BUSINES LIVE: Unilever spin-off ice cream division; Diageo hires John Manzoni as chairman; AstraZeneca will acquire Fusion

In a car park somewhere on the rugged Cornish coast, a Ghanaian con man stands, shivering and confused. He was sent here to collect payment for 10 kg of non-existent gold promised to the victim of one of his scams.

The fraudster expects to receive £234,000 in cash. It is a huge amount, which more than outweighs the costs of the 10,000 kilometer round trip from the Ghanaian capital Accra.

The boss of British luxury car company Bentley has rejected Labor’s plans to reinstate the controversial 2030 electric vehicle deadline if it comes to power.

Chairman and CEO Adrian Hallmark warned it would be a ‘mistake’ to bring forward the ban petrol and diesel cars from 2035 to 2030.

Unilever will spin out its ice cream division into a separate and independent company as part of efforts to ‘simplify’ the consumer goods giant and cut costs.

The group, whose brands also include Marmite, Domestos and Persil, has also set out plans to cut €800m (£684m) in costs over the next three years, potentially impacting 7,500′ mainly office-based roles globally ‘.

The commotion follows a ‘disappointing’ year for Unileverwhose CEO Hein Schumacher has promised to turn around the FTSE 100 company after replacing Alan Jope in July.

Debbie Crosbie is a CEO in a hurry.

The Nationwide boss fears that if the mutual lender cannot make its bid for Virgin Money within 28 days, the time prescribed by the city’s Takeover Panel referee, the mutual’s opportunity of a lifetime could be lost.

The FTSE 100 edged higher at the open, supported by Unilever with its ice cream company spin-off plans, although gains are limited by caution ahead of UK inflation data and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision later this week.

Unilever is up more than 5 percent after the consumer goods group plans to spin off its ice cream division into a standalone company and announced a new cost-cutting program that would impact 7,500 jobs.

Investors are refraining from placing big bets ahead of key domestic inflation data and the Fed’s interest rate decision, both expected on Wednesday, to set the global monetary policy path ahead of the Bank of England’s interest rate review on Thursday.

The BoE is expected to keep rates at current levels at its upcoming meeting, although the focus will be on the timing of the first rate cut.

The midcap FTSE 250 was flat at 19,478.30, led by a 4.2 per cent drop in Crest Nicholson after the housebuilder said it could build up to 11 per cent fewer homes in fiscal 2024 amid continued tough conditions on the housing market.

According to Standard Chartered, Bitcoin could reach $250,000 next year.

In a report published yesterday, the bank, one of the world’s largest, said the digital currency is on track to reach $150,000 by the end of this year.

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

Attendees, as coffee and cakes were passed around, included representatives from the London Stock Exchange looking for initial public offering (IPO) opportunities, Shell UK’s top climate transition guru and British Ambassador to Israel Simon Walters making his maiden voyage home to Britain since the atrocities of October 7.

British housebuilder Crest Nicholson could build up to 11 percent fewer homes in the 2024 financial year amid continued difficult housing market conditions.

The UK housing market saw signs of stability in early 2024 as mortgage rates eased after suffering from weak demand for most of last year, but the Bank of England’s delay in cutting rates and persistent macroeconomic concerns have dampened hopes for a recovery. faster recovery.

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

The company added that sales prices are expected to remain stable in fiscal 2024.

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

The group also flagged ‘certain construction defects’, mainly at four sites completed before 2019, and told investors that remediation would be required over the next three years at an estimated cost of up to £15m.

‘As a result, the Board has decided to appoint external advisors to provide greater certainty as to the adequacy of current facilities around these and other sites completed before 2019. A further update will be provided at the Group’s interim results in June,’ Crest said.

Britain’s response 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 bought computer giant Hewlett-Packard for £8.6 billion in 2011, his software company Autonomy.

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

The US giant will initially offer free trading on more than 6,000 US stocks, with no annual or foreign exchange fees or fees.

Robinhood found itself at the center of the GameStop frenzy in 2021, as investors flocked to the platform to support so-called “meme stocks.”

City great Sir Patrick Sergeant celebrated his 100th birthday this weekend.

He was city editor of the Ny Breaking for 25 years and founder of the hugely successful Euromoney magazine.

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

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

AstraZeneca will also pay a non-transferable contingent consideration of $3 per share, bringing the combined transaction value to approximately $2.4 billion.

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

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

Diageo has appointed former head of the UK civil service Sir John Manzoni as its new chairman, replacing Javier Ferran, who retires in February 2025.

The world’s largest spirits maker reportedly began the search for a new seat earlier this year as the company grappled with the aftermath of a profit warning in November that dented its confidence among some investors.

Manzoni joined Diageo’s board in 2020 after leading the UK civil service as CEO from 2014.

He is currently chairman of energy company SSE plc and previously served for eleven years as a non-executive director of African brewer SABMiller, which was acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2016.

Chemring has been awarded almost £90 million to boost defense production in Europe.

The London-listed defense company said yesterday it has been awarded £57 million by the European Commission as part of a plan to make ammunition and missiles for Ukraine.

Chemring has also won a £32 million grant from the Norwegian government to increase production in the country. The EU funding is part of a £427 million program to boost ammunition production capacity to help countries replenish their stocks and supply them to Ukraine.

Unilever plans to spin off its ice cream division into a standalone company as the consumer goods giant plots a new cost-cutting program that will impact 7,500 jobs.

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

Unilever aims to deliver mid-single-digit underlying sales growth and modest margin improvement following the demerger, the company said in a statement, to become a “simpler and more focused business.”

The company launched a program that is expected to deliver total cost savings of approximately $869 million over the next three years. The proposed changes would impact approximately 7,500 roles globally, with total restructuring costs now expected to be approximately 1.2 percent of sales over the period. .