AstraZeneca, Barclays, Marks and Spencer: Business news in brief Thursday 15 July

AstraZeneca resolves law suit, M&S fails to impress, Barclays director guilty of insider trading, cannabis company in £190m fundraising, Barratt Homes to cut back on house building

Marks and Spencer boss Steve Rowe did not win over all of the retailer's army of investors at the company's AGM (Getty)

AstraZeneca resolves breast cancer drug patent litigation in US

British drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Wednesday it has entered into an agreement with Sandoz, the generic pharmaceuticals division of Novartis, to resolve Faslodex patent litigation in the US.

The company said it had agreed to resolve the litigation relating to Sandoz's generic fulvestrant product, for which it is seeking FDA approval.

Fulvestrant is a type of hormonal therapy drug used to treat breast cancer.

The US Faslodex patents are due to expire in January 2021, with paediatric exclusivity continuing until July 2021.

GW Pharma to raise $252m after cannabis drug success

British drug developer GW Pharmaceuticals said it would raise £190 million through the issue of 2.8 million shares on the Nasdaq.

Shares in the company have been gaining after positive trial results of its experimental drug Epidiolex, and have notched up gains of more than 50 per cent this year, shrugging off early declines.

GW Pharma's drug reduced the incidence of seizures in people suffering from rare forms of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome.

The company, which was founded in 1998 with the aim of capitalizing on the medical benefits of cannabis, said the American Depositary Shares would be sold at $90 (£68) per share.

GW Pharma has had a rocky time on the London stock market, and in 2013 opted for a dual listing on the Nasdaq, where it has raised more than $500 million (£376 million) from US investors.

The company's stock was down 2 per cent at 600.5 pence on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

Ex-Barclays director pleads guilty to insider trading in US

A former director at Barclays pleaded guilty on Tuesday to US charges that he engaged in insider trading by tipping off a plumber friend to impending mergers that he learned about at the bank.

Steven McClatchey, 58, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiracy and securities fraud charges, admitting that he provided stock tips to the plumber, Gary Pusey, who prosecutors say made $76,000 (£57,410) through his insider trading.

“I knew what I was doing was wrong,” McClatchey said in court.

McClatchey, who worked at Barclays from 2008 to 2015, was arrested on May 31 amid a resurgence of insider trading cases in Manhattan.

While 2015 resulted in a eight-year low of just four people being charged, the number of defendants so far in 2016 has hit 11.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York City meanwhile says it has about 30 undisclosed probes into suspected insider trading schemes.

New M&S boss fails to impress investors at Wembley Stadium AGM

The new boss of Marks & Spencer appealed to the retailer's army of private shareholders to back his attempt to revive its clothing business.

Steve Rowe has pledged to turn around the clothing business by improving ranges and availability, cutting prices and offering fewer promotions.

His plan came with a warning of a short-term dent to profits and last week the 132-year-old group reported its worst quarterly clothing sales fall for a decade.

Rowe said in May that he would focus on the retailer's average customer, a 50-year-old woman he described as “Mrs M&S”, who had been neglected in the pursuit of younger shoppers.

“I firmly believe that we can return our clothing business to positive growth,” he told a packed meeting at the firm’s AGM at the Wembley stadium complex.

Some shareholders however, were unconvinced.

A Mrs Smith introduced herself as “not Mrs M&S” and questioned whether management understands its customers.

“In my view, the remark about Mrs M&S shows that you don't,” she said.

“It was in my opinion the most disastrous piece of marketing since Gerald Ratner extolled the virtues of his silver-plated dinner set,” she added.

“It does suggest to me that you still live in the world where women dress from head to toe in one brand — we don't ... We're individuals and we don't like being labelled.”

Barratt may cut back on housebuilding after Brexit vote

Britain's biggest housebuilder Barratt Developments said it might slow the pace of construction and rethink its land buying programme to prepare itself for an expected slowdown sparked by the vote to leave the EU.

Britain's property sector has been one of the worst hit since the June 23 referendum, with Barratt and other housebuilders seeing their market values plunge while investors pulled out cash from commercial funds, forcing many to be suspended.

Estate agency Foxtons has said Brexit is likely to result in a drop in its full-year earnings.

Barratt said it was taking steps to reduce its risk ahead of a potential fall in demand.

Barratt chief executive David Thomas said the market was now more likely to slow.

“The principle focus of our reassessment will be about where we have approved land but we have not yet submitted for planning or alternatively where land is coming to the market that we could bid on and we are looking at whether we will or we won't,” he said.

Barratt said its full-year pre-tax profit is expected to increase by around 20 per cent to roughly £680m, in line with expectations.

Shares in Barratt were down 2 per cent to 405 pence at 1200 BST.

ICAP enjoys Brexit windfall from sterling's slump

Interdealer broker ICAP has gained a “significant windfall benefit” from the drop in the pound after Britain's vote to leave the European Union, the company said on Wednesday.

The company, soon to be named NEX Group after the sale of its telephone broking business to rival Tullett Prebon, said daily volumes roughly doubled to top £150.95 billion on its currency trading platform the day after the June 23 vote.

Sterling has fallen to its lowest level against the US dollar since 1985.

ICAP, which matches buyers and sellers of bonds, swaps and currencies, said revenue from continuing operations for the quarter to June 30 rose 7 per cent.

The broker said it remains “cautiously confident” for the rest of the year despite an increasingly uncertain macroeconomic outlook for the UK and global economy.

“Overall market conditions have been mixed as the malaise in global financial markets, low interest rates and bank deleveraging persists,” the company said.

© Reuters