Barratt Developments in surprise £2.5 billion offer for rival Redrow
07:21 , Joanna Bourke
Britain’s largest housebuilder Barratt Developments has revealed a surprise all-share merger deal for smaller rival Redrow, in a move that values the latter at £2.5 billion.
Under the terms of the combination, recommend by both boards, each Redrow shareholder will get 1.44 new Barratt shares.
The firms said they think the tie-up will “bring together complementary offerings to create an exceptional UK homebuilder in terms of quality, service and sustainability .” More to follow
FTSE 100 set to consolidate gains after late Wall Street turnaround, Asia mixed
07:17 , Graeme Evans
A late rally left Wall Street markets in positive territory, with the S&P 500 index up 0.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.3% higher.
The gains came even as Federal Reserve officials continued to play down the chances of an interest rate cut in the coming weeks.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite built on yesterday’s big rise by adding 0.9% but momentum faded in Hong Kong as the Hang Seng index drifted 0.3% lower after a positive start.
A strong performance in the energy sector meant London’s FTSE 100 index yesterday rose 0.9% to reach its highest level in almost a month.
Elsewhere in Europe, the Dax rose 0.8% to set another record high and the Cac40 improved 0.65%. CMC Markets expects markets to consolidate the gains, with the FTSE 100 forecast to open 17 points higher at 7698.
UK house prices up 1.3% in January
07:05 , Daniel O’Boyle
UK house prices rose by 1.3% in January, according to the country’s biggest mortgage lender Halifax.
It is the fourth consecutive rise, after prices slid as interest rates rose in 2023.
Halifax mortgage director Kim Kinnaird said: “The average house price in January was £291,029, up +1.3% or, in cash terms, £3,924 compared to December 2023.
“This is the fourth consecutive month that house prices have risen and, as a result, the pace of annual growth is now +2.5%, the highest rate since January last year.”
Prices were up 2.5% year-on-year, but in London prices were slightly down on January 2023.
Recap: Yesterday’s top stories
06:40 , Simon Hunt
Good morning from the Standard City desk.
It seems fairly certain that we are in the early stages of what will be a significant jobs shake-out in the City. It has been coming.
There is only so long that employers can justify holding on to six — or seven — figure-earning bankers when business stops coming through the door. The offices and trading floors of many City firms must have been miserable places last year as the IPO and M&A droughts stretched on for long months and the stock market did little better than tread water.
UBS were not putting precise numbers on the scale of their post-Credit Suisse merger job cuts, but you do not need a quantum computer to work out the likely scenario. If you assume an average employee overhead of say $200,000, that $13 billion cost saving target works out at tens of thousands of jobs. There will be other ways of saving money of course, but global banks are like football clubs, a disproportionate percentage of the cost base is simply paying the talent. The two banks had around 11,000 souls in London pre-merger.
Those traditional suit-and-red-braces financial services jobs that have fuelled London’s growth since Big Bang are in long-term decline.
Tech, life sciences and, inevitably, legal and regulatory services, are in the ascendant. The P45s will be flying around EC1, EC2 and E14 this year but the shake-out is unlikely to harm London’s long-term prospects. As ever, it is evolving.
Here’s a summary of our other top stories from yesterday:
