UK stock markets opened higher on Friday morning as the G20 summit of the world’s most influential leaders kicks off in Japan.
A softer tone from US president Donald Trump on his spats with China and Iran has helped to slightly ease market worries, and it’s hoped both Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping can come to an agreement to end their trade war.
The FTSE 100 opened marginally higher, rising 0.13% to 7,411.93, but the big news comes from the FTSE 250 index.
LEGO WANTS LEGOLAND
Shares in Legoland owner Merlin Entertainments (MERL) have soared by 14% to 450p after it received a takeover bid from a consortium including the Danish family which owns Lego.
The consortium has made an offer of 455p per share, which values the business at £4.8bn, significantly higher than its closing share price yesterday of 395p.
Merlin confirmed the news this morning after it was initially reported in the Financial Times. The consortium includes Kirkbi, the investment vehicle of Lego’s founding family, which owns close to 30% of Merlin shares, as well as private equity firm Blackstone and a Canadian pension fund.
It comes at a time when private equity companies are flush with cash and looking at bigger targets.
The bid has been welcomed by activist shareholder ValueAct, which has argued the market has been undervaluing the business.
BT FORCED TO SHARE WITH RIVALS
In the FTSE 100 index, telecom giant BT (BT.A) is down 1.25% to 196p after regulator Ofcom demanded BT-owned Openreach to share its mobile infrastructure with large businesses.
Openreach, which maintains the UK’s main broadband network, currently only allows rivals who focus on residential and small-business customers to use its infrastructure to lay their own networks.
But Ofcom wants more companies to invest in the latest full fibre and 5G networks, and so has told Openreach to share its infrastructure with bigger rivals servicing large businesses.
WOODFORD UPDATE
Elsewhere, the embattled Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) is up over 3% to 60p as it gave concerned investors an update following the suspension of Woodford’s open-ended Woodford Equity Income fund.
Chair of the trust, Susan Searle, said the trust intends to cut its debt and make new appointments to its board of directors.
Retirement housebuilder McCarthy & Stone (MCS) is up 2.7% to 138p after it was given an exemption by the government’s housing ministry to charge ground rents.
Ground rents, which is rent paid by the owner of a building to the owner of the land on which it is built, have been mostly banned by the government for new build homes.
The firm said the ministry ‘continues to recognise the unique way the sector uses ground rents to recover much of the construction costs’ of shared areas important for retirement living.
