Ascential Share News (ASCL)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open marginally higher ahead of UK manufacturing PMI data at 0930 BST, as the UK's largest water companies submitted their business plans to Ofwat and WPP appointed an insider as its new chief executive. IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open up 3.78 points at 7,436.20 on Monday. The FTSE 100 index closed down 1.1% at 7,432.42 on Friday, its lowest level in four months. On the London Stock Exchange, WPP promoted Mark Read, who led WPP's digital division, as its new chief executive with immediate effect. The search for a new CEO started after Martin Sorrell resigned in mid-April, following the conclusion of an investigation into what WPP called "an allegation of misconduct" which it said did not "involve amounts that are material" to the company.The advertising firm is due to release its interim results on Tuesday.Water companies United Utilities and Severn Trent submitted proposals to UK regulator Ofwat for the next price control period.As part of the Ofwat's 2019 price review, known as PR19, water companies are required to outline a detailed business plan, detailing how they will meet the needs of their customers from 2020 to 2025.At present, Ofwat determines the limits by which water companies can increase or decrease the prices charged to customers over a period of time - which is currently a period of 5 years. Price limit periods are sometimes known as Asset Management Plan periods. The current period is commonly known as AMP6 as it is the sixth cycle since the water industry was privatised in 1989.FTSE 100-listed United Utilities submitted its business plan covering the 2020 to 2025 period, with the aim of reducing average bills by 11% between 2020 and 2025 and a reduction of over GBP1 billion in expenditure compared with Asset Management Plan Five. "Our business plan sets out our ambition to build on our achievements in AMP6 and deliver a better quality, more reliable water and wastewater service for customers in the North West of England to 2025 and beyond. We are cutting bills such that they will be lower in real terms in 2025 than they were 15 years ago, whilst also delivering higher standards of service, increasing resilience, delivering innovation and investing for the long-term," said Chief Executive Steve Mogford.FTSE 100-listed Severn Trent also submitted its final business plan for the period 2020-25, which includes a real bill reduction of 5% - its largest reduction in two decades, it said.To facilitate this reduction, Severn Trent said it will use its "innovation and commercial pipelines" to deliver a 13% efficiency in spending, with total expenditure of GBP6.60 billion over the next 5 years. In addition, Severn Tent is proposing for a new community dividend of 1% of profits each year, to support communities in the Severn Trent region.Veterinary medicine maker Dechra Pharmaceuticals said it delivered another successful year "from both a financial and strategic perspective".For the financial year ended June 30, revenue increased 14% to GBP407.1 million from GBP359.3 million the year before. Pretax profit was marginally higher at GBP28.9 million from GBP28.6 million last year.Dechra proposed a final dividend of 18.17p, taking the total payout to 25.50p compared to 21.44p last year. "Following a strong set of results in 2018, the new financial year has started well and in line with management expectations. Good progress is being made on all parts of our strategy, with several new opportunities being realised and recent acquisitions delivering the expected returns. Whilst there are many challenges in the market, which is developing faster than at any time in its history, we believe that our strategy and flexibility to adapt to change positions us well to continue to outperform," Dechra said. Ascential, the information group formerly known as Emap, said it has acquired price analytics provider Brand View for GBP38.0 million. The FTSE 250-listed company said Brand View's unaudited revenue for the year to June 2018 was GBP13.0 million, and the transaction is expected to be earnings accretive, with Brand View expected to generate adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation margins of approximately 20%. "The acquisition of Brand View, using capital released from the sale of the Exhibitions business, supports this goal by broadening our capabilities in eCommerce analytics. Brand View's Price and Promotion expertise, and coverage of store-based activity, provides a comprehensive offering for both retailers and manufacturers," CEO Duncan Painter said. The economic events calendar on Monday has manufacturing PMI data from Italy, France, Germany, and eurozone at 0845 BST, 0850 BST, 0855 BST and 0900 BST, respectively. Sterling was marginally lower quoted at USD1.2930 early Monday, ahead of the PMI reading, against USD1.2970 at the London equities close on Friday.The UK manufacturing PMI reading for August is expected to come in at 53.9, down slightly from 54.0 in July.In domestic political news, Boris Johnson launched a scathing attack on Theresa May's Brexit strategy, branding it a "fix" that can only lead to victory for the EU.In what is likely to be seen by many at Westminster as the beginning of a bid to try to oust the prime minister, the ex-foreign secretary insisted the UK is "lying flat on the canvas" in withdrawal talks.The UK has "gone into battle with the white flag fluttering over our leading tank" due to May's Chequers proposals to align UK standards on goods to the EU, Johnson said.In the US on Friday, Wall Street ended mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending down 0.1%, the S&P 500 flat and Nasdaq Composite closing up 0.3%.US President Donald Trump took aim at Canada on Saturday, while threatening he could "terminate" the NAFTA free trade agreement with Mexico and the US' northern neighbour.He was tweeting a day after trade talks between the US and Canada broke down without result. The US and Mexico had reached a deal earlier in the week, putting pressure on Ottawa to keep the tripartite trading bloc alive."There is no political necessity to keep Canada in the new NAFTA deal. If we don't make a fair deal for the US after decades of abuse, Canada will be out. Congress should not interfere with these negotiations or I will simply terminate NAFTA entirely and we will be far better off," Trump tweeted.Stock markets in the US and Canada are closed for the labour day holidays. In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 index down closed down 0.6%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.7%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 1.0%.China's manufacturing activity growth slowed in August on weaker new orders, survey data from IHS Markit showed.The Caixin Purchasing Managers' Index slipped to 50.6 in August from 50.8 in July. The score signalled the weakest improvement since June 2017.Production grew at the fastest pace since the start of the year. However, demand conditions softened, with total new business rising at the slowest pace for 15 months.