Microsoft and other technology stocks rebounded and Walt Disney Co fell, while investors assessed how a Republican tax overhaul would impact corporate earnings.

Today's News

Theresa May is battling to get the Brexit negotiations back on track amid deadlock over the future status of the Irish border. The Democratic Unionists – who prop up the government in Parliament – have insisted they will not sign up to a proposal for Northern Ireland to remain in “regulatory alignment” with the Republic once Britain has left the EU.

Hammerson has agreed an all-share offer for Intu Properties. A statement said that both boards believe there is a compelling strategic rationale for the acquisition, which will bring together their high-quality retail property portfolios and their combined expertise to create a leading European retail REIT with a strong income profile and superior growth prospects. And it said both boards believed that following the acquisition, the enlarged group would be better placed to enhance its position in its geographic markets and across its retail formats, with a more efficient and adaptable platform allowing it to respond to fast changing consumer preferences and retail trends.

Saga said it expected its full-year profit to be hit by more challenging trading in insurance broking conditions and the collapse of Monarch Airlines. The company, which offers services to the over 50s, said pre-tax profit is expected to grow by “between 1% and 2%” this year and fall by around 5% next year. For the full year, the “written profit” of the company’s retail broking business was expected to be ahead year-on-year, with a strong performance in motor partially offset by weakness in home and travel insurance.

Stagecoach Group booked a rise in first-half profit that was largely boosted by one-off items as revenue fell. Pre-tax profit rose 8% to £96.7m, while revenue fell 10% to £1.80b. Adjusted pre-tax profit, which strips out intangible asset amortisation and exceptional items, fell to £96.7m from £97.2m. The railway company kept its dividend unchanged at 3.8p per share. “We are focussed on making further progress in the second half of the year and have maintained our expectation of full year adjusted earnings per share,” chief executive Martin Griffiths said.

James Fisher and Sons has taken over EDS HV Group for an initial consideration of £9.0m in cash with potential further consideration of up to £5.6m subject to profit targets for the two years ending 30 Sep 2019. EDS – which has its headquarters in Rossendale, Lancashire – provides a complete range of high voltage engineering services to the renewables industry, covering the design and installation stages of new wind farm construction projects through to the subsequent monitoring-fault management, repair and maintenance of the operating assets.

Smith & Nephew has completed the acquisition of Rotation Medical, a developer of tissue regeneration technology for shoulder rotator cuff repair The acquisition cost was $125m with up to a further $85m payable over the next five years, contingent on financial performance.

easyJet reported growth in passenger numbers and an improved load factor in the month of November. easyJet said passenger numbers were up 8.1% to 5.3 million from 4.9 million in the same period last year. Load factor increased 2.6 percentage points in the month, up to 92.3% from 89.7% in November 2016. In the rolling 12 months to November easyJet passenger numbers increased 10% to 81.3 million from 73.7 million, and load factor rose to 92.9% from 91.3% a year ago.

GlaxoSmithKline said that new data from a clinical study supports the safety and efficacy of Shingrix vaccine in preventing shingles, an infection that causes a painful skin rash. The pharmaceutical company said new data from a Phase III clinical study supports the safety and efficacy of Shingrix in preventing shingles when given to adults 18 years and above shortly after undergoing autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant.

Mulberry Group said its focus on selling products at their full price and reducing the amount of markdown sales has led to a better gross margin in the first half of the financial year, amid flat revenue.

Legal & General Group said that it has agreed to sell its Mature Savings business to the ReAssure division of insurance provider Swiss Re Ltd for £650m in cash. The business sold principally consists of retail customers holdings traditional insurance based pensions, savings and investment products. It had total assets of £33bn at the end of the first half of 2017.

Gold was mostly unchanged after sliding to a two-month low in the previous session, despite a slightly weaker dollar.

Oil Prices dipped, as refined product inventories in the United States rose in what the market interpreted as a sign of lackluster demand.

Companies Reporting this week

Day	Companies
Today:	Stagecoach Group * RWS Holdings * Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust * easyHotel * Image Scan Holdings * Numis Corporation
Tomorrow:	Smith (DS)
Friday:	Berkeley Group Holdings (The)

Early Market Movements

Market	Index	Change	% Change
UK 100	7,299.3	-28.2	-0.4%
UK 250	19,729.1	-142.0	-0.7%
GER 30	12,890.9	-157.7	-1.2%
FRA 40	5,324.3	-51.3	-1.0%
U.S. 30	24,180.64	-109.41	-0.5%
U.S. 500	2,629.6	-9.9	-0.4%
OIL (BRENT)	62.78	-0.08	-0.1%
GOLD	1,268.59	+2.82	+0.2%

UK Risers & Fallers (8:15am)

Company	Price	Change	% Change
Intu Properties	232.3	+33.5	+16.8%
Carnival	4968	+78	+1.6%
Easyjet	1441	+15	+1.1%
Saga	143.3	-38	-21.0%
Hammerson	507.5	-27	-5.1%
Micro Focus	2426	-47	-1.9%

Latest Broker Views

Company	Broker	Recommendation	Price	Target
Easyjet	JPMorgan	Overweight	1442	1550
Croda International	Bernstein	Outperform	4300	4600
British Land	Credit Suisse	Neutral	641.5	710
National Grid	Deutsche Bank	Hold	879.4	850