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Monday's news and tips

Created:

22 June 2009

Written by:

ShareCast

■ Anglo American, the world's largest platinum miner, rallied as much as 12% today as Swiss-based rival Xstrata made public a £41bn bid approach.

■ Brit Insurance said it has made a proposal to the board of Chaucer in relation to a possible all share offer for the underwriter.

■ Independent News and Media, the Irish publisher of the UK's Independent newspaper, said it is considering a deeply-discounted rights issue in order to partly repay a €200m bond

■ Life group Aviva has sold its Australian business to National Australia Bank for £452m, boosting its capital surplus by £400m.

■ Great Portland Estates said it received 96.3% take-up on its fully underwritten 8 for 11 rights issue to raise gross proceeds of £175m.

■ Property group Segro has reached agreement with Brixton on the financial terms of a possible recommended all-share offer, which could be accompanied by the issue of new shares

Continues below...

■ BAE Systems announced that Walt Havenstein will step down as President and Chief Executive of BAE Systems, Inc., the defence company's US subsidiary, on 26 June.

■ Yellow pages publisher Yell has slumped on a warning that it could breach its bank covenants.

■ Interactive gaming firm Netplay narrowed full year pre-tax losses while revenue for the year increased 118% as demand for live gaming increased.

■ Mexican silver miner Fresnillo has withdrawn its offer for MAG Silver, saying it is no longer in the best interests of Fresnillo shareholders.

■ "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" video games maker Zoo Digital moved into the black as more cost conscious consumers stayed at home to watch movies.

■ Logistics software specialist Kewill Systems upped its dividend for last year by a third as underlying profits improved slightly, with the group expecting further growth in the current year.

■ Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Stephen Hester is set to be awarded a £9.6m pay and incentives package.

■ ILX Group, the business education and training company, saw lower profits after the onset of the financial crises, and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, badly hit its Corporate Training arm.

■ Industrial filter maker Porvair swung to a half-year loss, due mainly to redundancy costs in the US, but said it believes it will prosper when conditions improve.

■ Bookings system software provider Clarity Commerce Solutions saw full year profits come in ahead of expectations due to a number of contract wins across all territories.

■ Regent Street retailer Liberty has exchanged contracts to surrender the lease on its Liberty of London shop on Knightsbridge's Sloane Street

■ AIM-listed oil and gas exploration company Circle Oil said full year losses widened sharply as it met increasing costs related to its aggressive exploration programme.

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 (21 JUNE 2009):

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

PRESS HEADLINES:

Royal Bank of Scotland will this week unveil a £9.6m pay package for chief executive Stephen Hester, after securing support for a long-term incentive plan from shareholders last week. At a meeting on Friday at the bank's Bishopsgate headquarters, Sir Philip Hampton, RBS's chairman, won the backing of UK Financial Investments – which controls the state's 70% RBS stake – as well as that of other top-20 shareholders, the FT reports.

Meanwhile, RBS is embroiled in a new controversy after it emerged that it would be spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on entertaining at Wimbledon. RBS is due to spend up to £300,000 on corporate hospitality, despite being saved from possible collapse after being given a £20bn injection by the Government last year, the Times writes.

Recession-hit shoppers in middle England have boosted sales of Waitrose's first value range. The supermarket, famed for its emphasis on quality, introduced cheaper lines under the "essential Waitrose" brand in March to counter perceptions that it was more expensive than rivals on everyday items. Mark Price, managing director, said sales of the range – described as the biggest launch in Waitrose's history – were running well ahead of the group's own projections, the FT writes.

Nigerian militants attacked three Shell pipelines in just 24 hours over the weekend – sparking concerns that the escalating volatility could drive up oil prices. Shell would not say whether operations had shut down in the Niger Delta region as the company begins an investigation into the scale of the damage.

But the oil giant confirmed that there have been three attacks as part of an ongoing sabotage campaign, the Telegraph reports. .

European Commission bosses spent €600m (£506m) of taxpayers' money this year in an attempt to rescue farmers from the effects of a collapse in dairy product prices. The intervention came as wholesale prices of butter have plunged from $3,700 per tonne to $1,800 in the past year — with farmers bearing the brunt of the collapse, while supermarkets keep their prices up, the Times reports.

More than 300,000 jobs will disappear in the business services sector by 2013 as contractions in both the private and public sectors take their toll, an economic think-tank will say today. Advertising faces the biggest problems, with 15,000 jobs to go within four years, says the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), the Independent reports.