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NatWest acquires Evelyn Partners, Ocado plans job cuts
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Monday 09 Feb 2026
(Sharecast News) - LONDON PRE-OPEN
The FTSE 100 was expected to open 45.7 points higher ahead of the bell on Monday, after wrapping up the previous session 0.59% firmer at 10,369.75.
STOCKS TO WATCH
NatWest said on Monday that it was buying UK wealth manager Evelyn Partners from funds advised by Permira and Warburg Pincus for £2.7bn and launching a new £750m share buyback. Natwest said the deal would increase fee income by 20% pre-revenue synergies. Evelyn Partners has £69bn of assets under management.
Telecommunications firm Vodafone revealed on Monday that its African subsidiary, Vodacom Group, had confirmed Vodafone Egypt's participation in a multi‑year investment programme led by Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. Vodafone said the initiative covers spectrum in the 1,800MHz and 3,500MHz bands, as well as the renewal of existing 2,600MHz spectrum. Payment will be made over four annual instalments, starting with $100m in FY26.
Ocado was said to be planning to cut up to 1,000 jobs, or 5% of its global headcount, as part of a renewed cost-cutting drive after a bruising year for its automated warehouse business. According to The Times, talks were still in their early stages and a final decision has yet to be made. One source said an announcement could come as soon as this month and that they expected the majority of the cuts to be in the UK-based head office, including technology roles alongside some back office staff across legal, finance and human resources.
NEWSPAPER ROUND-UP
Labour will introduce legislation to lower the minimum age for train drivers to 18 in the House of Commons this week, as figures show fewer than 3% of drivers on Great Britain's railways are under 30. The government is pressing ahead with its proposals for teenage recruits, lowering the minimum age from 20, in a move that ministers hope will stave off a potential shortage of thousands of drivers. - Guardian
Bank chairs who water down their lenders' climate commitments this year could face embarrassing shareholder revolts as campaigners try to hold bosses to account for environmental backtracking. ShareAction, a campaign group for responsible investment, will be issuing detailed reports to pension funds and asset managers in the coming weeks, outlining whether 34 of the world's largest lenders are sticking to their climate goals. - Guardian
Ocado is preparing to cut as many as 1,000 jobs as part of a scramble to drive down costs. The struggling online supermarket, which employs around 20,000 staff, is preparing to reduce headcount to save hundreds of millions of pounds. The proposed redundancies could be approved later this month, with those in its head office most likely to be affected. However, a final decision has yet to be made. - Telegraph
Rachel Reeves has been warned that her tax raid on cash ISAs will push savers towards online scammers. The Chancellor's decision to cut the annual cash ISA limit by £8,000 by 2027 will lead more people to be sucked into investment frauds that entice people with the promise of high returns, according to challenger bank Starling. - Telegraph
Two peregrine falcons are causing uncertainty over a plan for a 21-storey office block near the Barbican in London after City authorities warned the developer of 1 Silk Street that the birds are using nearby towers as breeding sites. Lipton Rogers, the London property company behind the proposal for the £450m offices, has been told it must determine whether the falcons are nesting at its site, The Sunday Telegraph reported. - The Times
US CLOSE
Major indices closed sharply higher on Friday as tech stocks bounced back following a wave of heavy selling in recent days
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.47% at 50,115.67, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.97% to 6,932.30 and the Nasdaq Composite saw out the sessopm 2.18% firmer at 23,031.21.
Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com
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