BUSINESS LIVE: BT fined for 999 breaches; Entain appoints CEO; UK dividends hit record

Rentokil shares will be in the spotlight when the stock market opens today amid rumours that Rentokil has become the City’s latest takeover target.

The FTSE 100 pest control giant is at the centre of a £15bn takeover by the former BT boss.

Philip Jansen, who left earlier this year, is seeking private equity financing for a deal that would see him become executive chairman.

Richard Hunter, Head of Markets at Interactive Investor:

‘This week really kicks off the corporate reporting season, with a raft of updates expected from companies including BT, Vodafone, Unilever, AstraZeneca and ITV.

‘Also of particular interest are the half-year results from Lloyds Banking and NatWest, with investors looking at the usual measures of net interest income, net interest margin, capital buffer levels and cost/income ratios to gain insight into the current trading position.

At the same time, there will also be a focus on shareholder returns, with further share buybacks a possibility, in addition to the current generous dividend yields offered by the banks.

‘In addition, attention will also be paid to a possible increase in the number of customer defaults, although both banks have so far dealt with risks in an intelligent manner.’

Gambling giant Entain has appointed Gavin Isaacs, former executive of US lottery and betting company Scientific Games Corp., as its new CEO, effective September 2.

Entain said Isaacs has more than 25 years of experience in the global sports betting, gaming and lottery industries, having held roles at companies including DraftKings Inc, SB Tech, Bally Technologies Inc and Aristocrat Technologies.

Issacs was a former board member at sports betting company DraftKings, which in 2021 abandoned its $22 billion takeover bid for Entain to focus on its core US market.

The company has had a challenging year, with fines handed out for alleged bribery at its former Turkish operations and Nygaard-Andersen suddenly leaving, but the company has now appointed a new person.

The company announced in April that Chairman Barry Gibson could leave before September, ending his four-plus-year term, if a CEO were appointed sooner. Interim CEO Stella David would become the new CEO.

Entain’s former CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen stepped down in December 2023 after reports that some shareholders were unhappy with her leadership.

In April, the group reported a smaller-than-expected decline in online gaming revenues in the first quarter as active customers offset strong competition and regulatory pressure in key markets.

Gambling companies, which benefited from the rise in online gambling during the pandemic, now face stricter regulations and a cost-of-living crisis.

One-off special distributions saw dividend payments from UK-listed companies hit a new record, but the mining sector caused regular payments to fall.

Dividends rose 11.2 percent to £36.7 billion in the second quarter, according to Computershare’s Dividend Monitor.

Underlying growth was significantly slower, with regular dividends rising by just 1 per cent thanks to a large cut in payouts in the mining sector, but the quarter still saw a record £32.5bn.

BT Group has been fined £17.5 million by the UK communications regulator after the telecoms company suffered a network outage in June last year, which affected 14,000 emergency calls.

Ofcom said: ‘We found that BT did not have adequate warning systems in place for incidents of this nature, nor did it have adequate procedures in place to assess the severity, impact and likely cause of such an incident quickly, or to take action in the event of such an incident.’