STOCKS TO WATCH: Diageo investors show spirit in battle for Pimm’s No6

Here’s a tale to get tongues wagging at Wimbledon next week. 

Disgruntled Diageo shareholders are lobbying the drinks giant to bring back its vodka-based Pimm’s after this lesser-spotted version was axed during the pandemic. 

Last week, the campaign was ‘overwhelmed’ with support from more than 300 fund managers and City members’ clubs. 

Raising a glass: Disgruntled Diageo shareholders are lobbying the drinks giant to bring back its vodka-based Pimm’s after this lesser-spotted version was axed during the pandemic

They are writing to Diageo’s UK boss, Dayalan Nayager, to argue that Pimm’s No6 Vodka Cup is far superior to its more commonly found gin-based sister Pimm’s No1. 

Diageo said it had no plans to bring back Vodka Pimm’s any time soon. 

When asked why, it explained that fans would need to drink more than four times their usual quantities to make it commercially viable. 

That seems like a solid argument but campaigner Angus Campbell is having none of it. 

‘This will only make our attempts to bring it back even stronger,’ he said. 

That’s the spirit!

GKN staff plan protest 

GKN staff plan a protest outside Parliament this week over the proposed closure of its Birmingham automotive site next year, with 500 workers laid off. Strikes and shutdowns of the assembly line, which serves Jaguar Land Rover, are possible. 

Tensions have been rising since industrial buyout firm Melrose bought GKN in a hostile takeover in 2018. 

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng had indicated he was ready to step in but sources said the Government has so far decided to let the company proceed. 

Melrose recently decided to pay £730million to shareholders on selling its Nortek arm. 

Labour MP Jack Dromey tells me: ‘Melrose has let the British automotive industry down. It is the shareholders who are benefiting, not Britain.’ 

Bioseneca looking to fund clinical trials of ozone therapy to fight long Covid 

An intriguing fundraiser emerges from British firm Bioseneca, which is raising £1.5million ahead of a potential stock market listing further down the line. 

It hopes to fund clinical trials of ozone therapy to tackle long Covid, and later open clinics in the UK and the US. 

The treatment sees blood drawn, mixed with ozone gas and put back into the body, and has been used by Madonna. 

If it’s good enough for the Material Girl… 

Investors await Ocado and Sainsbury’s  updates

Investors will be poring over updates from Ocado and Sainsbury’s this week to see if the hospitality industry’s reopening has hit recent trading. 

The pandemic gains in Ocado’s shares have been eroded of late and analysts are keen to see if newbie rapid delivery rivals are causing a headache. 

For Sainsbury’s, its first-quarter trading update will hint at whether huge online growth has been checked by lockdown easing. 

But the biggest factor for its stock remains the outcome of the bid for Morrisons. 

With tycoon Daniel Kretinsky on the share register, bid talk could drive up Sainsbury’s if Morrisons is snapped up. 

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk