Oil prices shoot up as Opec agrees its first production cut since 2008 November 30, 2016 Investors piled into oil futures and related stocks yesterday evening after Opec defied expectations and revealed a deal to cut production by 1.2m barrels a day. Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices soared as the Saudi Arabia-led cartel announced its first agreement since 2008. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will reduce [...]
Healthcare trust to float on Friday despite falling short of £200m target November 30, 2016 Bellevue Asset Management is set to float a new investment trust on the London Stock Exchange on Friday. BB Healthcare Trust missed its target of £200m, but will list on the main market this week after raising £150m. Paul Major, who will co-manage the fund with Dr Daniel Koller, played down the £200m target, saying the minimum [...]
Why Biffa’s chief executive refused to scrap IPO plans despite “fairly tortuous process” November 30, 2016 The chief executive of Biffa has described taking the waste management company public this year as a “fairly tortuous process”. Biffa pushed ahead with its initial public offering (IPO) in October, but was forced to reduce its share price offer from 220p to 180p, meaning a total raise of £210m, down from £270m. Other companies, [...]
Oil prices edge up ahead of Opec meeting November 30, 2016 It's all getting very nervy ahead of a meeting of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' (Opec) later today. Members of the producer cartel will try to seal a deal on an output cut to clamp down on oversupply after oil prices have more than halved since 2014. And oil markets reflected the edginess – they inched [...]
FTSE reshuffle: Travis Perkins, DFS and Countrywide are on the way out November 29, 2016 Cheap sofas, estate agents and building materials are no longer flavour of the month, it seems – with some of the UK's largest blue-chips eligible for demotion in the FTSE. The FTSE 100 and the FTSE 250 will undergo their quarterly reshuffle after market close tomorrow – and DFS, Countrywide Properties and Travis Perkins are all [...]
The Royal Mint is putting gold bullion on the blockchain November 29, 2016 It’s not just currency that’s going digital – £1bn of the Royal Mint’s gold will soon be on the blockchain. The 1,000-year-old government-owned institution is working with exchange giant CME Group create a new digital trading platform for investors to buy and sell gold using blockchain’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) to track ownership. Why use [...]
Oil prices fall as investors see Opec production cut possibility slipping away November 29, 2016 Oil markets recorded heavy falls on Tuesday as a long-mooted supply cut by Opec looks increasingly unlikely. The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the North American benchmark, fell as low as $45.63 per barrel at the time of writing – more than 2.8 per cent in the day. Meanwhile Brent crude, the North Sea benchmark, [...]
UK SME fund plans main market float November 28, 2016 UK investment fund RM Secured Direct Lending is planning to float on the main market. The fund, which lends to small and medium-sized businesses in the UK, will announce the IPO tomorrow. It is looking to raise up to £100m from the float and is being advised by N + 1 Singer. Read more: The London mayor's ploughed £2.5m [...]
FTSE reshuffle: Three blue-chip relegations are on the cards this week November 28, 2016 A Russian gold producer, a builders’ merchant and a shopping centre owner could face relegation from the FTSE 100 this week. Building materials company Travis Perkins, which issued a profits warning in October, Polymetal International, which has suffered due to a gold price drop since the US election, and shopping centre owner Intu, whose shares have [...]
VC firm Draper Esprit’s IPO at the height of Brexit has paid off with pre-tax profits of £26.5m November 28, 2016 Venture capital firm Draper Esprit, the backer of successful startups Lovefilm, Lyst and Graze, defied the EU referendum jitters to float a week before polling day in June; now that appears to have paid off. It reported pre-tax profits of £26.5m for the six months to the end of September in its maiden interim results as a public company. The [...]