London stocks were set to edge up at the open on Thursday, with oil prices in focus following news the US is considering releasing up to 180 million barrels from its reserves over several months.
The FTSE 100 was called to open around 11 points higher at 7,590.
Danske Bank said: “The Biden administration yesterday announced that it intends to use its strategic reserves to lower the oil price that has seen upward pressure after the Russian invasion. The administration is believed to release about 1 million barrels a day for several months from the reserves, which totalled 700 million barrels at end-January.
“The move is set to counter the reduced supply of Russian oil which exported about 8 million barrels a day before the war. The International Energy Agency will try to push other countries to release oil from their strategic reserves. The price of Brent oil fell about $4 a barrel to 108 overnight. OPEC+ will also be meeting today, where a key focus is whether they will raise its oil production to counter the loss of Russian oil supplies to the global markets.”
In UK corporate news, Royal Bank of Canada is buying wealth manager Brewin Dolphin in a £1.6bn agreed deal.
The bank is paying 515p a share, a 62% premium to Wednesday’s closing price. RBC added that it expected “limited” job losses in “functional and administrative areas”.
Provident Financial reinstated its dividend as the subprime lender returned to profit after bad-debt provisions fell. Adjusted pre-tax profit was £64.8m in the year to the end of December compared with a £54.6m loss a year earlier as revenue fell to £534.6m from £615.4m.
Provident Financial declared a dividend of 12p a share. There was no dividend in 2020. The company said it expected to increase its payout ratio to about 40% in 2022 from 30% in 2021.
Statutory pre-tax profit was £4.1m compared with a £113.5m loss the year before. Bad-debt impairments dropped to £50.4m from £312.6m a year earlier.
Self-storage operator Safestore has acquired the remaining 80% of its Netherlands and Belgium-focussed joint venture with Carlyle Europe Realty.
Safestore said that it will part with a total of €139.0m in cash for the joint venture, including the share purchase of €67.0m, with a further €67.0m to go towards refinancing existing borrowings and another €5.0m to cover transfer taxes and other deal costs. The acquisition was funded from the group’s existing loan facilities.
