Arecor Ltd has announced that it has secured an investment for the clinical development of its diabetes speciality pharma portfolio. New and existing investors contributed to the investment that totals £6.0 million. Currently, Arecor is a leading UK-based developer of superior biopharmaceuticals through the application of a formulation technology platform. Leading UK institutional investors, Calculus Capital, Downing Ventures and Albion Capital, contributed to the £6.0 million equity investment. Likewise, Arecor’s existing investors participated significantly. The company’s next-generation diabetes product pipeline offers exciting new progress in the field of diabetes. It aims to enable important new treatment regimens. Equally, it aims to offer greater control of blood glucose to diabetes patients. The pipeline includes three main developments. Firstly, proprietary formulations of insulin analogues that are ultra-rapid acting and more closely match a healthy body’s physiological response to blood glucose control. Next, highly concentrated rapid acting insulin optimised for the next generation of body-worn miniaturised delivery devices, including the artificial pancreas. Finally, a stable aqueous ready to use glucagon used in an emergency to treat severe hypoglycaemia and enabling future use in bi-hormonal artificial pancreas systems.

The International Diabetes Federation estimates that 425 million people currently live with diabetes.

In addition, it estimates that the economic impact of diabetes exceeds $1 trillion. Arecor hopes that its products will contribute significantly to addressing this challenge. Arecor will be looking to partner with specialist diabetes companies in the later stages of development. Arecor’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Sarah Howell, has said: “We are delighted to have secured the investment that we need to progress our lead diabetes programmes through the key stages of clinical development. “With diabetes reaching epidemic proportions worldwide and with close to half a billion people living with the condition today, the opportunity of advancing our diabetes products into human clinical trials and their potential to significantly improve the treatment of this debilitating disease, represents a very exciting and ground-breaking proposition”. Arecor is not a listed company. However, its investors do have some interesting portfolios. Albion Capital has invested in several companies in the healthcare sector. These include Abcodia, Achilles Therapeutics and Oxford Immunotec, as well as several care homes. Likewise, Calculus capital also invests in several healthcare companies such as Arecor and Oxford BioTherapeutics.

The UK’s growth rate is forecast to dip to 1.3 percent as Brexit uncertainty continues to impact consumer spending and investment, according to KPMG. According to the consultancy firm, Brexit uncertainty will continue to drag down the UK’s economic performance, falling this year. This proves a gloomier assessment that the Bank of England, who opted to raise interest rates to 0.75 percent in August. Yael Selfin, the chief economist at KPMG UK, commented: “If negotiations between the EU and UK result in a relatively friction-free agreement, then growth is likely to remain around 1.4% in the medium term as a result of relatively weak productivity. “If we see a disorderly Brexit, growth will obviously slow more dramatically. If negotiations end well, the MPC are likely to raise interest rates to 1 percent at the tail end of 2019. If no deal is reached, the MPC will need to use interest rates to soften the economic impact,” she added. Moreover, KPMG said it expected house price growth continue to slow, particularly in London and the South-East, further dragging down UK growth. “High price levels, uncertainty around the future economic outlook and rising interest rates are expected to take their toll in London and the south-east especially. House prices in the capital are expected to drop by 0.7 percent in 2019,” it reported. “In regions with lower pressures on valuations, such as Scotland, there is expected to be growth of 4.9 percent in 2018″, they added. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), The UK economy grew by 1.7 percent during 2017. UK growth dipped to 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2018, bouncing back to 0.4 percent in the following quarter.      

The chief executive of Entertainment One could face shareholder revolt for the second year in a row. City advisory firms Glass Lewis and ISS have recommended investors to vote against the group’s remuneration report. Last year, 47.4 percent of shareholders opposed CEO Darren Throop’s pay package, which grew from £1.68 million to £1.86 million for the year to 31 March. Throop’s salary increased to £866,000 from £823,000 and his annual bonus more than doubled to £802,000. The chief executive’s salary is expected to increase to £950,000 in 2019 and by a further seven percent the year after. Glass Lewis said they were concerned about the “successive significant salary increases” to Throop. Entertainment One was included in the “name and shame” list of companies that Theresa May said were rewarding bosses with “fat cat pay”. Other companies included on the list were Burberry, Sky and Sports Direct, who are seen to represent the “unacceptable face of capitalism”. Greg Clark, the business secretary, said: “It is right that we review and refresh our standards to ensure we continue to have the highest reputation,” he said. “This world-first public register, does exactly that, shining a spotlight on how companies respond to shareholders’ concerns over important decisions, including executive pay packages.” “This will help to strengthen transparency and corporate accountability and build on our reputation as a world-leading business environment – a key foundation of our industrial strategy.” The group, who is responsible for The Hunger Games and Peppa Pig, defended Throop’s pay and said that the chief executive had seen revenues increase by 32 percent, with profit before tax also growing by 76 percent and the dividend had going up 27 percent since 2015. Shares in Entertainment One (LON: ETO) are trading up 0,054 percent at 372,40 (1101GMT)    

RPC Group (LON:RPC) announced it is in early buyout talks with Bain Capital and Apollo Global Management. The UK-based plastics packager said that both companies have until the 8th of October to announce whether they intend to make a firm offer. RPC had been under pressure in recent months from stakeholders to raise more capital and lower costs. Earlier this month the company announced it would sell its Letica food packaging business, raising $95 million in funds. The plastics industry has also come under renewed scrutiny amid increased public awareness of sea pollution and plastic in the world’s oceans. Various companies and restaurants have since banned the use of plastic straws in a bid to combat waste. Back in July, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) announced plans to ban plastic straws, alongside introducing new strawless lids. Moreover, the UK government is also looking into potential measures to ban the use of plastic cutlery and plates, as it looks to reduce waste. This follows an announcement from the European Commission revealing its intention to cutlery, plates, straws, cotton buds, drink-stirrers and balloon sticks by 2021 to further ease marine pollution levels. RPC shares are currently trading +20.63 percent as of 10.46 as the market reacts to the announcement.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is facing pressure from MPs, music fans and the Football Association to stop listing Viagogo, the ticket website, at the top of the search engine’s results. An open letter sent to top Google executives said that the top search rankings are encouraging consumers to buy tickets to events that may be invalid. The letter referred to legal proceedings brought against the ticket resell site by the Competition and Markets Authority last month. “In effect, one of the world’s most trusted brands – Google – is being paid to actively promote one of the least trusted,” the letter said. “We understand that Viagogo is a valuable client to Google, spending considerable sums each year on paid search advertising. However, we urge you to protect consumers who daily put their trust in Google, and act now to restrict Viagogo’s ability to pay for prominence.” A spokesperson for Viagogo said: “All tickets listed on viagogo are valid. It is perfectly legal to resell a ticket if you want to. Any promoter trying to cancel a genuine ticket is not acting in the interests of fans.” The site has received a barrage of criticism from MPs, trade bodies and associations from the worlds of sports, theatre and music. Sharon Hodgson, a Labour MP who signed the open letter, said: “I have heard too many times from distressed customers of Viagogo that they were led to the website because it was at the top of their Google search. It is totally wrong that a trusted website like Google would direct consumers to such an untrustworthy website.” “Google needs to take action in order to protect consumers, and I look forward to working with them on this in the very near future,” she added. A spokesperson for Google said: “The CMA has been looking at the business practices of ticket resellers. We await the conclusion of these inquiries and we hope that they will clarify the rules in the interests of consumers. We will abide by the rulings of these inquiries and local law.” A survey from data analysis website SimilarWeb found that 75 percent of Google’s traffic comes from the referral of search engines.  

LondonMetric Property PLC (LON:LMP) has announced the sale of its retail park in Launceston. The retail park was sold for £21.9 million and reflects a net initial yield of 5.6%. Notably, LondonMetric acquired the the approximately 70,000 sq ft retail park in August 2010 for £13.5 million. It formed part of the Metric portfolio. Additionally, the property has generated a profit on cost of 13% and an ungeared return of 7% pa. A long term investor purchased the property for a value above March 2018 book value. Chief Executive of LondonMetric, Andrew Jones, said: “This disposal is in line with our strategy to reduce our ownership of operational retail assets once business plans have been executed. Following the sale, we will own only four retail parks. “Demand for physical retail assets continues to polarise and so future investments will be targeted within the logistics and convenience sectors where income growth prospects are superior.” Currently, shares are trading + 0.21% at 10.23 BST.

Department store John Lewis has made over 1,800 employees redundant in the year to the end of June. In the group’s staff magazine, the Gazette, they revealed the rise in employment redundancies by 289 percent compared to the previous 12 months. Last week, the retailer revealed plans to change its name to “John Lewis & Partners”, whilst also planning a further 270 job cuts. “Our annual results reflect the challenging market conditions all department store groups are facing,” said a spokesperson. “We have restructured parts of the business and have made the difficult decision to cut staff numbers.” John Lewis also said that it had created many jobs over the past 12 months including 600 staff when it opened its new Westfield store in White City. The group has a total of 83,000 staff. John Lewis said it expects full-year profits to be significantly down after they warned of a likely fall in profits in June amid the Brexit uncertainty. The department store now plans to cut costs at its head office, stopping investment in new stores and review its pension arrangements. It also hopes to invest £500 million a year into refurbishing its stores and website, as well as developing new products and services. “We are determined to play the long game and our ownership model means we can,” said John Lewis boss Paula Nickolds. “While others are investing in drones, we are investing in people. Where others are cutting back, we are investing in the very thing that is our point of difference.”    

A new report from KPMG has warned the UK’s economy will slow if no Brexit deal is prepared. According to the consultancy, the growth rate in Britain will slow to 1.3 percent following a fall in business investment and consumer spending. “If productivity growth remains at around one percent then, as a basic rule of thumb, we would expect wages to rise by around three percent on average,” KPMG said. “Interest rates are likely be cut to at least 0.25 percent if negotiations are not successful, with additional measures to be announced by the [Bank of England] to ease any significant pressure on the banking sector,” said the report. Yael Selfin, the chief economist at KPMG UK, said: “If negotiations between the EU and UK result in a relatively friction-free agreement, then growth is likely to remain around 1.4 percent in the medium term as a result of relatively weak productivity.” “If we see a disorderly Brexit, growth will obviously slow more dramatically. If negotiations end well, the MPC are likely to raise interest rates to one percent at the tail end of 2019. If no deal is reached, the MPC will need to use interest rates to soften the economic impact,” she added. Regarding the housing market, the group predicted a slowing from 4.5 percent last year to 2.6 percent this year. The trend is predicted to continue with a slowdown to two percent next year and 1.6 per cent in the year 2020. “High price levels, uncertainty around the future economic outlook and rising interest rates are expected to take their toll in London and the south-east especially. House prices in the capital are expected to drop by 0.7 percent in 2019,” it said. “In regions with lower pressures on valuations, such as Scotland, there is expected to be growth of 4.9 percent in 2018,” it added. Workers are also facing increased pressure amid Brexit uncertainty as wages are failing to grow with inflation.