Britain's biggest supermarket Tesco (TSCO) stuns the market as it agrees to buy Booker (BOK), the country's largest cash and carry wholesale supplier, for about £3.7bn, cementing its dominant position in the UK. This move out of left-field comes as a surprise to investors, but is warmly welcomed, shares in the supermarket chain soaring more than 9% in early trade on Friday to 206.3p. Read Shares detailed story here.
Telecoms group BT (BT.A), still reeling from the accounting scandal in Italy and a slowdown in its government work, says it is seeing record growth in its EE mobile unit, with continued strong momentum at its consumer arm. The latter point was looked at by Shares earlier this week, with upcoming football broadcast rights battles looming, while we covered the accounting fiasco in yesterday's magazine (read here).
BT's head of continental Europe, Corrado Sciolla, is stepping down in the wake of the fallout in Italy, a move that the group will hope eases investors pressure, although the stock remains stubbornly flat at 301.1p.
Outside of Tesco and BT, overall markets are predictably quiet for corporate news on Friday, a fact reflected in the FTSE 100's largely static showing. The blue-chip index inches just a couple of points higher to 7,163.
Alliance Trust (ATST) will buy back the 19.75% of its shares owned by US activist investor Elliott Management, the Scottish asset manager says on Friday, following pressure from Elliott to improve the fund's performance. The shares barely move, nudging a fraction higher to 651.5p.
An entity controlled by investor Oaktree Capital Management has sold an about 10% stake in British property developer Countryside Properties (CWD) via a placing, according to reports. The shares edge a touch lower to 174.13p.
Fags firm British American Tobacco (BAT) has reached a principle agreement to acquire the tobacco assets of Bosnian holding firm Fabrika Duhana Sarajevo (FDS) from an Austrian fund, the two companies said in a joint statement overnight. This news comes just days after the UK group sealed its $49.4bn mega-merger with US rival Reynolds American (RAI:NYSE). BAT shares remain largely unchanged at £49.305.
A Nigerian court has ordered the temporary forfeit of assets and the transfer of operations of a long-disputed oilfield owned by Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) and Eni, among others, to the federal government, court papers released overnight show, say reports. But investors shrug-off the news, the share price flat at £22.83.
Lender Paragon Group of Companies (PAG) says first-quarter underlying operating profit was in line with its expectations, driven in part by high-margin business wins and cost control, despite regulatory changes and uncertainty due to Britain's vote to leave the European Union. That's encouraging news for investors and the stock nudges about 1.4% up to 408.8p, valuing the business at just shy of £1.15bn.
