Good morning!

Despite ongoing political/military events, the FTSE is set to open unchanged this morning at about 8850.

12.15pm: it's a clean sweep, as we've covered all of the day's news! See you tomorrow.

Spreadsheet accompanying this report: link.


Companies Reporting

Name (Mkt Cap)RNSSummaryOur view (Author)

Entain (LON:ENT) (£4.8bn)

BetMGM - Upgraded FY2025 Guidance

SP +9% to 824p
Entain’s US JV expects FY25 Net Revs >$2.6bn (prev $2.4-2.5bn) & EBITDA >$100m (prev “positive”)
BetMGM is a 50/50 JV with MGM Resorts International (NYQ:MGM), so my reading of today’s update is that it should add c.$50m of EBITDA to Entain’s FY25 group results.

AMBER (Roland) [no section below]
Forecasts I’ve seen prior to today have suggested that Entain is expected to generate EBITDA of c.$1,100m this year. This suggests today’s upgrade could be equivalent to a c.5% increase to full-year estimates.
The positive operating leverage implied here (the extra revenue has largely dropped through to EBITDA) suggests to me that BetMGM could report further improvements in profitability if revenue continues to rise.
However, Entain’s profitability as a group has been poor in recent years and the shares were already trading on nearly 17x forward earnings prior to today’s gain. Net debt is also a little high for my liking.
The algorithms view this as a Momentum Trap. I would want to see evidence of improved profitability and deleveraging before taking a positive view.

Assura (LON:AGR) (£1.6bn)

Statement re offer by PHP

Assura’s board are reviewing PHP’s offer document and they assure shareholders of their objectivity.PINK (Roland) [no section below]
Assura’s board recommended KKR/Stonepeak’s cash offer last week, but PHP issued full offer documents and a detailed discussion of its offer on Friday, pointing out that at that time, the PHP cash/shares offer was worth 53p, slightly more than the KKR/Stonepeak cash offer (52.1p).
Assura’s board now seems keen to reassure shareholders that the PHP offer is getting a fair hearing. Regardless of which offer succeeds, competition for AGR’s assets has most likely pushed up the price shareholders will receive. I share Graham’s view that it would be nice to see this business continue as a UK-listed entity as part of PHP, but there’s no doubt that would also be the more complex deal to complete.

NextEnergy Solar Fund (LON:NESF) (£404m)

Full Year Results

NAV -9.2%…

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