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The chairwoman of Edinburgh-based Capricorn Energy, formerly Cairn Energy, has indicated that the company could accommodate the demands of shareholder Palliser which wants changes to the board.

Capricorn has confirmed that a general meeting to consider a call to replace seven directors with six nominees will be held on 1 February.

In a letter, Nicoletta Giadrossi, said: “We are ready to add a number of your nominees to the board promptly and well before the general meetings — there is no need to wait until next month.

“We want to reiterate our offer to meet with your nominees immediately so that we can expeditiously complete our corporate governance processes.

“We also are prepared to sign confidentiality agreements with your nominees so that they can review additional information. We stand ready to work together with you on this front.”

The meeting will be held at the Sheraton Grand Hotel, Festival Square, Edinburgh at 2pm.

AstraZeneca said it will pay up to $1.8bn to acquire hypertension and chronic kidney disease therapies developer CinCor Pharma.

The deal gives the pharma giant global rights to the baxdrostat high blood pressure treatment. The FTSE 100 listed group will pay $1.3bn upfront, more than twice CinCor’s $515.5m market capitalisation with the consideration rising to $1.8bn if potential contingent value payments are made.

It will buy outstanding CinCor shares for $26, plus a possible extra $10 each depending on regulatory submission of a baxdrostat product.

Vodafone Group has confirmed the €1.7bn sale of its Hungarian business, first announced in August. Shares slipped 0.6%.

The blue chip FTSE 100 index picked up where it left off last week, closing 25.45 points higher at 7,724.94, buoyed by the re-opening of China and hopes that the US Federal Reserve may slow the pace of rate hikes.

China’s reopening led to expectations of higher demand for commodities, which provided support for stocks like Antofagasta, Glencore and Shell.

Brent oil was quoted at $80.46 a barrel at the London equities close.

Stocks in New York moved higher at the London equities close, with the DJIA called up 0.8%, the S&P 500 index up 1.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite up 2.2%.