BUSINESS LIVE: Wage growth eases to 5.1%; Abrdn confirms new CEO; Centamin set for $2.5bn takeover

Oasis and Ticketmaster have faced calls to ‘do the right thing’ and refund fans hit by dynamic pricing by consumer group Which?

The band and ticketing giant have faced the fury of those eager to watch Oasis’s hotly-anticipated reunion tour after the price of standard tickets doubled from £148 to £355.

Older people are set to receive a £460-a-year hike in the state pension to around £11,960 next spring, in line with wage growth of 4 per cent for the working population.

That means the full flat rate state pension will hit £230.05 a week, up from the current £221.20.

British chipmaker IQE swung to a profit in the first half of the year as demand for its semiconductor wafers continued to recover.

The Cardiff-based group, which makes epi-wafers for use in laser hair removal and facial recognition sensors in iPhones, posted a core profit of £6.6million for the six months to 30 June after suffering a £5.7million loss during the same period last year.

AngloGold Ashanti has agreed to acquire FTSE 250 gold mining company Centamin for around $2.5billion (£1.9billion).

The deal sees Centamin shares valued at 163p, a 36.7 per cent premium to the group’s closing share price on 9 September.

Abrdn has confirmed former chief financial officer and interim boss Jason Windsor as its permanent chief executive.

Windsor, who stepped in after the departure of Stephen Bird, is tasked with completing a revival of the group’s fortunes after profits have have been hit by clients withdrawing funds.

Millions of savers are missing out on earning interest on their savings by keeping them stashed in current accounts, new data shows.

Three in ten savers hold most of their savings in their current account, new research from the Building Societies Association reveals.

A leading hospitality entrepreneur has been named chairmanof Revolution Bars.

Luke Johnson, who made his name growing Pizza Express in the 1990s and later ran Patisserie Valerie, will join the cocktail bar and restaurant chain as it pushes ahead with a cost-cutting mission.

Keir Starmer doesn’t much like the House of Lords and plans to cut it down to size.

Yet it will be hard for him to ignore a report by the economic affairs committee which is stuffed with former great and good of the Treasury and finance.

The FTSE 100 is trading lower this morning, with AstraZeneca weighing on the benchmark index, while cooling wage growth in the UK cements bets for further interest rate cuts by the Bank of England.

The pharma and biotech sector has hit its lowest level in more than a month, weighed down by AstraZeneca as it sheds 5.4 per cent.

Detailed results from one of the drugmaker’s key lung cancer trials on Monday showed that its experimental precision drug did not significantly improve overall results in patients.

For the week, investor focus will turn to key inflation figures in the UD and Britain’s gross domestic product numbers for more clues on the policy easing path of the central banks ahead of their meetings this month.

Centamin has surged 22.3 per cent after global miner AngloGold Ashanti said it will buy the firm in a $2.5billion deal.

This has pulled up precious metal miners that led gains with a 6.2 per cent rise.

IQE has tumbled 11.3 per cent after the semiconductor wafer maker said it saw its annual performance at the lower end of analysts’ expectations.

Burberry shares crashed to their lowest in 15 years amid fears it will struggle to remain a‘high-end luxury brand’.

Shares plunged as much as 8 per cent yesterday to the lowest level since 2009 after analysts at Barclays warned its status as a major player in the industry was under threat.

UK grocery inflation has edged lower this month, data from market researcher Kantar showed on Tuesday, after rising for the first time in 18 months in last month’s report.

Kantar said annual grocery price inflation was 1.7 per cent in the four weeks to 1 September, versus 1.8 per cent in the previous four-week period.

Despite the fall, nearly 60 per cent of UK households remained worried about the rising cost of their shopping, Kantar said.

‘This is their second biggest financial worry, only behind home energy bills,’ Fraser McKevitt, the researcher’s head of retail and consumer insight, said.

The data showed prices were rising fastest in markets such as vitamin and mineral supplements, chilled fruit juices and chocolate confectionery and were falling fastest in toilet tissue, dog food and bottled cola drinks.

Kantar’s data, the most up-to-date snapshot of UK consumer behaviour published since the July 4 national election, showed grocery sales rose 3 per cebt in value terms over the four week period year-on-year, a slight slowdown from growth of 3.8 per cnet in last month’s report.

Kallum Pickering, chief economist at Peel Hunt:

‘Not too hot, not too cold. The Goldilocks UK labour market report for July is consistent with the broader economic trend of more growth and less inflation for the UK so far this year.

‘The data suit our calls that UK economic performance can continue to surprise to the upside and that the Bank of England (BoE) will only cautiously normalise its monetary policy – with a likely pause at the upcoming 19 September meeting before cutting the Bank Rate by 25bp to 4.75% at the 7 November meeting.’

Shares in the hospitality company behind TGI Fridays in the UK plummeted as it teeters on the brink of collapse.

In a spectacularly bleak update to the stock market, Hostmore dropped a series of bombshells that left investors facing total wipeout.

Aldi could overtake Asda and become the UK’s third largest supermarket as it opens more stores in an £800m expansion drive.

The discounter’s UK and Ireland chief executive, Giles Hurley, said he wants more shops ‘across the length and breadth’ of Britain amid a battle for market share.

The comments came as the German supermarket announced UK profits more than tripled to £536.7million last year while sales rose 16 per cent to £17.9billion.

Carlsberg’s £3.3billion deal to buy Britvic could face a probe over potential concerns that it will reduce competition across the UK market.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was gathering information before kickstarting a formal investigation into the tie-up.

The CMA said it was inviting people to submit their thoughts on the acquisition and potential impact on competition in the UK.

The two businesses said combining Carlsberg’s array of beers with the Robinsons squash maker’s soft drinks would create an ‘enhanced proposition across the UK and other markets in Western Europe’.

Britvic, which is based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, and also makes J20 and Tango, had previously rejected a £3.1billion bid.

The woman who designed Kate Middleton’s wedding dress has been named the creative director of Givenchy.

Sarah Burton will take the role at the LVMH-owned fashion house after stepping down from Alexander McQueen last year.

The British designer, 50, is best known for making the Princess of Wales’s wedding dress in 2011 as well as Pippa Middleton’s bridesmaid gown.

Thomas Pugh, economist at RSM UK:

‘A further slowdown in regular private sector pay growth in the three months to July to 4.9 per cent, the slowest rate since April 2022, should go a long way to easing some of the concerns on the MPC about strong wage growth stoking inflation.

‘But it won’t be enough to persuade the MPC to cut rates again next week. Indeed, the drop in the unemployment rate to 4.1 per cent and the big 265k jump in employment suggests the labour market is tightening again.

“Admittedly, the employment statistics are currently so ropey that it’s difficult to put much trust in them.

‘But signs of a revival in labour hiring will make the MPC nervous about how much further wage growth will fall and will effectively rule out another rate cut next week.

‘Looking ahead, we expect private sector pay growth to slow gradually over the rest of this year, that would give the MPC ample cover to cut rates again towards the end of the year, probably in November, and possibly in December. The rate cutting cycle in 2025 will then be more aggressive, we currently have four cuts pencilled in for next year.

‘There was some good news on economic inactivity as well, which dropped by 112,000. But this was mainly due to fewer students. The number of people saying they are too sick to work remained near its record high and is almost 670,000 higher than at the start of the pandemic.

‘Getting more of these people back into work would go a long way to resolving some the tough choices the Chancellor will have to make in the budget next month.

‘Just as importantly for households, real wages grew by 2.2 per ent. That, combined with rising consumer confidence should give a boost to consumer spending in the second half of this year, helping a consumer spending driven recovery.’

Global miner AngloGold Ashanti will buy London-listed Egypt-focused smaller rival Centamin in a $2.5billion deal.

Under the terms of the deal, Centamin shareholders will get 0.06983 new AngloGold Ashanti shares for each Centamin share and $0.125 in cash.

The perceived value of the offer represents a premium of 36.7 per cent to Centamin’s Monday closing price of 120p.

Abrdn has named interim boss Jason Windsor as its new chief executive officer, with the ex-Aviva executive formally handed the task of rebooting the asset manager’s finances and performance.

Windsor took on the role of interim CEO in May, after predecessor Stephen Bird abruptly stepped down.

Abrdn, one of Britain’s best-known fund firms, has come under strain in recent years, reporting more than £10billion of outflows over each of the last two years, although it has provided encouragement to investors this year by beating performance forecasts and starting to axe costs.

Douglas Flint, chairman of Abrdn, said Windsor was the ‘the unanimous choice’ of the board to lead the company in its next phase.

‘He has made a huge impression both internally and externally since he joined Abrdn, particularly as someone whose actions evidence he cares deeply about our clients and customers and our people,’ Flint said.

Average weekly earnings before bonuses were up 5.1 per cent year-on-year in the three months to the end of July, in-line with expectations, while the unemployment rate eased to a 2024 low of 4.1 per cent, fresh data from the Office for National Statistics shows.