London pre-open: Greece continues to worry investors

6th Feb 2012 07:24

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down 6 points from Friday's close of 5,901, ahead of the impending deadline for talks on Greece which will decide whether the country is to default on its debts or accept a new bailout. Budget airline easyJet saw passenger numbers nudge 0.4% lower last month, but the load factory saw a slightly improvement. EasyJet flew 3,728,514 passengers in January, down slightly from the 3,743,593 it carried the same month last year. Meanwhile, the load factor - a measure airlines use to gauge how full their planes are - increased by three percentage points (pp) from 78.9% to 81.9% year-on-year. This, however, is well under the 12-month rolling average load factory of 87.7%.Vodafone has announced that Piramal Healthcare has acquired a further 5.5% stake of Vodafone India (VIL) from ETHL Communications (Essar) for 30.07bn rupees (£385m), raising its total interest to 11%. This purchase adds to Piramal's 5.5% shareholding it purchased from Essar in August 2011, and completes the exit of the Essar group as a shareholder. "The transaction contemplates various exit mechanisms for Piramal, including both participation in a potential initial public offering of VIL and a sale of its stake to Vodafone," Vodafone said.Business events organiser and publisher UBM has sold its UK agriculture and medical general practitioner portfolios for a total of £10m. "I am very pleased we have passed these successful UK magazine titles to a new management team who will provide the focused leadership and investment to ensure their continued success," said Chief Executive Officer David Levin.