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Friday's news and tips

Created:

17 April 2009

Written by:

ShareCast

■ Filters group Filtrona said it has signed an agreement with a syndicate of relationship banks to provide a total of £195m in banking facilities until April 2012.

■ Engineer Morgan Crucible lifted first quarter revenue by 43% year-on-year and by 11% excluding acquisitions, but organic revenue on a constant currency basis was 9% lower than last year.

■ Buoyant training software supplier NetDimensions increased revenue by 46% and trimmed losses in 2008.

■ Last year's strong energy prices boosted revenue from Northern Petroleum's Waalwijk and P12 gas fields by 11%, the oil and gas group said today.

■ Dutch group Philips Electronics is selling its 17% stake in digital TV technology firm Pace, it emerged today.

Continues below...

■ Cash-strapped Ukrainian property company XXIC Century Investments has proposed a framework for the restructuring of its $175m 10% Guaranteed Secured Notes issue due to be redeemed in 2010.

■ Firms are continuing to deal with the recession by slashing jobs, with mobile phone group Sony Ericsson and Japanese tech giant Toshiba announcing nearly 6,000 job cuts.

■ Property developer St Modwen Properties has continued to trade profitably, before valuation and mark to market adjustments, since the start of December.

■ A US court has temporarily barred Canadian generic drug specialist Apotex from launching a generic version of drug giant AstraZeneca's asthma treatment for children Pulmicort Respules.

■ Even Easter failed to prevent John Lewis department stores from racking up a 12th straight week of falling sales, although shoppers flocked to Waitrose supermarkets.

■ Materials group Low and Bonar said it has seen some signs of improvement in the level of sales and order enquiries during March and early April, but added that it has continued to experience "material" year-on-year sales volume falls.

■ China-based condiments maker China Food Company saw profits slip in 2008 as it felt the impact of high commodity prices.

■ Drug device combination products developer Biocompatibles said revenue in the last quarter was ahead of expectations, thanks to the weak pound and stronger than budgeted sales of drug-eluting beads.

■ A joint venture between engineering and construction group Costain and Swedish construction group Skanska has been selected to help develop the Crossrail transport project in London.

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 (17 APRIL 2009):

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

PRESS HEADLINES:

The Financial Services Authority was accused last night by one of its former supervisors of complacency in its past regulation of building societies, says the Times.

The unnamed whistleblower, who approached Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrats Treasury spokesman, said that the FSA ignored a warning three years ago that risky self-certified loans had been packaged and sold to building societies that thought they were conventional loans.

A large minority of BP shareholders voted against the energy giant's 2008 pay packages for directors at its annual meeting on Thursday, where anger about Sir Tom McKillop, a former BP director and ex-chairman of RBS, was the most emotive investor concern, reports the FT.

The International Monetary Fund has warned of "worrisome parallels" between the current global crisis and the Great Depression, despite the unprecedented steps already taken by central banks and governments worldwide, reports the Telegraph.

Hopes were raised of an early economic recovery yesterday when David Miles, an incoming member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England, said there were signs that the worst of the British recession was over, according to the Times.

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of the largest retail bank in the US, JPMorgan Chase, said he planned to hand back the $25bn (£17bn) it received from the US government last year as soon as possible, calling the money "a scarlet letter", says the FT.

Bob Diamond, Barclays president and head of its investment bank, offered investors in the battered financial sector further hope by insisting that solid first-quarter results from rivals such as Goldman Sachs were not "one-offs", reports the Telegraph.

General Motors is prepared to argue that hundreds of its suppliers are "critical vendors" who require timely payments if it seeks bankruptcy protection, setting the stage for what would be the most sweeping attempt ever to win special treatment for such contractors, people close to the matter say, writes the FT.

A Lincolnshire financial advisor has been jailed for six years after he admitted his money lending business lost £1.2m of investors' money through fraudulent trades. Alan Richardson's company, MFC Finance, was marketed as a high-yield investment vehicle but instead he diverted the funds as loans to businesses that he owned, according to the Times.

London's landmark Savoy Hotel may soon go up for sale, as its billionaire Saudi owner struggles to offset the effects of the credit crunch, says the Independent.