London pre-open: Heading lower

17th Jun 2009 07:43

Another day of losses across the Atlantic is set to weigh on UK blue chips, with futures prices indicating an early 20-point deficit for London's leading index.Supermarket chain J Sainsbury is raising £445m via a placing and offering of convertible bonds to speed up growth and take advantage of the weak property market. It will pull in £255m from a placing being run by Morgan Stanley and UBS. The bookbuild process has already begun and prices will be announced later. Another £190m will come from the offer of convertible bonds due 2014. Sainsbury's wants to increase its planned gross space growth over the next two years from 10% to 15%, adding 2.5 million sq ft of additional selling space by March 2011. In a separate statement, the retailer reported a 7.8% hike in like-for-like sales excluding fuel and VAT for the 12 weeks to 13 June.Design and engineering consultancy group WS Atkins saw revenue and profits rise last year and already has half of its budgeted income for the current financial year secured. Revenue in the year to 31 March 2009 rose 13% to £1,487.2m from £1,313.6m a year earlier, while profit before tax climbed 12% to £102.7m from £91.9m. Work in hand represents 54% of budgeted revenue for the current financial year, compared with 55% at the same stage last year. A final dividend of 17.25p has been recommended, making a total dividend of 26p for the year, an increase of 8% on last year's dividend of 24p.Barclays will recommend the £8.1bn ($13.5bn) purchase of its fund management arm, Barclays Global Investors (BGI), to US asset manager BlackRock at a general meeting in August. The UK bank also said private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, which bid $4.4bn for Barclays' iShares business, part of BGI, in April, has agreed to terminate the deal without exercising its right to put forward an alternative proposal to the BlackRock offer. Barclays will pay CVC fees of $175m (£106m) under the agreement signed with it on 9 April.Camping and short break holiday specialist Holidaybreak is to raise £33.2m through a fully underwritten rights issue. The money will fund an expansion of its education division, where it sees an opportunity to snap up sites for expansion from distressed sellers of former independent private schools and commercial conference centres. Holidaybreak says is in advanced discussions to acquire a large potential PGL outdoor education centre with good access to London. Terms of the rights issue are 4 for 9 at 153p, a 49% discount to last night's close. Sugar and sweeteners group Tate & Lyle has firmed up dates for the arrival of its new chief executive Javed Ahmed and chairman Sir Peter Gershon. Ahmed, currently Executive Vice President, Europe for Reckitt Benckiser and a member of the detergent maker's Executive Committee, will take over from Iain Ferguson on 1 October. Gershon, currently a non-executive director and chairman-elect, will succeed Sir David Lees as chairman after the AGM on 23 July.British American Tobacco (BATs) has bought an 85% stake in Indonesia' fourth largest cigarette maker. The company is paying Rajawali Group $494m (£303m) for the majority stake in PT Bentoel Internasional Investama. Sales have continued to slide at fashion retail chain owner Alexon with little respite expected from the tough retail climate. "Trading performance and margins are likely to be impacted in the short term, particularly as Summer 2009 sale dates are brought forward in line with our key competitors," Alexon said. Like-for-like sales in the 17 weeks to 13 June fell by 10.5% and by 12% including the two weeks hit by snow. Increased promotional activity also meant margins experienced a small negative impact over the period.