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Tuesday's news and views

Created:

17 June 2008

Written by:

Tanya Malick

• A 20% increase in half-year revenue helped architect Aukett Fitzroy Robinson shrug off a dip in profits and keep the firm on course to double turnover to £25m by 2010. (IC COMMENT)

• Shares in SkyePharma, maker of the experimental Flutiform asthma inhaler, rose after it said the inhaler has met its primary endpoints in a clinical study.

• Hotels and pub group Whitbread shrugged off the consumer gloom to post strong sales across all divisions in the first quarter, though it was cautious over prospects if things get any worse.

• Food & Drink has requested that its shares be suspended due to the uncertainty surrounding discussions to secure additional funding.

• Goldman Sachs has put in place a plan to rescue Cheyne Finance, a bust fund that specialised in structured investments.

• Crystal Amber Fund, which will invest in undervalued companies, today issued 60,000,000 shares at a placing price of 100p per share, to raise £60m on AIM.

• Online gambling software provider Playtech is to raise up to £112m through a placing to finance acquisitions.

• Shares in Irish biotech Elan moved higher as it said preliminary findings from a Phase 2 study of bapineuzumab in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease justified the decision to move the drug to stage 3 trials.

• NeutraHealth, which sells and distributes nutraceutical products, announced a management shake-up and also acquired a private label vitamin business, funded by the sale of its over the counter medicine arm.

• Brulines, which helps pubs monitor their beer flow and record other data, saw pre-tax profits for the full-year climb 75.7% and said it continues to explore further acquisitions.

• Supply chain solutions company Wincanton said it is pulling the plug on plans to buy logistics group TDG after making a 281.25p per share offer.

• Motion capture specialist OMG notched up another record first-half with sales and profits up 49% and 31% respectively, boosted by a first full contribution from recent mapping acquisition DCL.

• Halma, which makes smoke detectors and warning devices, said full-year underlying profit rose 11%, in-line with expectations, on strong demand for its products.

• Marine electronics group Raymarine expects earnings this year to be at the lower end of market expectations and similar to those achieved last year.

• Precision optical components maker Gooch & Housego revealed a 31.3% decline in first-half pre-tax profit and issued a 'cautiously optimistic' outlook for 2009 and beyond.

• Online mortgage software specialist Focus Solutions saw pre-tax profits increase by 35% and said the new financial year has started well and in-line with expectations.

FOR A SUMMARY OF LATEST MOVEMENTS IN EQUITY, COMMODITY AND CURRENCY MARKETS, SEE THE 'MARKETS' PAGE

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NEWSPAPER SHARE TIPS:

Full round-up of newspaper share tips (sourced from Sharecast).

PRESS SUMMARY:

A dispute between BP and its Russian partners over the future of their TNK-BP joint venture has escalated into open warfare, with the UK oil giant threatened with a legal showdown and the company's chairman, Peter Sutherland, accused of using Nazi propaganda tactics.

In an extraordinary series of attacks on BP yesterday, Mikhail Fridman, billionaire chairman of TNK-BP, said he would ask the courts to remove the venture's chief executive, Bob Dudley, and halt an "illegal" shareholder meeting next week, reports the Telegraph.

The Times adds that Fridman and his co-investors Len Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg had asked BP to grant them an option to exchange their stake in TNK-BP for shares in BP.

Primark, owned by AB Foods, is to drop three Indian companies that make thousands of clothes for its stores after discovering they had sub-contracted work out to companies that, in some cases, used children for embroidery work. The move comes after an investigation by the BBC Panorama team whose findings are due to be broadcast next Monday. Primark insisted that at no time was it aware that children were being used to finish the products, writes the Times.

Goldman Sachs is close to finalising a plan to restructure a $7bn investment vehicle formerly run by London-based hedge fund Cheyne Capital, in a move that could potentially usher in a crucial new phase in the credit turmoil. The US bank's proposed reorganisation of the so-called structured investment vehicle is set to be just the first of a number of deals that could see about $18bn worth of SIV assets restructured in the coming months, reports the FT.

Housebuilders' share prices surged by up to 13% yesterday despite predictions from experts that activity in the sector is set to fall to the lowest level since the end of the Second World War. Areport by the Construction Products Association said UK housing starts - where construction begins on site - were likely to be around 147,000 this year, the lowest annual number since 1945, and 27pc lower than 2007, reports the Telegraph.

The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, will use his Mansion House speech tomorrow to unveil the Government's vision on how to bolster the stability of UK banks. Mr Darling will give new details on the wide-ranging changes to banking regulation which will become law this autumn in the Banking Reform Bill. He will also provide further details of the Government's plans to clamp down on short-selling, says the Telegraph.

Nationwide Building Society has increased its mortgage rates by half a point for the second time in two weeks. Borrowers with a 5% stake in their homes now pay nearly 8% for new deals. Barclays stopped offering two-year fixed-rate home loans — the most popular type of mortgage. Average two-year mortgage rates have risen to 6.75%, the highest level since 1998, when the Bank base rate was above 7%. The base rate today is 5%, reports the Times.

The former head of of the Office of Fair Trading, Sir Bryan Carsberg, urged the Government yesterday to regulate estate agents and to make Home Information Packs (Hips) voluntary, as he published conclusions from his year-long review into the housing market. Much of the 56-page report is essentially a blueprint for regulation of the estate agency sector, building on Sir Bryan's belief that Britons are vulnerable when buying a property, reports the Independent.

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