LONDON MARKET PRE-OPEN: AstraZeneca appoints Aradhana Sarin as new CFO

(Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are seen opening marginally higher on Friday as tentative investors look ahead to the key US employment report for May at 1330 BST.

In early company news, Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca appointed the chief financial officer of takeover target Alexion Pharmaceuticals as its own CFO. Power generation company ContourGlobal acquired an asset in Italy. Hipgnosis acquired the catalogue of a Grammy-winning producer.

IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 5.65 points higher at 7,070.00. The blue-chip index closed down 43.65 points, or 0.6%, at 7,064.35 on Thursday.

AstraZeneca said it has appointed Aradhana Sarin as its new CFO. The appointment is conditional upon the closing of the drugmaker's acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals.

Sarin, who is currently is CFO of Alexion, will succeed Marc Dunoyer who will step down as CFO and retire from AstraZeneca's board on August 1. Dunoyer has served as CFO for seven years and will take up a new role within the rare disease unit of AstraZeneca, and develop Alexion's strategic direction.

Rio Tinto said it has appointed Ben Wyatt as a non-executive director and will join the board on September 1.

The miner said Wyatt brings "extensive public policy, regulatory and international trade experience" to the board from his time as Treasurer & Aboriginal Affairs Minister in the Western Australian government.

Chair Simon Thompson said "I am delighted to welcome Ben to the Rio Tinto Board. With family links to the Pilbara and an impressive track record in public life, Ben's knowledge of public policy, finance, international trade and Indigenous affairs will significantly add to the depth of knowledge on the board at a time when we are seeking to strengthen relationships with key stakeholders in Australia and around the world."

The Financial Times said it was the first time that Rio Tinto has appointed an indigenous Australian to its board. The move follows the public outcry and regulatory scrutiny that followed after the miner blew up a 46,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage site to expand the Pilbara iron ore mine in Western Australia. It resulted in Rio's chief executive resigning and it chair saying he will stand down in 2022.

ContourGlobal said it has teamed with Energy Infrastructure Partners to acquire Green Hunter Group from a group of private shareholders. Green Hunter is a portfolio of solar photovoltaic assets totalling 18 megawatts located in Italy. The deal is valued at EUR49.7 million and is on a debt-free, cash-free basis.

ContourGlobal will own 51% of Green Hunter, while EIP will own 49% and the acquisition is expected to complete during the third quarter.

"The transaction is another operationally led bolt-on acquisition as part of our roll-up strategy in Italy with our long-time partner EIP, generating operational synergy and attractive risk adjusted returns for our shareholders. We continue to see a strong pipeline of further opportunities in Italy," ContourGlobal said.

Hipgnosis Songs Fund said it has acquired the music catalogue of songwriter, producer and musician Joel Little. No financial details of the deal were disclosed, though Hipgnosis said the package generate revenue of USD4.3 million in 2019.

Little has worked with artists such as Lorde, Taylor Swift, Imagine Dragons, Shawn Mendes, Sam Smith, James Bay and the Jonas Brothers.

Merck Mercuriadis, founder Hipgnosis Songs Fund said: "Joel is one of the most important songwriters in the world today. More than eight years on from the iconic song that is Royals, he has continued to deliver massive hits for Lorde, Taylor Swift, Khalid, Imagine Dragons and many more. His songs are amongst the most streamed songs of the last 10 years amassing more than 15 billion streams globally."

The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.4% on Friday. In China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was down 0.4%. The S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney closed up 0.5%.

Later Friday, market focus will be on the US nonfarm payrolls report for May. Economists expect the US Labor Department data will show the world's largest economy added 720,000 jobs and the unemployment rate ticked down to 5.9% in May, a consensus supported by positive data released this week.

Payroll services firm ADP boosted the upbeat sentiment when it said private employers added a huge 978,000 jobs last month, while the Institute for Supply Management reported its index gauging the health of the service sector, a key employer, hit an all-time high in May.

In addition, weekly data from the Labor Department showed new unemployment aid applications dropped below 400,000 last week for the first time since the pandemic sent them into the millions in March 2020.

Analysts at Danske Bank commented: "Cautiousness seems to linger this Friday ahead of US payrolls with futures being roughly unchanged.

"We think the market reaction will be fairly muted if non-farm payrolls are in the 500,000 to 1,000,000 range and then we are probably stuck with low volatility in markets a while longer (ADP showed an increase of nearly 1 million but is not considered a very strong predictor for non-farm payrolls). We are particularly interested in learning whether employment in leisure and hospitality continued rising at a lot faster pace than usually at this time of the year, as it is probably the best re-opening indicator."

The pound was quoted at USD1.4097 early Friday, soft from USD1.4108 at the London equities close Thursday.

Hopes for summer holidays abroad are fading after UK travel rules were tightened amid growing concerns over coronavirus variants and mutations.

Travel bosses are facing "another lost summer" after Portugal was added to the amber travel list just weeks after the holiday hotspot reopened for British tourists.

Urging caution ahead of the scheduled domestic unlock on June 21, UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps blamed the move on "a sort of Nepal mutation of the so-called Indian variant" having been detected, and an increased test positivity rate in the country.

The news comes as it was revealed that the variant first identified in India is now the dominant Covid strain in the UK.

The euro stood at USD1.2110 early Friday, down from USD1.2125 late Thursday. Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JPY110.25, little changed from JPY110.27.

Brent oil was quoted at USD71.37 on Friday morning, up from USD71.25 late Thursday. Gold was priced at USD1,870.41 an ounce, flat from USD1,869.72.

Friday's economic calendar also has UK construction PMI at 0930 BST and eurozone retail sales at 1000 BST.

By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

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