Morrisons’ profits set to reignite takeover battle

IT’S expected to be a manic autumn for stock market floats, starting this week.

Small-cap kingpin Andrew Monk is about to float his London broker, VSA Capital, on Aquis, the pan-European trading exchange. VSA has carved out a handy niche in advising African and Asian green energy specialists – from miners through to e-scooter firms.

Monk tells me he hopes the float will demonstrate the value of the exchange, as VSA regularly aids Aquis listings.

‘We want to show that Aquis can be the Nasdaq of London and provide real competition to the London Stock Exchange,’ he says.

With floats brewing for fellow brokers Singer and Peel Hunt, the long-troubled broking industry looks in decent shape.

EXPECT the chatter around the bidding war for Morrisons to intensify this week, as the supermarket group posts halfyear results.

Investors are waiting to see if a consortium led by Fortress will lodge another bid, after being trumped by a £2.85-a-share offer from rival private equity firm CD&R.

In the interim, attention will turn to how Morrisons has performed in a game of two halves. England’s run to the Euro 2020 final is likely to have proved a winner for supermarkets, but the reopening of the economy since ‘Freedom Day’ has drawn consumers elsewhere.

Despite this, sales are still expected to be up on pre-pandemic levels, and Barclays is pencilling in a step up in interim profits to £240million.

Barclays analyst James Anstead rates the chances of Morrisons remaining a public company as ‘low’, but notes a fresh bid could still boost the shares.

Could there be a diversion before this one reaches the checkout?

TELECOMS watchers will this week say buongiorno again to the trial arising from the £530million accounting scandal at BT’s Italian arm in 2016.

The case was adjourned in June due to dodgy aircon at the high-security Milan court – usually used for Mafia trials – and will restart with procedural hearings ahead of witness and expert evidence, which is likely after Christmas.

Officials’ hopes to wrap up the long-running legal process before next June look optimistic. Any potential fine is unlikely to dent BT’s balance sheet, but it would draw to a close an ugly chapter under the watch of former boss Gavin Patterson.