Proactive Investors -
- FTSE 100 reversed from a session peak of 7,783.40
- Wall Street seen mixed early on
- Dechra Pharmaceuticals (LON:DPH) weak after profit warning
"Monumental questions" about consumer energy bills
Consumer champion Martin Lewis has issued stark warnings that households will unlikely feel the benefit of the falling cap on energy prices, implemented by regulator Ofgem.
“In practical terms, people aren’t going to be feeling any real benefit,” he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg over the weekend when asked about a predicted drop in the cap from July.
“They’re going to be paying the same that they were over winter, and next winter will be as expensive as the winter just gone," he added.
Last week, Cornwall Insight analysts forecast the cap, which determines how much suppliers can charge per unit of electricity and gas, will fall to £2,053 per year come July 1, down from £3,280 currently. Ofgem’s cap had risen to £4,279 on an annual basis between January and March, up nearly 290% from £1,104 when it was introduced in January 2019.
Gas, which determines electricity prices, has approached almost two-year lows this week, falling to £0.64 per British thermal unit, similar to figures recorded in June 2021, before an August 2022 peak of £6.40, according to Trading Economics.
However, predictions for the new price remain 80% higher than the £1,138 cap run by Ofgem in the summer of 2021, despite wholesale prices having fallen.
“We have monumental questions about consumer energy bills coming forward,” Lewis added. “They’re too expensive, they’re badly structured, there’s no competition in the marketplace.”
Legal moves
Law firms Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling plan to merge, the two announced on Sunday night, in a deal that would create one of the world's largest legal practices with combined global revenue of approximately $3.4 billion.
If approved by a vote of partners at both firms, the tie-up would be one of the largest law-firm mergers in recent years and result in a firm with around 3,900 lawyers across 49 offices worldwide.
The company created by merging London-based Allen Overy and New York-headquartered Shearman Sterling "will be the only global firm with US law, English law and local law capabilities in equal measure," the two firms said in a joint statement.
The proposed merger would create the third-largest integrated law firm in the world by gross revenue, the two firms said, with a $1 billion practice in the United States
The deal comes just months after Shearman & Sterling abandoned talks over a tie-up with transatlantic firm Hogan Lovells.
A look at some of London's movers
Polymetal - down 13% to 199p: Shares plunged on news that its Russian subsidiary, JSC Polymetal, has been placed on the US Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list (SDN).
Barryroe Offshore - down 52% to 0.88p: Shares fell as efforts to deliver a project off the Cork coast have been stifled by the leader of Ireland’s Green Party.