Good morning: McCormick & Company, the American owner of Schwartz spices, has agreed to buy Reckitt Benckiser’s food business for $4.2 billion (£3.2 billion). This is significantly higher than the £2.2 billion expected in the City. McCormick had plenty of competition from the likes of Unilever.
Reckitt’s food division, which it has been keen to offload for some time, includes brands such as French’s mustard and Frank’s Red Hot sauces. Rakesh Kapoor, Reckitt’s chief executive, said that the deal marked “another step” in its transformation following its $16.6 billion acquisition of Mead Johnson.
The chief executive of Akzo Nobel has resigned with immediate effect. The Dutch paint maker, which owns Dulux, said that Ton Büchner had left for health reasons and had been replaced by Thierry Vanlancker, previously its head of speciality chemicals. Only weeks ago PPG, Akzo’s American rival, walked away from its takeover assault on the company after a final €27 billion offer.
Markets snap
In London Aviva has sold Friends Provident to RL360, a subsidiary of International Financial Group, for £340 million. Chris Wei, executive chairman of Aviva Asia, described the sale as a “good outcome for Aviva”.
TalkTalk Telecom Group endured a 3.2 per cent decline in revenues over the latest quarter. It said that “strong growth” in corporate and wholesale revenues was offset by falling consumer revenues. With Sir Charles Dunstone now at the helm as executive chairman the company still expects full-year revenues to grow.
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In the mining sector BHP Billiton has released its annual operational review, with copper equivalent production expected to increase by 7 per cent this year. Drax Group, owner of the UK’s biggest power station, has reported a pre-tax loss of £83 million in the first half of this year, down from profits of £184 million a year ago.
Wizz Air has reported a 29 per cent leap in quarterly revenues, to €469.3 million. The airline has appointed Stephen Jones, currently chief strategy officer at Air New Zealand, as its executive vice president and deputy chief executive. Iain Wetherall has become its chief financial officer and Heiko Holm has been promoted to chief technical officer.
Severn Trent has reported “no material change” to its full-year outlook. We also have trading statements from Qinetiq, RPC Group and Hotel Chocolat Group. Evraz, the steel producer part-owned by Roman Abramovich, reports that crude output fell by 9.5 per cent quarter on quarter.
Morgan Stanley is the last of Wall Street’s heavyweight banks to update on the latest quarter later. American Express will follow after the bell.
A sudden fall in sterling just before yesterday’s surprisingly weak inflation data has raised fresh concerns about leaks from the Office for National Statistics. The pound dropped half a cent against the dollar in the minutes before the consumer prices index was released.
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And finally: Wave goodbye to credit and debit card surcharges. Philip Aldrick, our economics editor, reports on the front page of The Times this morning that fees for using cards will be banned in a move that could save shoppers £500 million a year.
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