Equities in London are up a little in early trading but there is a sense of anticipation ahead of US jobs figures later today. Click here to see what The Trader makes of the latest market moves.
IC TIP UPDATES:
BG Group (BG.), which is in the final phase of a take-over by Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB), posted a sharp fall in fourth-quarter profits but said that production was up 16 per cent in the full year at 704,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, driven by offshore oil fields in Brazil and the giant Queensland Curtis LNG project. Bid situation.
Regenersis (RGS) has entered into a conditional sale and purchase agreement to dispose of its Repair Services Business to CTDI Repair Services, a subsidiary of Communications Test Design, Inc., for €103.5m. The deal is in line with the strategy to “position Regenersis as a pure play software asset”, according to Regenersis’ chairman Matthew Peacock. Buy.
West End landlord Shaftesbury (SHB) made acquisitions of £28m in the five months to February in a period which saw very strong visitor numbers over the Christmas period. Several large schemes are now coming up for refurbishment, and work started in january on the Charing Cross Road/Chinatown scheme covering 45,000 sq ft. Buy.
Grainger (GRI), the UK’s largest listed residential landlord, is selling its interest in the German FRM residential portfolio for £94m. A loss of £3m is expected on the sale, which is part of the group’s decision to exit from the German market in order to focus on the UK private rented sector. We keep our buy rating.
MicroFocus International (MCRO), which was tipped this week, has announced the accelerated bookbuild of shares offered to the market by key shareholder Wizard has completed and was oversubscribed. It sold 28m shares, almost half its holding, at 1257p each, raising £357m and now holds 13.8 per cent of the company.
KEY STORIES:
Investors don’t seem as relaxed as the package holiday customers On The Beach (OTB) has served this morning. The company reported a 26 per cent rise in revenues for the four months to 31 January but the stock is down 4 per cent this morning. The online beach holiday tour operator only listed in September and since then the shares are up some 42 per cent meaning this morning’s trading could be a sign of some profit taking. Management said unique visitors to its website had risen 19 per cent year-on-year with mobile traffic reaching a record 67 per cent.
High-flying Halma (HLMA) has bolstered its medical division by acquiring US communication technology company CenTrak for $140m (£96m). CenTrak’s sensors and communication technology provides real-time monitoring of patients, staff, medical equipment, hand hygiene compliance and environmental and temperature conditions. Such technology is used to ensure healthcare providers comply with regulations.
Premier Farnell’s (PFL) downtrodden shares rose 7 per cent after the distributor of electronic components announced the $224m (£154m) sale of Akron Brass, a business focused on producing products to help fire fighters and other emergency response workers. Management plans to use the proceeds to help pay off debt.
Centrica (CNA) has disposed of its 50 per cent stake in three of its wind farms, which will generate net proceeds of £115m for the energy group. The sale is in line with the group’s strategy to dispose of its wind farm interests while still purchasing wind power from third parties.
OTHER COMPANY NEWS:
Shares in spread betting and contract for difference (CFD) trading platform CMC Markets (CMCX) began trading today at an initial offer price of 240p a share. CMC has a market capitalisation of £691m based on this offer price.
Velocys (VLS), a UK pioneer of smaller scale gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology, has announced that ENVIA Energy's EPC contractor, Ventech Engineers, has inked a major contract, covering installation of process modules and ancillary equipment, for ENVIA's Oklahoma City GTL plant to be located adjacent to Waste Management's East Oak landfill site.
