Watering down London’s stock market rules to accommodate the oil giant Saudi Aramco risks “damaging the UK’s reputation” and “undermining the rights of minority shareholders”, the Institute of Directors has warned this morning.
The IoD has set out its concerns after the Financial Conduct Authority proposed changing the listing rules to allow Saudi Arabia’s secretive state-controlled oil producer to float a minority stake in London. Robin Pagnamenta has a full story here.
The courting of Saudi would — you would have thought — at least have sparked a debate among the corporate governance wonks (and business lobbyists). But the response has been muted, at best. Are they fearful, perhaps, of upsetting the prime minister, who publicly backed the float when she visited Saudi? Or of scuppering the huge fees that the City will pocket from the deal? Who knows. But not for the first time the IoD has demonstrated that it is prepared to say things that others are not.
There are interim results this morning from another four FTSE 100 companies, which by my reckoning means almost half of the blue-chip index has updated investors since this time last week. No wonder I am tired.
Charles Woodburn, the new chief executive of BAE Systems, has made his City debut this morning, posting interim results. Operating profit increased by 11 per cent in the first half to £865 million, on the back of a 4 per cent rise in sales to £9.6 billion. “We have a sound platform for medium-term growth underpinned by a clear and consistent strategy,” says Mr Woodburn. We’ll have a story shortly on www.thetimes.com/business.
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We have also got interim results from insurer RSA Insurance Group, which has reported a better-than-expected pre-tax profit of £263 million, up 78 per cent on the same period last year. “RSA did well in the first half … [but] there is much more that can be done to improve,” says Stephen Hester, the RSA chief executive.
Other FTSE 100 companies updating include the miner Rio Tinto and the Irish paper and packaging company Smurfit Kappa. At 9.30am Standard Chartered will add to the deluge.
Outside of the FTSE 100 we have got results from the bookmaker William Hill, the publisher Johnston Press, the power company Aggreko, the undertaker Dignity, and the builders merchant Travis Perkins.
Following yesterday’s better-than-expected manufacturing PMI data, we get the PMI construction data for July at 9.30am. Economists forecast a reading of 54.5, down from 54.8. Tom Knowles, our economics correspondent, will have a report later on www.thetimes.com/business.
Please do keep sending me any your thoughts and observations - richard.fletcher@thetimes.co.uk - and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter - @fletcherr - for regular updates.
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Have a great day,
Richard
Markets snap
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