On the final London session before the four-day Easter break, the corporate diary is fairly bare – as it has been all week – although another recruitment firm will provide a trading update, and a newcomer to the market could provide a strike on Friday.
The UK's second largest ten-pin bowling operator, Ten Entertainment Group PLC (LON:TEG) will have an initial market cap of £107.25mln when conditional trading in the shares start on the London Stock Exchange’s main market in the morning.
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The firm, which has 40 sites and operates the Ten Pin brand, is placing 16.25mln at a price of 165p each, with the offering, comprising 25% of the company's issued share capital, expected to raise gross proceeds of £26.8mln for the selling shareholders.
Following the float, private equity firm Harwood Shareholders will control approximately 69.4% of the company’s ordinary share capital, while directors of Ten Entertainment will hold around 5.6% of the group.
UK hiring …
On the news front, the focus of a third-quarter trading update from staffing firm Hays plc (LON:HAS) is likely to be on Brexit’s impact on UK hiring, with peers PageGroup PLC (LON:PAGE) and Robert Walters PLC (LON:RWA) having already delivered upbeat statements this week.
While Hays has divisions across the globe, a third of its revenue last year was generated in the UK.
At the first half results in February, the company tried to reassure investors that recruitment in the UK had stabilised after an initial stumble following last June’s Brexit vote.
READ: UK recruiters show Brexit resilience with record results …
The group also reported growth in its Europe, Australia and Asia businesses as it reported a 17% increase in pre-tax profit for the six months to 31 December.
Swiss broker UBS expects a 5% decrease in UK like-for-like sales in the third quarter, offset by a 14% increase in international like-for-like sales. In total, the bank sees like-for-like sales growth of 6%, including a 2% benefit from extra trading days due to a later Easter.
Ex-dividend factors will also come into play, as is traditional on a Thursday, with around 3.7 points set to be chopped off the FTSE 100 index by the three firms trading without entitlement to their latest pay-outs – Reckitt Benckiser PLC (LON:RB.), Standard Life PLC (LON:SL.), and Taylor Wimpey PLC (LON:TW.).
Significant announcements expected on Thursday:
Trading Statement: Hays PLC (LON:HAS), PZ Cussons PLC (LON:PZC)
Finals: Avocet Mining PLC (LON :AVM)
AGM: Drax PLC (LON:DRX)
First day dealings: Ten Entertainment Group PLC (LON:TEG
Ex-Dividends: Secure Trust Bank PLC (LON:STB); Standard Life PLC (LON:SL.); Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC (LON:RB.); STV Group PLC (LON:STVG); Savills PLC (LON:SVS); Taylor Wimpey PLC (LON:TW.); Travis Perkins PLC (LON:TPK); Savills PLC (LON:SVS); Private & Commercial Finance Group plc (LON:PCF); Northamber PLC (LON:NAR); Globaldata PLC (LON:DATA); Clarke (T) PLC (LON:CTO); Arbuthnot Banking Group PLC (LON:ARBB); esure Group PLC (LON:ESUR); Gulf Marine Services PLC (LON:GMS); Johnson Service Group plc (LON:JSG); JPMorgan American IT PLC (LON:JAM); International Personal Finance PLC (LON:IPF); AFH Financial Group PLC (LON:AFHP)