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Monday's news and tips

Created:

5 January 2009

Written by:

Tanya Malick

■ Irish glass and fine china firm Waterford Wedgwood has gone into receivership after another last ditch refinancing plan fell through.

■ Department store chain John Lewis has reported flat like-for-like sales for the five weeks to 3 January, outperforming rivals on the hard-hit high street.

■ Data search software giant Autonomy said it has entered into a "multi-million dollar" license agreement with BAE Systems.

■ Clean Air Power, developer of dual-fuel combustion technology, signed a letter of intent with Volvo Powertrain to incorporate its Dual-FuelTM technology into Volvo Truck engines.

■ Carillion announced it has secured a contract for Nottingham City Council to build a new £13m primary school under the government's £7bn Primary Capital Programme.

■ Legacy software specialist Micro Focus said it has completed the acquisition of software provider Relativity Technologies after shareholder approval at the end of December.

■ A change in guidelines over rights issues by the Association of British Insurers could mean many companies no longer needing to consult shareholders ahead of a major cash call.

■ The credit crunch and the downturn in consumer spending has pushed retailers Blooming Marvellous and Mosaic into trouble as the carnage on the high streets continues into the new year.

Continues below...

■ Akers Biosciences signed an agreement to sell the intellectual property pertaining to the Free Radical Enzymatic Device (FRED) and future non-invasive exhaled breath test technology to US firm Pulse Heals for $3m.

■ Stem Cell Sciences have signed another licence agreement for its IRES technology with a drugs major.

■ The 200 Woolworths stores that have not already been shut will be kept open a day longer than planned, the demised retail chain's administrator Deloitte has said.

■ Oil and gas engineering services firm Plexus has agreed a new four-year contract with Brunei Shell Petroleum (BSP) worth approximately £800,000.

■ Johnston Press announced that John Fry has joined the newspaper publisher as new chief executive to replace Tim Bowdler, who stands down ahead of his planned retirement in May.

■ Innovation Group confirmed that Geoff Squire has stepped down as chairman of the insurance software company.

■ Aggregates group Ennstone has appointed Julian Cooper as executive chairman with immediate effect.

■ Online marketing group Digital Marketing has named Gregory Minns as the group's new finance director and company secretary.

■ The Restaurant Group said like for like trading over the seven weeks since 13 November has been at levels below the same period last year.

■ Aim-listed Regent Street retail giant Liberty posted better sales than last year in the first ten months after a strong December.

■ Carbon credit specialist Camco sees a reduction of €6m in expected revenues and an associated reduction in expected net income, but still anticipates to report an overall maiden pre-tax profit for the full year to 31 December.

■ Medical technology firm Lifeline Scientific said EBITDA losses for the full year will be lower than expected and materially lower than last year.

■ Serviced office and hotels group MWB's two main subsidiaries saw solid trading in the past few months.

FOR A SUMMARY OF LATEST MOVEMENTS IN EQUITY, COMMODITY AND CURRENCY MARKETS, SEE FT.COM'S MARKETS PAGE.

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NEWSPAPER SHARE TIPS (04 JANUARY 2009)

PRESS HEADLINES:

Leading companies are being probed by the financial watchdog over possible failures to disclose key trading data to the stock market, in a wide-ranging crackdown that threatens fines and criminal prosecutions, reports the FT.

Top City lawyers say they have seen a surge in inquiries by the Financial Services Authority about whether businesses – including Rentokil Initial, the support services company, and Rok, the building group – kept investors properly informed ahead of profits warnings that sent shares tumbling.

The role of America's federally regulated banks in the $50bn Bernard Madoff investment scandal has come into question after it emerged that a number of victims of his alleged Ponzi scheme thought they had invested their money with an ordinary bank. Two law firms in Florida are both representing a couple who say that they believed that they had invested about $1m with the Westport National Bank, a regulated savings bank in Connecticut, rather than with Madoff, reports the Times.

Punch Taverns has formally started the sale process for 500 of its leased pubs by offering their existing lessees first refusal on the properties. The group, which said in November that it would sell about 6% of its 8,360-pub estate, sent letters to the lessees at the end of last month asking them to make offers by about Easter if interested in buying their pub, reports the Times.

Lenders to Woolworths are in line to collect millions of pounds in controversial fees following the collapse of the retail chain. As secured creditors the consortium of lenders – which includes Bank of Ireland subsidiary Burdale Financial and private equity-owned GMAC Commerical – are expected to recover in full the £385m they lent to Woolworths in February last year. The Daily Telegraph understands that the lenders will also collect millions of pounds in "penalty fees".

Low oil prices could boost economic growth by as much as 1.2% in the next two years, providing support for the UK economy, according to new research from the Ernst & Young Item Club. The research institution has calculated that if oil prices stabilise at $20 a barrel, it would ensure that the economy grows by 0.4pc more than it otherwise would this year and by 0.8% more than expected in 2010, reports the Telegraph.

In a move likely to promote a slew of rights issues among listed British companies in 2009, an influential investor group lowered its requirements for such cash calls in a bid to speed up the process. Under the new guidelines issued by the Association of British Insurers (ABI), companies would only need to hold shareholder votes when expanding their share capital by more than two thirds, reports the Independent.

Our press headlines summary is sourced from www.Sharecast.com

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