4th Jun 2019 07:41
LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were seen opening in the red on Tuesday, tracking Asian equity markets lower, with US tech stocks falling overnight following the threat of antitrust action.Oil major Royal Dutch Shell unveiled a strategy update and provided a financial outlook to 2025. Airtel Africa confirmed its intention to float in London, and Intu Properties hired a new head of finance. IG futures indicate the FTSE 100 index is to open 23.00 points lower at 7,161.80. The blue chip index closed up 23.09 points, or 0.3%, at 7,184.80 on Monday.Shell said it is on track to deliver on its 2020 commitments and raised its organic free cash flow outlook to around USD35 billion for 2025 at USD60 per barrelChief Executive Ben Van Beurden said: "Increased organic free cash flow outlook, greater potential distributions to shareholders and confidence in our world class investment case has given our high-margin portfolio, improving returns and a globally recognised brand."Looking further ahead to 2025, van Beurden set out a robust financial outlook that included the potential to make distributions to shareholders of USD125 billion in the form of dividends and share buybacks in the period of 2021 to 2025. The company added that it expects to complete USD25 billion share buyback programme by the end of next year. Telecommunications and mobile money firm Airtel Africa confirmed its intention to list on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange, with admission expected to occur in July.The company said the offer will comprise of new shares to raise gross proceeds of USD750 million and the offer price will be determined following publication of the prospectus and a book-building process.Investment company International Public Partnerships said its portfolio is performing in line with expectations and continues to deliver a consistent operational performance. As such, the company is confident in delivering strong financial returns, offering the prospect of continued dividend growth for shareholders.The company said a target dividend for the 2019 and 2020 financial years has been set at 7.18 pence and 7.36 pence per share respectively, consistent with the average annual increase of 2.5%.Gaming company 888 Holdings said it made a a solid start to the year with strong momentum in Casino and Sport across a number of the group's major regulated markets.For the period ended May 18, revenue increased 6% on a like-for-like basis underpinned by increased marketing investment and the release of 888's Orbit Casino platform, which has driven new customer acquisition up by 20% year on year. "Whilst Poker has remained challenging, we were pleased to see an improving revenue trend in Q1 2019 against the fourth quarter 2018. In addition, we are very encouraged by a 20% increase in first time depositors across the group's B2C business in the period; this reflects 888's outstanding marketing capabilities and is a key indicator of our growth prospects," CEO Itai Pazner said. Online electrical goods retailer AO World reported a widened pretax loss in its 2019 financial year against a backdrop of ongoing weak consumer confidence in a continuing competitive market. For the year that ended March 31, revenue was up to GBP902.5 million from GBP796.8 million the year before, while the company's pretax loss widened to GBP18.9 million from GBP13.5 million. CEO John Roberts said: "Adjusted EBITDA losses in Europe have increased slightly against the prior year with progress hampered somewhat by driver challenges in Germany and a lack of real improvement in product margin and customer acquisition costs. We are working to address these issues. We've also made changes to the management of our international operations and are ensuring we utilise all the influence, intelligence and capability within AO."The AO model is an eco-system of complementary competencies across retail, mobile, recycling and logistics through to financial services and B2B trade. We have huge structural advantages when these capabilities operate in harmony. So, we have enhanced structure with informality and a renewed mindset and are now releasing the immense unrealised value we've created. We've started to see this in the last few months and it will be an important driver for the year ahead."Intu Properties said it has hired former Crest Nicholson Holdings finance chief Robert Allen as its new chief financial officer from next week.Allen will join London- and Johannesburg-listed property firm Intu next Monday, replacing acting CFO Barbara Gibbes who took on the role after former CFO Matthew Roberts was promoted chief executive officer in April.A chartered accountant, Allen served as CFO at housebuilder Crest Nicholson between 2016 and 2018. This followed 18 years in a number of senior finance roles at British American Tobacco.The Japanese Nikkei 225 index closed down 0.2%. In China, the Shanghai Composite is down 0.9%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong is down 0.4%."Equity benchmarks in Asia followed Wall Street lower overnight after a sell-off in technology stocks dragged the Nasdaq 1.6% lower and into correction territory. Weak economic data and escalating US-China trade tensions also fuelled fears of a global downturn, supporting flows into safe havens. European futures are pointing to a milder drop on the open," commented London Capital Group's Jasper Lawler.In the US on Monday, Wall Street ended broadly lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average flat, the S&P 500 down 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite 1.6% lower.The steep drop by the Nasdaq index came as tech stocks were under pressure on the heels of reports of antitrust investigations involving several big-name companies.US lawmakers on Monday announced a sweeping investigation into the dominance of major tech companies to determine whether they stifle a competitive marketplace.The investigation - a rare bipartisan effort - is the first major indication that lawmakers in Congress will seek to legislate antitrust regulations targeting technology giants such as Alphabet's Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple, which have come under increasing criticism for market domination and privacy concerns.Trade concerns also continued to weigh on the markets after an official document from the Chinese government blamed the US for the escalating trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday criticized China's trade record, saying it had been unfair for decades and that US President Donald Trump was "committed to change this" as the trade war between the two countries rumbled on.Speaking in The Hague, Pompeo pressured the Dutch government to exclude the Chinese phone company Huawei from the extension of the 5G mobile phone network on security grounds.Meanwhile, a reduction in US interest rates "may be warranted soon" due in part to escalating global trade tensions, according to St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard.Bullard said the Fed faces a US economy that is expected to grow more slowly going forward and warned the slowdown could be sharper than expected due to ongoing global trade regime uncertainty.The pound was quoted at USD1.2673 early Tuesday, higher than USD1.2622 at the London equities close Monday.The economic calendar on Tuesday has UK construction PMI at 0930 BST, while the EU has unemployment data due out at 1000 BST.
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