London pre-open: Greece talks give rise to caution amongst investors

24th Jan 2012 07:21

City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open down 19 points from yesterday's close of 5,783, as investors take their lead from the US, which finished slightly lower on Monday evening ahead of developments in Europe, with talks entering a crucial stage in regards to Greece. Savings and investments giant Old Mutual has announced that it intends to combine its Wealth Management Continental Europe business (France and Italy) with the Skandia Retail Europe business unit (Germany, Austria, Poland and Switzerland) in response to macro-economic and regulatory changes in the European industry. "We concluded that the affluent long-term savings and investment market in Europe is attractive for Old Mutual," said Pal Hanratty, Chief Executive of Old Mutual's Long-Term Savings business.The Francis Salway era at property firm Land Securities is set to come to a close at the end of March as the Chief Executive Officer hands over to Robert Noel, currently Managing Director of the London Portfolio. The news was revealed in a statement accompanying the group's third quarter interim management statement covering the final three months of 2011. Total property sales in the quarter were £104.0m (net receipts) at 1.9% below March 2011 valuation and at an average yield of 7.6%. Total investment in the quarter totalled £89.1m, including capital expenditure on developments of £51.1m and acquisitions of £11.1m. The acquisitions were at an average yield of 1.4%.The new financial year has got off to a satisfactory start at accountancy software giant Sage, with trading since the beginning of October in line with expectations for the full year. "We are confident that the business priorities, on which we are focused to drive growth, will bear fruit as the year progresses but we remain watchful of the European environment in particular," said Guy Berruyer, Chief Executive of Sage, in a brief terse trading statement.