18th Mar 2019 07:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London are seen opening in the green on Monday following strong gains in Asian equity markets overnight, amid hopes that a trade resolution between the US and China can be reached.In company news, payment services firm Worldpay has agreed to by purchased by the US's FIS in a cash and shares deal that values Worldpay at USD43 billion, including debt. Also engaged in M&A early Monday, sportswear retailer JD Sports said reached an agreement to acquire peer Footasylum in a GBP90 million deal. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca's Saracatinib drug obtained US regulator approval, and Serco won a contract in Australia. IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 33.72 points higher at 7,262.00. The blue chip index closed up 42.85 points, or 0.6% at 7,228.28 on Friday.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed up 0.6%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is up 2.1%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is up 1.0%.Citing a phone conversation between Chinese Vice-Premier Liu He and US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Steven Mnuchin, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday that concrete progress had been made on the text of the trade agreement between the two sides."Optimism about a US, China trade deal once again returns to the fore, after reports that further progress was being made towards some form of deal in the coming weeks. This is likely to translate into an accordingly positive open here in Europe this morning," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.FIS and Worldpay, both financial services technology providers, agreed to merge, they announced Monday. Worldpay shareholders will receive 0.9287 of a FIS share, plus USD11.00 in cash, for each share of Worldpay. Shareholders of New York-listed FIS will own 53% of the enlarged company and Worldpay shareholders 47%."Scale matters in our rapidly changing industry," said Gary Norcross, chairman & chief executive officer of FIS. "Upon closing later this year, our two powerhouse organizations will combine forces to offer a customer-driven combination of scale, global presence and the industry's broadest range of global financial solutions."Sportswear retailer JD Sports Fashion said it has reached an agreement to acquire the entire ordinary share capital of smaller AIM-listed peer Footasylum that it does not already own. JD Sports Fashion holds an 18.74% interest in Footasylum after acquiring an 8.3% stake in the struggling footwear seller in February. At the time, JD had said it did not intend to make an offer for the company.Under the terms of the offer, Footasylum shareholders will receive 82.5 pence in cash for each Footasylum share. The offer represents a 77.4% premium to Footasylum's closing share price of 46.5p on Friday.The offer values Footasylum around GBP90.1 million. JD said the cash consideration will be financed from JD's existing cash resources and facilities."The Footasylum board has concluded that the offer represents the best strategic option for Footasylum and its employees. It believes the offer fairly reflects Footasylum's current market position and prospects on a standalone basis and, as such, that Footasylum shareholders should be given the opportunity to realise value from the offer," said Footasylum Chair Barry Brown. Footasylum was founded by David Makin, who had previously founded JD Sports with his business partner John Wardle in 1981.Drugmaker AstraZeneca said the US Food & Drug Administration has granted Orphan Drug Designation for saracatinib, a potential new medicine for the treatment of lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Saracatinib is an inhibitor of src kinase which regulates broad cell functions including cell growth and cell differentiation.AstraZeneca said Saracatinib has completed Phase I development.Outsoucer Serco said its signed a AUD115 million contract with the South Australian Government to operate Adelaide Remand Centre. The duration of the contract is seven years and will start in August. "The contract expands what is traditionally undertaken in remand and focusses on providing a broad range of reintegration support services to all prisoners from the very start of the process. In developing our solution, we have drawn on our extensive experience operating correctional facilities within the Australian criminal justice system, as well as in New Zealand and the UK, and will deliver straightforward interventions that deliver long lasting and positive effects," said Serco Chief Executive Rupert Soames. Smart Metering Systems said it won a contract with 'Big Six' UK energy supplier SSE to supply and install up to 200,000 SMETS2 non-domestic meters.Smart Metering said the deal forms part of the UK government programme, overseen by Ofgem and the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy which requires energy supply companies to provide all of their domestic and small business customers across the UK with a smart meter by 2020. The pound was quoted at USD1.3282 early Monday, marginally lower than USD1.3297 at the London close Friday.In political news, UK Prime Minister Theresa May's hopes of delivering Brexit could hinge on intensive efforts to persuade the Democratic Unionist Party to back the Withdrawal Agreement.The 10 DUP MPs are viewed by Downing Street as crucial, not just for the votes they provide but the influence their stance has on Conservative Eurosceptics concerned about the Irish backstop.The prime minister will not risk bringing her deal back to the Commons unless she is confident of avoiding a third humiliating defeat on the package.Negotiations with the DUP are expected to continue on Monday, although Downing Street said a formal meeting is not scheduled. Ministers have stressed that unless the deal is approved by MPs before Thursday's summit of EU leaders, the UK will be forced to accept a lengthy delay to Brexit."It would appear that in the wake of last week's events at Westminster investors are starting to feed money back into UK equities in the hope that some form of soft Brexit will come about in the coming weeks, though that is by no means certain given last week's political pantomime at Westminster, where Theresa May's withdrawal agreement came a cropper for the second time," commented CMC's Hewson.In the US on Friday, Wall Street ended higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 up 0.5% and Nasdaq Composite ending up 0.8%.