9th Apr 2026 07:50
(Alliance News) - British American Tobacco has named its next permanent finance chief, Metlen Energy's belated 2025 results show a profit fall, while Convatec set out a growth plan. Elsewere, ME Group says its laundary machines will appear in Asda units, SDCL Efficiency Income Trust will pursue a managed wind-down and ITM Power has received UK government backing.
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 0.4% at 10,649.08
GBP: down at USD1.3388 (USD1.3438 at previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS
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Lebanon must be included in the ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will say in a speech to City leaders on Thursday evening. Addressing an event at the Mansion House, the foreign secretary will also warn there "must be no return to conflict" following the earlier announcement by US President Donald Trump of a two-week pause in the conflict. Despite the President's announcement, however, Israel has continued to bombard Lebanon, increasing fears that the ceasefire will not hold. Any hope that Israel would immediately stop hitting targets in Lebanon appeared to be dashed when US Vice President JD Vance insisted that the country was not part of the ceasefire deal with Iran. Speaking in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, Vance said: "I think this comes from a legitimate misunderstanding. I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon, and it just didn't. We never made that promise, we never indicated that was going to be the case."
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BROKER RATINGS
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Citigroup raises Lloyds Banking Group to 'buy' - price target 114 pence
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Peel Hunt cuts Ceres Power to 'sell' (hold) - price target 200 (190)
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Rothschild & Co Redburn cuts Shell to 'neutral' - price target 3,640 (3,100)
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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British American Tobacco has tapped brewer Asahi's European boss as its next finance chief, with effect September. Dragos Constantinescu, who before joining Asahi spent 16 years at the tobacco firm, is to take over from interim CFO Javed Iqbal. Iqbal will then continue his role as diector for Digital & Information. BAT says: "Dragos is currently serving as CEO of Asahi Europe & International, having been with Asahi Breweries since 2019. During his time at Asahi Breweries, Dragos has also held a number of other senior leadership roles across Europe including Managing Director, Czech, Slovakia, Germany & Austria and Managing Director, Romania & Hungary. Prior to this, Dragos spent 16 years at BAT, where he held senior finance and general management roles, including as General Manager, Central Europe North and Finance Director and General Manager, BAT Poland." BAT back in August announced Soraya Benchikh resigned as CFO with immediate effect after a short stint.
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Metlen Energy & Metals says profit declined in 2025, despite growth in revenue, amid a "challenging and fluid operating environment". Pretax profit in 2025 fell 48% to EUR382.3 million from EUR748.4 million in 2024, despite revenue shooting 25% higher to EUR7.11 billion from EUR5.68 billion. Cost of goods sold climbed 42% to EUR6.64 billion from EUR4.66 billion. "For Metlen, 2025, was a historic year, as the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and subsequently included in the FTSE 100 and MSCI UK Indexes, marking the beginning of a new chapter focused on growth, international expansion and enhanced access to global capital markets. This was followed by a new corporate transformation - the third in less than a decade - reflecting the continued evolution of our business. Despite this challenging and fluid operating environment, as well as the pressures faced within the MPP sub-sector, Metlen delivered a strong performance across its core sectors," Executive Chair Evangelos Mytilineos says. Metlen proposed a EUR1.00 per share dividend.
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Convatec in capital markets day will set out the "next chapter" of its growth plan, as the medical products and technology company looks to achieve 6%-8% annual organic revenue growth in the medium term. Its new 'Accelerate' strategy is "underpinned by the strongest pipeline of innovation in Convatec's history and will see accelerating sustainable and profitable growth". "Accelerate represents an evolution of the company's previous FISBE strategy, which transformed Convatec into a chronic care leader in each of its care categories," Convatec says. "Under FISBE, Convatec pivoted to sustainable and profitable growth, consistently delivering against strategic targets with five years of broad-based, resilient revenue growth. Convatec now has differentiated products winning share and significant growth opportunities across categories, products and geographies." Under the new plan, it will have an eye on "customer-focused growth" as well as "technology and innovation". As well as the 6%-8% organic revenue growth ambition Convatec's medium-term goals also include a 24%-26% adjusted operating margin and annual double-digit adjusted earnings per share growth. In 2025, organic revenue climbed 6.4%, or 4.8% including InnovaMatrix. The adjusted operating margin was 22.3%. Adjusted diluted EPS rose 16%.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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SDCL Efficiency Income Trust says a managed wind down is in the "best interests of its shareholders", after receiving an underwhelming reception to a strategic plan. The investor in energy efficiency infrastructure assets, in an effort to "address the current discount to prevailing net asset value", devised the strategic plan. It included transferring its listing to a vertically integrated operating company from an investment trust currently. "Over the last 10 days, the board and the manager have been involved in extensive discussions with a number of SEIT's shareholders regarding the strategic proposal to ascertain their views," SDCL says. "Following this engagement, it is clear to the board and the manager that there is insufficient support from shareholders to pass the special resolution required to successfully implement the strategic proposal." SDCL will now pursue a managed wind down. "The board now intends to agree appropriate arrangements to effect the managed wind-down and align economic interests towards monetising assets," it adds.
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Instant service equipment provider ME Group International says has launched a new partnership with UK grocer Asda, for its Wash.ME laundry machines. The units are to be placed on Asda sites, including supermarkets and forecourts. "The overall ambition is to target up to 700 Wash.ME laundry machines across these sites. These sites are attractive, high-footfall locations which can be easily accessed and maintained by the group's strong network of field engineers," ME Group adds. "The new partnership with Asda supports the group's growth strategy, with ambitions to install more than 1,300 Wash.ME laundry machines in FY 2026 and a long-term target of installing 20,000+ machines globally."
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OTHER COMPANIES
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ITM Power says its has received UK government backing, which the green hydrogen firm deems a "vote of confidence in our technology, delivery credibility". Publicly-owned Great British Energy Group is to invest GBP40 million into ITM through a non-pre-emptive subscription. In addition, ITM has been informed that the UK Department for Energy Security & Net Zero has confirmed its intention to award the company a grant of GBP46.5 million. "This significant support follows a rigorous technical and commercial due diligence by a third party to assess the effectiveness and likely impact of our next-generation stack platform Chronos," ITM adds. "The funds will support the establishment of a new large-scale automated manufacturing line in the UK with an annual capacity of 1 GW for our next-generation stack Chronos, underpinned by strong order momentum and growing order backlog over the last 24 months." ITM has upped its cash guidance for the year ending April to between GBP210 million and GBP215 million, from GBP170 million to GBP175 million, "reflecting the funds from the subscription".
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Van Elle has agreed to a GBP58.8 million buyout from construction company Strabag. Strabag will pay 52.3 pence in cash for each share in the ground engineering contractor, a 59% premium to its 33.0p closing price on Wednesday. "The strong strategic fit identified between Strabag UK and Van Elle is expected to drive growth following the transaction, incremental to the respective growth prospects of the current businesses. Complementary client relationships and end markets, particularly in the residential, water, energy and transport sectors, create attractive cross-selling opportunities, broaden the combined civil engineering offering around ground engineering works, and generate revenue synergies," Van Elle says. "The Van Elle board considers that, notwithstanding their belief that the Van Elle Group has significant medium term opportunities, and the strategic progress made over the last five years, the potential for a sustained and material improvement in the valuation of the Van Elle shares is likely to be limited in the near term. Furthermore, the share price of the Van Elle shares is unlikely to reflect fundamental value of the Van Elle group given the illiquid trading in the Van Elle shares and investor sentiment towards smaller UK-quoted companies remaining subdued."
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Strix Group says it will return GBP10 million to shareholders through a tender offer. The tender price will be 43p per share, an 11% premium to its 38.9p closing price on Wednesday, the supplier of kettle safety controls says. "In addition to the current share buyback programme, the board has reviewed the various options for returning capital to shareholders, as well as noting the share price development, and concluded that the tender offer represents the most appropriate and efficient mechanism, enabling all eligible shareholders (excluding those in restricted jurisdictions) to participate on an equitable basis," it adds.
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By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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Related Shares:
LloydsCeres PowerShellStrixVan ElleItm PowerME GroupSdcl Ef. Inc TrConvaTecMetlen EnergyBritish American Tobacco