Finance: 10 things you need to know in markets today

What you need to know on Monday morning.

Good morning! Here's what you need to know in markets on Monday.

1. Crisis-hit construction firm Carillion on Monday announced it is going into liquidation after last-minute talks to save the business over the weekend failed. Carillion said in a statement on Monday that it "continued to engage with its key financial and other stakeholders, including Her Majesty's Government ('HMG'), over the course of the weekend regarding options to reduce debt and strengthen the group's balance sheet."

2. GKN is exploring the option of selling its aerospace business to fend off more potential approaches after an unsolicited £7 billion offer for the engineering group last week, the Times reports. A number of US private equity firms and industrial rivals are thought to be running the rule over the aircraft and car parts maker now it is in play. Melrose Industries, a listed specialist at turning around troubled engineers, made a cash and shares offer that GKN rejected as “entirely opportunistic” on Friday.

3. The head of a French dairy giant at the centre of an international salmonella scandal has promised to withdraw 12 million boxes of powdered baby milk from the supermarket shelves of 83 countries, the Guardian reports. Emmanuel Besnier, the scion of the secretive family behind one of the world’s biggest dairy groups, was speaking publicly for the first time since an outcry erupted over claims the company hid the salmonella outbreak at a plant making the product.

4. One of Britain’s richest men, the Duke of Westminster, could see the value of his estates plummet this week if a landmark legal challenge is successful, the Guardian reports. The case could also benefit 2 million households across England and Wales. The court of appeal will on Tuesday rule in the case of Mundy v the Sloane Stanley Estate in a long-running legal battle over the calculation basis for extending a lease.

5. One of the country’s biggest litigation finance firms is considering an initial public offering, which would give investors a chance to share in the spoils of corporate and class action lawsuits, the Times reports. Richard Hextall, the newly appointed head of Vannin Capital, one of the world’s largest and longest-established players in the legal finance market, said that a listing on the London stock exchange was under consideration as the firm expands.

6. The Conservative Party’s favourite ­advertising agency M&C Saatchi has bolstered its board with the appointment of experienced media banker Lorna Tilbian as a non-executive, the Telegraph reports. Tilbian, who was part of the senior team that founded the mid-market stockbroker Numis, is expected to join M&C as soon as today.

7. Britain's £7 trillion fund industry has gone "backwards" on gender diversity and must make a bigger effort to hire female talent, City grandee Sir Philip Hampton has warned in a Telegraph report. Sir Philip, the chairman of Glaxo­SmithKline who last year co-led a government review into women in business, said the asset management sector is an example of an industry that has "gone backwards" when it comes to gender diversity.

8. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Moscow will work to preserve the existing Iran nuclear deal despite Washington threatening to withdraw from it, Reuters reports. U.S. President Donald Trump said last week he would waive nuclear sanctions against Iran for the last time to give Washington and its European allies a chance to fix the "terrible flaws" of the 2015 nuclear deal.

9. Barclays has admitted that people wanting to object to its ringfencing plans have been stymied by "a glitch" on the High Court’s computer system and the bank’s own failure to provide enough information, the Times reports. Big banks must separate their low-risk high street lending from investment banking.

10. Black smoke was billowing from the East China Sea site where a burning Iranian oil tanker sank, Japanese authorities said on Monday, as worries grow about damage to the marine ecosystem from the worst oil ship disaster in decades, Reuters reported. The blazing vessel, which was carrying 136,000 tonnes - almost one million barrels - of condensate, an ultra-light, highly flammable crude oil, sank on Sunday evening after several explosions weakened the hull.

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