8th Aug 2025 07:59
(Alliance News) - London stocks were called to open higher on Friday, as new data showed soft retail footfall figures during July and US President Donald Trump selected his economic advisor Stephen Miran to fill a Federal Reserve board vacancy.
In early corporate news, GSK wins a payout after settlement is reached in the legal action between partner CureVac and BioNTech on Thursday, while Renewables Infrastructure posts a widened interim loss.
Here is what you need to know before the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: called up 0.2% at 9,116.07
GBP: up at USD1.3427 (USD1.3412 at previous London equities close)
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BROKER RATINGS
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Berenberg starts Senior with 'buy' - price target 275 pence
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Exane BNP cuts SSP to 'underperform' (neutral) - price target 160 (260) pence
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Shore Capital cuts Renold to 'hold' (buy)
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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GSK will receive an upfront settlement of USD370 million in connection with the mRNA patent settlement reached between CureVac and BioNTech on Thursday. The pharmaceutical company will also receive a 1% royalty on US sales on influenza, Covid-19 and other combination mRNA vaccine products by BioNTech and Pfizer from the beginning of 2025. The payments are due to GSK under the terms of its existing license deal with CureVac. Of the settlement amount, USD320 million will be in cash, with the remainder put towards the value of an amendment to GSK's deal with CureVac. This includes a "significant reduction" in royalties to be paid by GSK on its potential future mRNA influenza, Covid-19 and combination products. Upon completion of the ongoing acquisition of CureVac by BioNTech, the mRNA patent litigation between the two firms will also be settled outside of the US, at which point GSK will be entitled to an additional USD130 million in cash and 1% royalty payments on non-US future sales by BioNTech and Pfizer. Alongside the settlement, GSK has also entered a tender and support deal under which it will tender its around 16.6 million CureVac shares in the upcoming offer. GSK notes this settlement does not impact its legal action against Pfizer and BioNTech in the US and Europe, and says it will continue with its litigation against the companies for patent infringements.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Renewables Infrastructure reports a pretax loss of GBP113.8 million for the first half of 2025, widened from GBP15.8 million the year before, as its total operating loss stretches to GBP94.9 million from GBP43.2 million. Finance and other expenses total GBP17.2 million during the first half, against income of GBP28.8 million a year earlier. Generation during the first half was 10% below budget, the firm explains, as a result of "poor wind resource". Loss per share widens to 4.7 pence from 0.6p. Net asset value per share at June 30 is 108.2p, down 6.6% from 115.9p at December 31. "Of fundamental importance for investment companies to succeed in this uncertain environment is a close attention to risk management, with diversification and scale being important components, and the execution of a growth strategy, to provide the risk and reward balance that shareholders seek," says Chair Richard Morse. "TRIG is already well placed and the board and managers are committed to furthering these fundamentals to provide resilient and attractive returns to our investors." The company reaffirms its full-year dividend guidance of 7.55p per share, which would be up 1.1% from 7.47p in 2024.
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Sana Bidco has met with the Assura board to request Assura changes its recommendation of a takeover offer from Primary Health Properties to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co's cash bid. Sana Bidco is the consortium made up of KKR and property investor Stonepeak Partners. KKR made its "best and final" offer for Assura early in June, which the Assura board "unanimously" rejected in favour of a bid from PHP. Under the terms of the increased PHP offer, Assura shareholders would receive 0.3865 new PHP shares and 12.5 pence in cash, and the two quarterly interim dividends of 0.84p each, implying a total value at the time of 53.3p per Assura share. KKR's offer had comprised 50.42p in cash and the quarterly interim dividends, making for a total offer of 52.1p. KKR notes a "material gap" between the bids and says its offer is 1.1% higher than the revised PHP offer as of Friday, following a decline in the share prices of both Assura and PHP. The KKR bid now represents a 2.9% premium to Assura's share price. "Despite this, there appears to have been no buying activity from investors who have expressed support to the potential combination of PHP and Assura and who therefore should see this as an opportunity to buy into Assura at a depressed valuation," KKR says. "Given this, it is unclear where further buying support for the potential combined entity could come from, if the revised PHP offer is successful." KKR has 1.57% acceptance for its Assura offer as of Thursday, plus its own holding of 5.05%. PHP has 3.68% acceptances from Assura shareholders. Meanwhile, the UK Competition & Markets Authority has served an initial enforcement order on the takeover offer by Primary Health Properties for Assura. This follows a comment period between July 4 and 18.
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OTHER COMPANIES
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FBD Holdings posts pretax profit of EUR17.1 million for the six months to June 30, falling 47% from EUR32.3 million a year earlier. This is largely driven by insurance service expenses nearly doubling to EUR257.0 million from EUR129.1 million. Insurance revenue grows 11% to EUR235.1 million from EUR212.6 million, and the firm records a positive EUR74.6 million change in amounts recoverable from reinsurers for incurred claims, against a negative EUR18.3 million change the year before. The insurer declares a special dividend of 75 cents per share to return "excess capital", and intends to return up to a further EUR4 million of capital in the second half of 2025 through share buybacks. "Looking ahead to the second half of 2025, we remain focused on maintaining our momentum," says Chief Executive Officer Tomas O'Midheach. "While mindful of ongoing uncertainties in the external environment, we are confident that our relationship driven approach, supported by a digitally enabled, data enriched organisation will continue to deliver long-term value for our customers and stakeholders alike." FBD guides for a full-year combined operating ratio in the low 90s, against a 94.2% ratio in the first half. The company said: "We remain confident in our underlying profitability, solid capital position and future growth potential, as well as our ongoing ability to deliver value for both our customers and shareholders."
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By Emily Parsons, Alliance News reporter
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SeniorSSP GroupRenoldGlaxosmithklineRenewables Infrastructure GroupFBH.LAssura