BUSINES LIVE: Unilever spins-off ice cream unit; Diageo hires John Manzoni as chair; AstraZeneca to buy Fusion

The terrace at the House of Lords was packed when Lord Austin of Dudley hosted a reception for Israeli energy-tech innovators last week.

Among those present, as coffee and pastries were passed around, were representatives of the London Stock Exchange seeking initial public offering (IPO) opportunities, Shell UK’s top climate transition guru and Britain’s ambassador to Israel Simon Walters making his first trip home to the UK since the atrocities of October 7.

British housebuilder Crest Nicholson could build up to 11 per cent fewer homes in fiscal 2024 amid persistent tough conditions in the housing market.

The British housing market saw signs of stability at the start of 2024 on easing mortgage rates after battling subdued demand for most of last year, but the delay by the Bank of England in lowering interest rates and incessant macro-economic concerns have tempered hopes of a better-paced recovery.

Surrey-based Crest Nicholson said open market year-to-date sales rate per outlet per week was 0.44 based on 46 outlets, and that improved to 0.52 in the last eight weeks to 15 March.

The company added that sales prices are expected to remain stable in the 2024 financial year.

Crest Nicholson, which focuses on suburban areas outside London and in southern England, said it expects to build between 1,800 and 2,000 homes in the year ending 31 October, compared with 2,020 homes a year earlier.

The group also flagged ‘certain build defects’ predominantly on four sites completed prior to 2019 that it told investors would require remediation over the next three years at an estimated cost of up to £15million. 

‘As a result, the Board has decided to appoint third party consultants to provide greater assurance on the adequacy of current provisions around these and other sites completed prior to 2019. A further update will be provided at the Group’s interim results in June,’ Crest said.

Britain’s answer to Bill Gates was the ‘driving force’ behind Silicon Valley’s biggest ever fraud, a court heard last night

Prosecutors accused Mike Lynch of committing a ‘massive fraud’ when he fooled computer giant Hewlett-Packard into buying his software company Autonomy for £8.6billion in 2011.

Share trading app Robinhood has opened its trading platform to all UK investors as it looks to take on established incumbents for the third time.

The US giant will initially offer free trading in over 6,000 US stocks, with no annual charges or fees for dealing or foreign exchange.

Robinhood found itself at the centre of the GameStop frenzy in 2021, when investors flocked to the platform to back so-called ‘meme stocks’.

City grandee Sir Patrick Sergeant celebrated his 100th birthday at the weekend.

He was City Editor of the Daily Mail for 25 years and founder of the hugely successful Euromoney magazine.

AstraZeneca has agreed to buy clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Fusion Pharmaceuticals for about $2billion in cash, in efforts to boost the drugmaker’s oncology portfolio.

The FTSE 100 firm will pay $21 per Fusion share, a premium of more than 97 per cent to the US-listed company’s closing price on Monday.

AstraZeneca will also pay a non-transferable contingent value right of $3 per share, taking the combined transaction value to about $2.4billion.

Fusion, which is developing ‘next-generation’ radioconjugates (RCs) to treat cancer, will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca, with operations continuing in Canada and the US.

RCs have emerged as a promising modality in cancer treatment over recent years, AstraZeneca said.

Diageo has named former head of the UK Civil Servive Sir John Manzoni as its next chair, replacing Javier Ferran who is retiring in February 2025.

The world’s top spirits maker reportedly began the search for a new chair earlier this year, while it grappled with the aftermath of a November profit warning that dented its confidence with some investors.

Manzoni joined the Diageo board in 2020, after leading the UK Civil Service as chief executive from 2014.

He is currently chair of energy business SSE plc and previously spent 11 years as a non-executive director of African beer brewer SABMiller, which was taken over by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2016.

Chemring has been handed nearly £90million to boost defence production in Europe.

The London-listed defence firm yesterday said it has been granted £57million by the European Commission as part of a scheme to make ammunition and missiles for Ukraine.

Chemring has also won a £32million grant from the Norwegian government to increase production in the country.  The EU funding is part of a £427million programme to ramp up ammunition manufacturing capacity to help countries refill their stocks and deliver to Ukraine.

Unilever plans to spin off its ice cream unit into a standalone business, as the consumer goods giant plots a new cost-savings programme set to impact 7,500 jobs.

The spin off of the ice cream business, which is home to popular brands such as Magnum and Ben & Jerry’s, will begin immediately and is expected to complete by the end of 2025, the London-listed company said.

Unilever aims to deliver mid-single digit underlying sales growth and modest margin improvement after the split, it said in a statement, to become a ‘simpler and more focused company’.

The company launched a programme expected to deliver total cost savings of around $869million over the next three years, and the proposed changes would impact around 7,500 roles globally, with total restructuring costs now anticipated to be around 1.2 per cent of its turnover during the period.