Good morning: FTSE 100 money manager Legal & General has said it expects to deliver “double-digit growth in operating profit” over the full year as it posted interim results.
L&G reported that operating profit from continuing operations rose to a better-than-expected £1.27 billion in the six months to the end of June, up from £1.12 billion over the same period last year.
The group’s investment management business reported that assets under management rose 7 per cent to £1,326.8 billion. The company said it would pay an interim dividend of 5.18p, up from 4.93p.
We’ll have a story shortly from Ben Martin, senior city correspondent, on www.thetimes.com/#section-business.
Taylor Wimpey has nudged full-year profit forecasts higher as it reported a record first-half performance. The housebuilder says it now expects full-year operating profit of £820 million. Analysts had been forecasting profits of between £756 million to £808 million.
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“The UK housing market remains strong, underpinned by low interest rates, good mortgage availability and government support for customers,” Taylor Wimpey reported.
The housebuilder completed a record 7,303 homes in the six months to the end of June. A substantial increase on the same period last year when the housebuilder built just 2,771 homes as many of its sites were closed by Covid-19. In pre-pandemic 2019 Taylor Wimpey built 6,541 homes over the period.
The company reported an operating profit of £424 million as revenue bounced 191 per cent on the same period last year to £2.19 billion. We’ll have a story shortly from Louisa Clarence-Smith, senior city correspondent, on www.thetimes.com/#section-business.
Elsewhere this morning:
Ahead of posting half-year results tomorrow, Rolls-Royce announced the sale of Bergen, its loss-making Norwegian marine engine manufacturer, to Langley Holdings, a UK government contractor. Earlier attempts to sell the business to the Russian train manufacturer TMH for £130 million were blocked by Norway on national security grounds. Rolls, which is looking to generate at least £2 billion from disposals, said it would receive sale proceeds of €70 million from the deal together with €40m of cash held in Bergen.
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The Hut Group, the online retailer, is to buy the UK-based online beauty retailer Cult Beauty for £275 million. The company, which listed last year, also raised its guidance for sales growth in 2021 to between 38 per cent and 41 per cent on a currency-adjusted basis, above its previous guidance of 30 per cent to 35 per cent.
Others updating this include Morgan Sindall, the construction group, and Ferrexpo, the London-listed iron ore producer.
The US earnings season continues with General Motors and Uber among those slated to update Wall Street later today.
On the economics front we get services PMI data for July at 9.30am. City economists expect a reading of 57.8 in line with last month’s flash reading.
I’ll be on Times Radio just after 4.30pm today to talk through the day’s market action. You can also catch me Monday to Friday at about 7.50am on the breakfast show. Listen online, on DAB radio, your smart speaker or via the Times Radio app.
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Please do keep sending your thoughts, observations (and corrections) to me at richard.fletcher@thetimes.co.uk and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @fletcherr.
Richard
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