Updates from Evraz, INPP and LondonMetric Property
The FTSE 100 retreated back across the 7,000 threshold on Friday, dipping almost 66 points to 6,994.6 (a 0.93% decline). This follows its recent 7,096-point high. St James's Place and Anglo American bore the brunt of investor pessimism, down 3.2% and 2.7% (to 927.50p and 1010.50p). GKN also sank heavily, down 2.5% to 361.30p. BP shares however climbed more than 1% to almost 480p.
Stateside, the grimness continued: the Dow Jones plunged almost 280 points, or 1.5%, as the strong dollar sucked more life out of corporate profits and Greece exit fears grew in strength. American Express shares plunged more than 4.4%.
Let's start with a Q1 production update from steelmaker Evraz, recently suffering from lower Chinese growth. Consolidated crude steel output was stable at 3.9m tonnes per quarter with Russian steel mills running at full capacity. Production of steel products was unchanged at 3.7m.
Evraz says the share of finished steel products went down to 61% in Q1 2015 from 63% in Q4 2014 due to increasing output of semi-finished products for exports as a result of a weaker demand in the Russian market.
However production of railway products, surged by 9% "due to higher consumption by Russian Railways for track maintenance purposes as well as increased export volumes for Latin American and Middle East markets".
Next, FTSE 250 infrastructure operatorInternational Public Partnerships Limited says it has acquired an additional 40% investment in the Lewisham Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project, increasing the Company's overall exposure to between 40% and 50% in underlying BSF assets.
INPP will invest £14.3m for the additional 40% interest from Babcock Project Investments Limited. The Lewisham project comprises four BSF schools located in the South East London borough, including Sedgehill and Conisborough Schools.
INPP originally invested into the BSF programme when it acquired the government's interest in the BSFI in August 2011.
Finally, LondonMetric Property says it has exchanged on the sale of its 170,000 sq ft Travis Perkins distribution facility in Brackmills, Northamptonshire to CBRE Global Investors for £14.4m, reflecting a net initial yield of 5.5%.
LondonMetric says the property was acquired in November 2013 for £9.0m with four months remaining on the lease. LondonMetric re-geared the lease on a new ten year term at a yield on cost of 8.0%.
"This is another very good asset," says LondonMetric boss Andrew Jones, "that has performed strongly as a result of our active asset management. We will look to recycle the disposal proceeds into other accretive distribution assets."
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