(Bloomberg) — Here’s the key business news from London-listed companies this morning.
GSK Plc: The pharma giant took another step toward spinning off its consumer health-care unit, picking July 18 for its London listing.
- The unit makes products like Panadol painkillers and Sensodyne toothpaste and is currently a joint venture between GSK and Pfizer Inc, with GSK holding 68% and Pfizer the rest
John Wood Group Plc: The engineering company agreed to sell its Built Environment consulting business to WSP Global for gross proceeds of about $1.9 billion.
- The unit helps governments and companies assess environmental risks, and the proceeds of the sale will be used to cut debt
Tullow Oil Plc: The Africa-focused oil and gas developer will merge with Capricorn Energy Plc, creating a new business with what Capricorn’s CEO called “significant scale and opportunities for growth”.
- Capricorn investors will get 3.8068 new Tullow shares for each Capricorn share they hold under the merger, while Tullow shareholders will own about 53% of the combined company
BT Group Plc: The British telecommunications company’s joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery Inc will face scrutiny by the UK’s competition and markets authority.
- BT announced the deal last month which would sell its pay-TV Sports operations to the American media giant, creating a 50-50 sports broadcasting joint venture in the process
Outside The City
Conservative MPs war-gaming how a rebellion against Boris Johnson might play out are worried the prime minister could respond to an attempted coup by calling a general election.
Meanwhile, UK consumers are being urged to brace for inflation getting worse before it gets better as soaring costs force retailers to keep raising prices, according to a survey by the British Retail Consortium.
In Case You Missed It
HSBC Holdings Plc is offering UK-based employees the chance to lease electric vehicles, including Teslas, with their pretax paychecks, as the lender introduces a popular way for workers to cut their travel emissions.
And Britain is taking school snobbery to new heights, writes Bloomberg Opinion’s Therese Raphael.
Looking Ahead
Much of the UK will be putting their feet up for the rest of the week for the Jubilee weekend.
London will get back to work after that with a busy week of earnings including cigarette-maker British American Tobacco Plc, airline Wizz Air Holdings Plc and derivatives dealer CMC Markets Plc.
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