The Morning Call - Prudential reports rise in profit as it announces demerger

Highlights of the Day

Asian Markets

Asian markets closed lower following the sacking of U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and amid talk of potential U.S. tariffs against China.

U.S. Markets

U.S. stocks dropped, fueled by declines in highflying technology and financial shares.

Today's News

Germany’s consumer price inflation eased as initially estimated in February, final data from Destatis showed. Consumer price inflation eased to 1.4% in February from 1.6% in January. This was the third consecutive decrease and the lowest since November 2016. On a monthly basis, consumer prices gained 0.5% largely due to higher prices of package holidays. Destatis confirmed the provisional CPI numbers published on February 27.

Prudential announced its intention to demerge M&G Prudential to create two-separately listed companies, while also reporting a rise in profit for 2017. IFRS pretax profit in 2017 rose to £3.30bn from £2.28bn the year before, as total revenue net of reinsurance rose to £86.56bn from £71.84bn. The company raised its full-year dividend by 8% to 47.00 pence, from 43.50p the year before.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals said it sunk to a loss in 2017 amid impairments due to a tough generics market in the US, as its new boss takes the helm. In 2017, the drugs firm sunk to a $738m pretax loss from a profit of $210m the year prior. Revenue edged marginally lower to $1.94bn from $1.95bn the year before.

German arms company Rheinmetall Landsysteme has beaten BAE Systems to a $3.9bn contract to supply vehicles to the Australian armed forces, the Financial Times reported. BAE would have supplied more than 200 combat reconnaissance vehicles to Australia as part of a AUD200bn upgrade to the country’s military hardware.

Marshalls posted a jump in full-year profit and revenue on Wednesday as the specialist landscape products group upped its final dividend by 17%, boosted by a recent acquisition. In the year to the end of December 2017, pre-tax profit rose 13% to £52.1m on revenue of £430.2m, up 8% from 2016. Group revenue includes a £9m contribution from precast concrete manufacturer CPM, which was bought last October. On a like-for-like basis excluding the impact of CPM, revenue was up 6%.

InterContinental Hotels has agreed to buy a 51% stake in Regent Hotels and Resorts for $39m in cash, with the right to acquire the remaining 49% interest in a phased manner from 2026. The company said the deal was part of its new strategic initiatives focused on continuing to expand its footprint in the fast-growing $60bn luxury segment. The initiative is supported by the creation of a new dedicated division to further enhance IHG’s capabilities in this area and will be funded by its efficiency programme, as outlined in its full-year results last month.

Morrison W. Supermarkets boosted its annual profit and declared a special dividend as the grocery retailer’s turnaround strategy continued to gain traction. Pre-tax profit rose 16.9% to £380m, as revenue grew by 5.8% to £17.3bn. Like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, grew by 2.8%, compared to growth of 1.9% in the previous year.

Balfour Beatty reported underlying operating profit more than double to £196m, and pre-tax profit was £165m, up from £62m in 2016. The group’s order book fell by 8% to £11.4bn from £12.4bn the previous year as the group focused on bidding at only appropriate terms for projects best aligned with its capabilities. Its UK construction division – while still under pressure – swung to a profit of £16m compared to a loss of £65m the previous year.

Turnover has climbed at Dignity, despite the number of deaths during the year remaining flat. Dignity generated revenues of £324m in the year to 29 December 2017, up from £313.6m in the 53 weeks to 30 December 2016. Pre-tax profit remained flat at £71.2m. During the period Dignity expanded its portfolio through the acquisition of 24 funeral locations and one crematorium. The total spend was £28.3m. The number of pre-arranged funeral plans for the period also increased to 450,000 from 404,000 in 2016.

Gold Prices were largely steady on a weaker dollar following U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s sudden dismissal and after consumer price data pointed towards a path of gradual hikes in U.S. interest rates.

Oil Prices extended falls from the previous two days as soaring U.S. production outweighed strong China data that makes more imports by the world’s biggest crude buyer likely.

Companies Reporting this week

Day	Companies
Monday:	Clarkson
Tuesday:	Antofagasta * Computacenter * Fevertree Drinks
Wednesday:	Morrisons * Prudential * Hikma Pharmaceuticals * Balfour Beatty
Thursday:	Old Mutual * Cineworld * OneSavings Bank
Friday:	None

Early Market Movements

Market	Index	Change	% Change
UK 100	7,133.2	-5.6	-0.1%
UK 250	19,849.8	-13.5	-0.1%
GER 30	12,225.1	+4.1	+0.0%
FRA 40	5,236.1	-6.7	-0.1%
U.S. 30	25,007.03	-171.58	-0.7%
U.S. 500	2,765.3	-17.7	-0.6%
OIL (BRENT)	64.66	+0.02	+0.0%
GOLD	1,324.19	-2.32	-0.2%

UK Risers & Fallers (8:15am)

Company	Price	Change	% Change
Prudential	1907	+81.5	+4.5%
Anglo American	1771.8	+40.2	+2.3%
Dignity	898	+45	+5.3%
Standard Chartered	762.4	-14.6	-1.9%
Kingfisher	348.5	-5.6	-1.6%
Saga	112.2	-4.4	-3.8%

Latest Broker Views

Company	Broker	Recommendation	Price	Target
Ashtead Group	JPMorgan	Overweight	1999.5	2500
Glencore	Goldman Sachs	Conviction Buy List	376.7	520
Antofagasta	Berenberg	Hold	914.6	900
Anglo American	Goldman Sachs	Conviction Buy List	1731.6	2300

Forthcoming Economic Data

Time/Date	Previous	Forecast	Outcome
12.30pm: U.S. Core Retail Sales m/m	0.0%	0.4%	–
12.30pm: U.S. PPI m/m	0.4%	0.1%	–
12.30pm: U.S. Retail Sales m/m	-0.3%	0.3%	–
2.30pm: U.S. Crude Oil Inventories	2.4m	2.2m	–