Playtech Share News (PTEC)

(Alliance News) - Stocks in London are set to open slightly lower on Wednesday despite an upbeat session in Asia overnight.

In early UK company news, British Land Co reported a fall in portfolio value. M&A remained active. Vectura agreed to be taken over in a GBP958 million takeover. Spire Healthcare accepted an offer that values its equity at GBP999.6 million and give an enterprise value of GBP2.06 billion. Playtech has agreed to sell its financial trading division for up to USD210 million.

IG says futures indicate the FTSE 100 index of large-caps to open 2.89 points lower at 7,038.90 on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 closed down 21.80 points, or 0.3%, at 7,029.79 on Tuesday.

"European and US futures are trading flat, and it seems that the stock market is more of in a holding pattern. Bulls are trying their best to keep the momentum going; however, they are finding it hard to push the prices back towards their record price level," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade.

In the US on Tuesday, Wall Street ended with modest losses, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 ending down 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite flat.

The Asian session on Wednesday was brighter, however, with the Japanese Nikkei 225 index closing up 0.3%. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.4%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 0.8%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney ended down 0.3%.

In early UK company news, property company British Land Co reported a fall in portfolio value in a year when Covid-19 emptied office buildings.

EPRA net tangible assets per share fell 16% to 648 pence at March 31 from 773p a year earlier, while portfolio value fell 11% to GBP9.13 billion. British Land's pretax loss for the year was GBP1.05 billion, narrowed slightly from GBP1.12 billion.

"While Covid-19 has clearly impacted our performance, with the portfolio value down 10.8%, we have a strong balance sheet and have already delivered excellent progress against our four priorities. We've sold GBP1.2bn of assets, overall 6.2% ahead of book value, completed our first net zero development at 100 Liverpool Street and committed to develop Norton Folgate and 1 Broadgate, where we have pre let nearly 30% of the office space to JLL," said Chief Executive Simon Carter.

The company's dividend for the year totalled 15.04p, down 5.8% from 15.97p the year prior.

Looking ahead, British Land noted that the UK's gradual exit from lockdown has strengthened economic confidence. It expects office rents to fall by up to 5% before recovering. It noted that retail occupational markets remain tough, and it expects rents to decline further, though it is seeing signs of stabilisation on some retail parks. The rebound in retail footfall has been encouraging, it added.

"Although it is early days, economic indicators are positive, and we are hopeful that we are starting to emerge from the pandemic," said British Land.

Spire Healthcare has agreed to a cash takeover offer from Ramsay Health Care. The offer of 240 pence per share is 24% above Spire's closing price on Tuesday of 193.00p. The offer values Spire's entire share capital at GBP999.6 million and gives the hospital operator an enterprise value, including debt, of GBP2.06 billion.

Mediclinic International, a 29.9% shareholder, said it has agreed to the takeover offer for its holding. The offer values this at GBP287.8 million, it noted. Mediclinic said it has provided Ramsay with an irrevocable undertaking to vote in favour of the offer.

Meanwhile, Vectura said it has agreed to be taken over by Murano Bidco, a company controlled by funds managed by Carlyle Europe Partners V, in a deal worth GBP958 million.

Vectura is a pharmaceuticals business based in Chippenham, England and focused on the development of inhaled products.

Murano has offered 155 pence per Vectura share, comprising 136p in cash and a 19p Vectura dividend. This represents a 32% premium to Tuesday's ex-dividend closing price of 103p, and a 27% premium to Tuesday's actual closing price of 122p.

"While the Vectura directors remain confident in the long-term fundamentals of the Vectura group, we believe that this is an attractive offer for Vectura shareholders, which secures the delivery of future value for Vectura shareholders in cash today," said Chair Bruno Angelici.

In a separate release on Tuesday, Vectura said revenue for the CDMO business in 2021 is expected to remain in line with previous guidance of more than tripling on 2020.

Playtech said it has agreed to sell its financial trading division for up to USD210 million. This comprises an initial USD185 million, of which USD15 million is deferred for up to two years from completion, along with a further USD25 million contingent on meeting certain targets.

The sale is being made to a consortium led by Barinboim Group and backed by Leumi Partners and Menora Mivtachim Insurance, together with "key members" of the division's management team.

"Looking forward, Playtech will focus on its technology led offering in B2B and B2C gambling, driven by our online expertise and supported by a strong balance sheet. We have been building momentum in our business, as highlighted by our progress over the last twelve months in key markets such as the US, Latin America, and Europe," said Chief Executive Mor Weizer.

Clothing, homewares and food retailer Marks & Spencer reported a fall in revenue and swing to loss for its recently-ended financial year, but hailed its transformation in the period.

Revenue fell to GBP9.16 billion in the year to April 3 from GBP10.18 billion, with M&S swinging to a pretax loss of GBP209.4 million from profit of GBP67.2 million the year before.

"Our results for the year bear the impact of the pandemic spanning the beginning of the first national lockdown through to near to the end of the third lockdown in the UK. However, they also reflect an acceleration of the transformation which enabled the business to deliver a resilient performance," the retailer said.

Trading in the first six weeks of the new financial year and since reopening has been ahead of the comparable period two years ago and its central case, M&S said. At this "early stage", the company expects to achieve profit before tax and adjusted items between GBP300 million and GBP350 million, which would be up sharply on GBP50.3 million reported for the recently-ended year.

"With the right team in place to accelerate change in the trading businesses and build a trajectory for future growth, we now have a clear line of sight on the path to make M&S special again. The transformation has moved to the next phase," said Chief Executive Steve Rowe.

There was some good news on the vaccine front overnight, as the White House said nearly half of all US adults have now received full Covid-19 vaccines.

"Now 50% of all American adults are fully vaccinated," tweeted Cyrus Shahpar, Covid-19 data director for the White House.

That means half the adult population has received either two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, or one of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson. More than half a million Americans have died from the coronavirus but the country is now a world leader in rolling out vaccinations.

Meanwhile, NHS England said people aged 30 and over can book their Covid-19 jab from Wednesday. UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock praised the "phenomenal pace" of the vaccination programme.

Sterling was quoted at USD1.4157 early Wednesday, higher than USD1.4128 at the London equities close on Tuesday.

The euro traded at USD1.2248 early Wednesday, up from USD1.2236 late Tuesday. Against the yen, the dollar was quoted at JPY108.86, down from JPY108.96.

Gold was quoted at USD1,905.20 an ounce early Wednesday, rising from USD1,892.55 on Tuesday. The precious metal was trading above the USD1,900 mark for the first time since the start of 2021.

"Traders continue to believe that inflation remains the single biggest threat, and there is no better hedge against inflation than gold. If we look at things on the Fed side, there is still very little chance of seeing any change in the monetary policy," said AvaTrade's Aslam.

Brent oil was trading at USD68.77 a barrel early Wednesday, flat on USD68.71 late Tuesday.

A light economic events calendar on Wednesday has French consumer confidence at 0745 BST.

By Lucy Heming; lucyheming@alliancenews.com

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