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Another week, another hurdle passed for Anglo American’s (AAL) merger with Teck Resources (CN:TECK.B). The Canadian government has given the deal the green light after Anglo promised to spend C$4.5bn (£2.4bn) in the country in the next five years and keep employment in the group at current levels. Teck shareholders voted in favour of the £37bn deal last week.

Canada’s industry minister Mélanie Joly said it was a “significant win for Vancouver, British Columbia and Canadians across the country”.

Anglo Teck executives will be based in Vancouver, while the C$4.5bn spending plan includes an expansion of the Highland Valley copper mine in British Columbia. Anglo also agreed that a “substantial proportion of Anglo Teck plc’s board of directors will be Canadian”, although this includes executives based in the country as well as Canadian nationals.

Shares in SThree (STEM) jumped nearly 8 per cent this morning after the recruitment agency confirmed full-year pre-tax profit guidance of ÂŁ25mn, despite a 12 per cent drop in net fees to ÂŁ323mn for the year to 30 November.

The good news was that the pace of decline slowed through the year. Net fees fell 8 per cent in the fourth quarter, a sharp improvement from a 15 per cent drop at the start of the year and 12 per cent in the third quarter.

Growth in the US helped, driven by demand for energy and finance skills, partially mitigating weaker results in Germany and the Netherlands, especially in tech recruitment. Contract fees, which account for 84 per cent of revenues, fell 12 per cent, while permanent placements were down 9 per cent.

“As anticipated, we have not yet seen a widespread market recovery, however we have exited the year with a period of improving new placement activity, complemented by continued resilient extensions,” said chief executive Timo Lehne.

Net cash at the end of the period stood at £68mn. The company said it will provide an update on capital allocation, including the board’s intention to launch another share buyback programme, on results day on 27 January.

Serica Energy (SQZ) has agreed to buy a set of North Sea holdings from Centrica (CNA) subsidiary Spirit Energy for £57mn. This includes various stakes in 10 fields, adding a total of 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) to Serica’s portfolio for 2026, mostly through gas production. This an increase of around 20 per cent on current output.

Serica chief executive Chris Cox, who used to run Spirit Energy, said: “There is also the potential for further infill drilling opportunities across the portfolio, most significantly at Cygnus, where drilling is ongoing.”

Shore Capital analyst James Hosie said the deal was “another example of industry consolidation within the UK”. “Serica and its peers [are looking] to realise tax and operational synergies in response to the current fiscal and regulatory regime, while others seek to exit the UK,” he added.

Shares in property portal Rightmove (RMV) fell as much as 5 per cent on Monday and are down another 1 per cent this morning on press reports of Alphabet (US:GOOGL) offering more property search tools in the US through its Google search engine.

Google is reportedly considering the launch of mobile tools that would allow users to search for properties and book home tours, in collaboration with property brokerage ComeHome.

Shares in US property portals Zillow (US:Z) and CoStar (US:CSGP), which owns UK portal OnTheMarket, fell 8 per cent and 6 per cent respectively on the news.

While there is no suggestion that Google is looking to launch similar tools in the UK, the search engine could look to launch a similar partnership with a UK portal, threatening Rightmove’s dominant market share.

Shares in engineering group Goodwin (GDWN) slid by 9.5 per cent as the company revealed a nine-fold increase in net debt following payment of its special dividend.

The company finished the six months to October with net debt of ÂŁ5.8mn after more than doubling its interim trading profit to ÂŁ37.2mn. However, after paying a one-off dividend of 532p a share in November, net debt increased to ÂŁ53mn, representing a gearing ratio of 46 per cent.

The family-owned company typically doesn’t give forward guidance but it reaffirmed the statement made last month when announcing the special dividend that it expects “full-year profitability to be above £71mn”, which would be double last year’s trading profit of £35.5mn. Goodwin’s shares have risen by more than 150 per cent since the start of the year.