BAE Systems acquires Collins' military GPS business | Intu targets equity raise | Anglo American in Sirius Minerals move

The firm said: "These two proposed acquisitions represent a unique opportunity to purchase high quality technology-based businesses with market-leading capabilities and long histories of pioneering innovation in their fields."

Shares rose 2.9%, up 17.8p to 642.4p in early trading.

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The move comes just six months after United Technologies, which owns Collins Aerospace, and Raytheon agreed a merger, creating a 120 billion dollar (£92.5 billion) business to challenge BAE's dominance.

Monday's deals came after regulators said that in order for the merger to complete, the companies would need to offload the divisions.

The GPS business has designed military receivers for more than 40 years, with 1.5 million units, and has a presence on 200 ground, 40 airborne and 40 weapons platforms, primarily with the US military.

It said they believe the business will be "highly complementary to our priority growth area of precision guided munitions in our Electronics Systems division".

This year, BAE Systems added they expect to hit revenues of $259 million (£200 million), with underlying profits of $127 million (£98 million) from the division.

The proposed acquisition would be funded by new external debt.

The new radio business designs, manufactures and supplies "a broad range of mission-critical communication systems to the US department of defence, allied governments and large defence aircraft manufacturers", BAE added.

One of Britain's biggest shopping centre owners has revealed it will be tapping up shareholders for extra cash to pay down its debts.

Intu Properties, which owns several shopping centres including Intu Braehead and Manchester's Trafford Centre, said the money will be raised next month ahead of the company's results.

Executives have already warned that its £5 billion debt pile is too high and are in the process of selling off assets to pay it down.

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The company said: "Intu properties continues to make progress in its strategy to fix the balance sheet.

"Consistent with previous announcements, this now includes targeting an equity raise alongside its full year results at the end of February.

"The company is currently engaged in constructive discussions with both shareholders and potential new investors on the proposed equity raise."

An equity raise involves issuing new shares to raise extra cash - but this tends to push the current share price down, which could upset current investors.

Matthew Roberts, Intu chief executive, said: "We are making good progress with fixing the balance sheet, our number one priority, and are confident we have the right strategy in place to enable us to prosper as we see continued polarisation between the best destinations and the rest."

He added that footfall to Intu's UK centres was flat during the Christmas period compared with a year earlier - which was ahead of falls across the market more broadly.

Around 95% of space was occupied by tenants, with 97% of rent collected for the first quarter of 2020, Intu said.

Last month to reduce the debt levels, Intu revealed it had sold Spain's largest shopping centre - the Intu Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza - for €475.3 million (£405 million).

Intu banked €237.7 million from the deal as a part owner.

The amount Intu hopes to raise from shareholders remains unclear, although reports in the Sunday Times put the figure at up to £1 billion.

Intu shareholder and billionaire businessman John Whittaker, who has a 27% stake, is said to be in favour of the plan, according to the newspaper.

Anglo American has said it will step in to save a mining project which promises to be Britain's largest in decades, as it tabled a £405 million bid to buy the shares of Sirius Minerals.

The decision, which has been on the table since it was first floated by the firms two weeks ago, may safeguard thousands of jobs Sirius claims it could create in the region.

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However, it is likely to wipe out most of the cash that up to 85,000 small retail investors sunk into the project.

Anglo has bid 5.5p per share in Sirius, making the shares worth a fraction of the 22.38p they were worth a year ago.

They hit a high of around 45p in August 2016. The deal is still subject to shareholder approval.

"We are sensitive to the fact that the price is lower than what some people, or many people, may have invested in the project," Mark Cutifani, the chief executive of Anglo American, said on a call with reporters.

Sirius has previously said the project could provide 4,000 jobs to the local community and it would be one of the biggest private investments in the north of England for years.

Mr Cutifani said that Anglo has "no plans to make significant changes" to the jobs figures, but will look at opportunities to improve the project. But, he stressed, "this process is about preserving and creating jobs, not cutting them."

Sirius was cast into turmoil last year as it failed to reach a fundraising target which would have unlocked a $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion) bank loan to fund the project.

It forced the miner to go back to the drawing board and try to find a new way of paying for its project. In the meantime it scaled back the development.

"Four months ago, following the setbacks in the bond market, we took the difficult decision to slow the pace of development of our project and initiate a strategic review to reassess how best to unlock the long-term value for our shareholders, the community, the UK, and our customers all around the world," Sirius chairman Russell Scrimshaw said on Monday.

The company searched for a partner who would provide cash in return for a minority stake, Mr Scrimshaw said, but in the end the full acquisition by Anglo was the only "viable proposal".

"We acknowledge that to many shareholders our decision as a board to recommend this offer will have come as a shock. Your board deeply regrets that we could not deliver the complete stage two financing in 2019 despite a very broad and thorough process," he added.

The project plans to extract polyhalite from a mile below the North York Moors to use as fertiliser.

It would transport the material on a 17mph underground conveyor belt to Teesside, 23 miles away, where it would be shipped to customers worldwide.

The key seven top executives, including Sirius chief executive Chris Fraser, have committed to staying with the project for at least 12 months, Mr Cutifani said.