FTSE LIVE: UK borrowing hits record high, shares slump on getaway fears

Escape Hunt has announced plans to raise £1.4 million through a share placing to help fund a takeover of its main French franchise partner. 

Shares in the London-based escape room operator jumped after it confirmed the placing of eight million shares at 17.5p each. 

The cash will be used to support its £330,000 acquisition of French master franchise operator BGP Escape, as well to invest £150,000 in the French and Belgian business. 

The rest of the money will be used to continue the UK roll-out of new sites. 

Escape Hunt said the acquisition will take its portfolio to 17 owner-operated escape room locations. Shares were 5.9% higher at 21.19p.

A subsidiary of drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has been given approval in the US for an HIV treatment which only needs to be administered once every month. 

ViiV Healthcare said that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved Cabenuva as the first long-acting regimen to treat adults with HIV-1, the more common of the virus’s two strains. 

Viiv Healthcare’s Lynn Baxter said the approval marked “a shift in the way HIV is treated, offering people living with HIV a completely new approach to care”. 

The approval was based on studies including more than 1,100 patients from 16 countries. The clinical trial participants overwhelmingly said they preferred the once-a-month buttock injections to having to take daily pills orally as in the past.

The Smirnoff and Guinness maker is expected to reveal lower organic sales for the past six months after global trading was hit by the mass closure of pubs, bars and restaurants.

Investors will be keen to hear how supermarket sales have offset the impact of hospitality closures when it posts its update for the half-year to December on Thursday.

Diageo, which also makes Baileys and gin brand Gordon’s, is expected to reveal a 4.6% sales slump, according to a consensus of analysts.

The experts have also predicted that organic operating profits will slide 10.6% over the period as a result of surging coronavirus costs.

However, shareholders appear confident that the company could be well-placed when economies reopen and lockdown restrictions lift, with its shares only down 5% in the past 12 months.

On Thursday, shareholders will be keen for an update on dividends, after the company scrapped its programme last year in the face of the pandemic.

The lockdown online shopping boom is leading to mass demand for warehouses as retailers try and cope with high order numbers, according to property website Rightmove.

The firm said between January 1-20 it saw a record number of enquiries for warehousing space. 

Searches for freehold properties have more than doubled compared to the same period last year, while the number for leasehold sites is 38% higher.  

Aim tiddler Mobile Streams’ shares are up 12% after a reassuring trading update from the advertising monitoring group.

Mobile Streams analyses what’s doing well on social media and other websites, highlighting to clients where and what ads to take out.

It reversed into a shell a year ago and investors had been worried it would be needing to raise more money, but today it made clear that wasn’t the case.

Revenues were rising as hoped, and non-executive director Nigel Burton said:

“It’s growing and if continues at this rate of growth next year we’ll be a multi million pound company.”

He added: “To be honest I’ve had brokers knocking on my door asking if we need to raise more money but we don’t.”

Jim Armitage, business editor, argues that Rishi Sunak should stop seeking to put up taxes in March and focus on keeping employers alive through the Covid crisis.

Read his comment on the grim public finances data here

Shares in travel and holiday companies suffered another blow after ministers poured cold water on summer getaway.

Only a few days after easyJet revealed pent-up demand had driven bookings at its holidays division up 250% on last year, the government said the threat of new coronavirus strains meant it was still too early to think about booking trips aboard.

TUI shares skidded more than 8%, or 35.1p to 387.5p to end a strong week back where it started, while easyJet was 31.6p cheaper at 775.6p. Its chief executive Johan Lundgren had said this week that May was proving to be the most popular month for bookings.

The travel sell-off came as markets were also spooked by new lockdowns in China and the potential impact that these restrictions could have on the economy around the Lunar New Year in February.

Top flight fallers included British Airways owner IAG, which declined 4% or 6.2p to 150.75p, while InterContinental Hotels was off 74p to 4,751p. BP was down 6.65p at 286.7p as Brent crude retreated towards 55 US dollars a barrel on the back of today gloomier batch of economic figures.

FTSE 100 is getting a bit of kicking. Down 0.6% – 39 off at 6676. 

Travel stocks are falling on fears of more lockdowns. 

Whole of Europe is falling, particularly Italy, where political infighting is making investors really worry now about the country’s ability to manage the pandemic.

CMC Markets says: “As there is talk that international travel might be impacted, it is no surprise that airlines are suffering this morning. TUI shares have tumbled the most as they are down 11%. IAG, BA’s parent, and easyJet are both down over 4%. Declines are being suffered across the board as hospitality, banking, housebuilding, oil, mining and supermarket stocks are offside.”

Talk Talk’s finance director has landed a plum job at supercars group McLaren, offering more bragging rights at dinner parties than cheap broadband with variable customer service.

Kate Ferry will be chief financial officer at McLaren from 1 April, as TalkTalk prepares to be taken private by Toscafund.

Key to the new job will be overseeing the group’s planned emergency fundraiser to help it get through the Covid crisis. The group announced in September that it had appointed banks to advise on a debt restructuring and equity raise.

It raised £300 million early in 2020 but has seen a sharp fall in revenues through the pandemic.

Ferry has been at TalkTalk since 2017, before which she was an executive at Dixons Carphone and she’s currently a non-exec at Greggs, where she chairs the audit committee.

Supercars and sausage rolls – now that’s good dinner party chat…

The inspiring story of how Peppa Pig overcame Brexit, soaring shipping rates, port congestion and lockdown restrictions was told by toy distributor Character today.

The Oldham-based company said its half-year profits will be significantly higher than a year ago after a buoyant Christmas trading period in which major brands and hero lines such as Peppa, Pokemon and Goo Jit Zu sold “exceptionally well”.

But getting the products to toy shop customers in the first place was far from easy, with Character at times seeing a quadrupling on freight rates from the Far East.

As well as shipping container shortages, it also faced pre-Christmas congestion at UK ports, UK lockdowns and the fallout from Brexit.

Some of these challenges have continued, but so long as conditions do no’t worsen Character is confident it will meet profit forecasts for the year to the end of August.

Demand has been driven by families spending much more time at home, with activity toys and games particularly popular. Peppa’s Shopping Centre playset sold out before Christmas after featuring on the DreamDozen list of festive toys.