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Wednesday's company news

Created:

14 May 2008

Written by:

Tanya Malick

• Mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley has confirmed overnight reports and unveiled a cash call to raise approximately £300m, net of expenses, in a 16-for-25 rights issue at 82p. (IC COMMENT)

• Local newspaper publisher Johnston Press is to raise £212m through a deeply-discounted rights issue and share subscription by Malaysian group Usaha Tegas after a slump in advertising revenues in the past four months. (IC COMMENT)

• Supermarket titan Tesco has expanded its presence in South Korea with the acquisition of 36 Homever hypermarkets. (IC COMMENT)

• Land Securities swung to a full-year pre-tax loss but said it is well positioned for the current market. (IC COMMENT)

• Bus and train operator First Group said adjusted operating profit for the year rose by almost 40% and the outlook remains positive. (IC COMMENT)

• J Sainsbury's reported a 28% rise in full-year pre-tax profits but said it expects the market to remain 'intensely competitive'. (IC COMMENT)

Continues below...

• A sharp drop in sales has slashed almost half a billion pounds off the forward order book of Barratt Developments, the housebuilder revealed today.

• Africa-focussed miner First Quantum saw first quarter operating profits rise to $354.1m from $145.8m last time thanks to higher sales volume, an increase in the realized copper price and lower cash costs.

• Challenging financial markets and the weak dollar carved 61% off net profit at card-free fuel payment systems operator Orpak Systems during the first quarter, although revenues grew.

• BHP Billiton's chief executive has not ruled out an increase in the bid for rival miner Rio Tinto.

• Oil and gas explorer Falklands Oil & Gas said it hopes to start exploration drilling on its South Atlantic properties in 2009.

• WPP said it is disappointed that market research group Taylor Nelson (TNS) has rejected the advertising giant's revised 164p per share offer.

• Allergy Therapeutics soared by a third today after the hay fever treatment group said phase III trials revealed Pollinex Quattro has statistically significant clinical benefits over a placebo.

• Direct marketing firm Tangent Communications said it would look for other possible acquisition after failing in its bid to takeover rival TMN Group as it proposed its first ever dividends for the year.

• The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given approval to AstraZeneca's SEROQUEL, the drugs company's treatment for bipolar I disorder.

• Shares in Absolute Capital rallied strongly today as the hedge fund manager disclosed details of the demerger of its Argo business.

• Lloyd's insurer Amlin said the renewal rate reduction for the four months to 30 April was 7.9% with renewal retention at 86%, but added that market conditions continue to be challenging.

• Shares in sofa retailer ScS Upholstery plunged after it warned that continued difficult market conditions will result in full year earnings being below current market forecasts.

• Kazakhstan-based natural resources holding company Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation said it has seen a very significant increase in group revenue in the first quarter, with good sales volume growth in the Ferroalloys, Iron Ore and Energy divisions.

• Ongoing government expenditure in prioritised sectors such as education, health and custodial has kept maintenance and building outfit Interserve on track since the start of the year.

• International engineering and project management company AMEC said its performance in 2008 has been running slightly ahead of expectations.

• Caterer Compass boasted a strong first half, with reported profit before tax up a better than expected 25%, and said it will buy back a further £400m of its shares over the next 18 months.

• Anglo Dutch IT company LogicaCMG said first quarter revenue rose by 3.6% on a pro forma constant currency basis as its outlook for the full year remains unchanged.

• Insulation and roofing supplier SIG has continued its encouraging start to 2008, with sales in the period to 13 May up around 25% on the year before, or by 4% on a like-for-like basis.

• Tullow Oil said it has benefited from increasing oil and gas prices, while overall production in the year to date has been in-line with expectations.

• South African based IT services and solutions provider Dimension Data revealed a 58.6% hike in first half pre-tax profit as demand for its services booms.

• Soco International said the disposal of the oil and gas explorer's Yemen interest has strengthened its balance sheet significantly and has enabled the company to cancel its $50m unsecured term loan facility with BNP Paribas.

• Online gambling software provider Playtech saw revenue in April top the monthly average for the first quarter of 2008 by more than 9%.

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

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PRESS SUMMARY:

House prices will fall by up to 10% "at best" in the next year, according to a private government assessment laid bare by a minister's blunder. Caroline Flint, the Housing Minister, told the Cabinet yesterday to prepare for a worsening market. "We can't know how bad it will get," she said. What was intended as an internal briefing was made public when Ms Flint exposed her notes inadvertently to photographers as she arrived for the meeting, writes the Times.

Alistair Darling cut taxes yesterday for 22m people to make good the losses of only 4m in the biggest financial and political U-turn of modern times. The Chancellor borrowed £2.7bn to give those on low and middle incomes an extra £120 this year in a desperate move to end the row over the abolition of the 10p rate that has brought Labour to its knees and left Gordon Brown fighting to survive, reports the Times.

Vodafone has emerged as one of the frontrunners in the auction for Tiscali after it submitted a bid for the entire €1.4bn (£1.1bn) Italy-based broadband company. It is understood that BSkyB, Swisscom's Fastweb, BT and Wind, an Italian mobile phone operator, also made it through to the next round of bids for all or parts of the company, says the Telegraph.

Barclays has signalled ambitions to push into mergers and acquisitions by poaching five senior investment bankers from ABN Amro, seven months after the UK lender lost out to Royal Bank of Scotland in a battle for the Dutch bank. The bankers are joining Barclays' investment banking division, Barclays Capital, where they will form a dedicated advisory team specialising in M&A. The unit is looking to hire as many as 40 bankers, Barclays said, writes the FT.

BSkyB's hopes of launching a pay-TV service on Freeview, the digital terrestrial television service, will not now come to fruition until spring next year at the earliest after the industry regulator announced another delay to its inquiry into the proposals, reports the Independent.

A string of pension buyouts involving FTSE 100 companies is expected over the next few months after Lonmin, the London-based miner, became the first blue-chip company to offload its pension scheme risks in a deal with Paternoster, the specialist insurer. Mark Wood, Paternoster's chief executive, said that trustees of several FTSE 100 pension schemes were already "deep in the process" of looking at shedding scheme liabilities, writes the Times.

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