BUSINESS LIVE: Shell expects weaker gas performance; Majestic rescues Vagabond bars; House prices fall

Rothesay Life sees a ‘very significant’ growth opportunities due to an ‘unprecedented’ pipeline of British pension schemes looking to offload risks to insurers, it has told shareholders.

The comments came as Rothesay, owned by Singapore’s GIC and MassMutual, posted new business premiums of £12.7billion for 2023, up from £3.3billion the year before, thanks to a dozen de-risking deals with pension schemes.

Defined benefit pension schemes in Britain are increasingly looking to transfer some of their £1.3trillion in liabilities to insurance companies, driving competition among traditional insurers and attracting new players.

Last year alone, the market recorded around £50billion in bulk purchase annuity transactions, according to broker Willis Towers Watson.

Britain’s economy has already emerged from recession following a down- turn at the end of last year, figures suggested yesterday.

S&P Global said its index of activity among private sector services and manufacturing firms came in at a ‘solid’ 52.8 in March.

London-listed stocks haev slumped at the open amid heightened Middle East tensions, while investors braced for the release of key US and UK economic data.

Oil and gas stocks are the only outliers across the board, rising by 0.3 [er cent as crude prices extend gains over escalating geopolitical tensions in he Middle East and tightening supply concerns.

Later in the day, investors will parse UK business activity data for March and the US non-farm payrolls report for fresh insights into the trajectory of interest rates.

Among individual stocks, Experian is down 1.6 per cent after the credit data group agreed to acquire peer illion for up to $542.10million.

Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown:

‘The FTSE 100 has gone backwards on its last trading day of the week, as investors digest PMI data as well as a downbeat tone over in the US.

‘The major indices all shed between 1.2-1.4% on Thursday, with broad based declines suggesting the malaise is a widespread mood problem, rather than a sector specific issue. Investors are now looking ahead to today’s US job data which will highlight the strength of the labour market.

‘The narrative around the potential for interest rate cuts has been slightly contradictory this week, so there’s a lot resting on this data to help steady the ship. A looser labour market could help back the argument that the economy is returning to more stable footing.’

Majestic has completed a rescue deal to buy wine bar chain Vagabond from administration.

The UK’s largest specialist wine retailer confirmed talks over a potential move last month after Vagabond Wines went into insolvency.

On Friday, Majestic confirmed it has completed the acquisition, which will secure the future of nine Vagabond venues and 171 workers.

The bar firm’s ‘underperforming’ site in Canary Wharf and its bars at Gatwick Airport are not included in the deal.

John Colley, chief executive of Majestic, said: ‘We are delighted to have secured this partnership with Vagabond Wines and are looking forward to working with the team to share our collective passion, expertise and love of wine.

‘The completion of this deal marks the start of a long-term partnership and we are committed to investing in the Vagabond business, with the potential to open new wine bars across the UK when the right opportunities arise.’

Shell’s first-quarter trading results for its integrated gas division are expected to be significantly lower than the fourth quarter of last year, the energy giant has told shareholders.

The oil company, however, expects performance at its chemicals and products business to be significantly higher than the last three months of 2023, with losses at the unit also expected to be lower.

Shell, which reported a $28billion profit for 2023, expects to take an exploration write-off of about $600million, mainly in Albania in the first quarter.