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Friday's news and tips

Created:

23 July 2010

Written by:

ShareCast

■ BP has temporarily suspended relief well activities at the MC252 well site in the Gulf of Mexico due to "potentially adverse weather" linked to Tropical Storm Bonnie.

■ Mobile phone network operator Vodafone returned to organic revenue growth in the April to June quarter of 2010 for the first time since the near global recession.

■ United Utilities says current trading reflects lower prices for 2010/11, revenue pressures from reduced water volumes, bad debt and an anticipated rise in property rates.

■ Telecoms regulator Ofcom has ruled out changes to BT's funding that would have allowed it to raise wholesale prices to help close the huge deficit in its pension fund.

■ South Korean national oil company KNOC has told Dana Petroleum it's prepared to pay £18 for each share in the oil explorer, valuing the company at almost £1.7bn.

■ Chelmsford based soft drinks maker Britvic hailed robust top line growth in its third quarter.

■ Close Brothers Group still thinks it will deliver a "solid" performance for the full-year, although funds under management eased in the last three months and it's making less per trade at its market making arm.

■ Hot weather in the south-east helped Fuller's, the London-based brewer and pub group, trade well over the past 16 weeks.

■ Asia-focused oil and gas exploration and production company Salamander Energy has plugged and abandoned its Tom Hum Xanh-1X exploration well, offshore southern Vietnam.

■ Specialist insurer and re-insurer Beazley delivered a big rise in profits during the first half despite intense competition and a series of catastrophe losses.

■ Floorings specialist James Halstead expects to hit market expectations this year, but warned of sharp rises in raw material costs, especially plastics and polymers where there are also supply problems.

■ Multi-millionaire property developer Christian Candy's has launched a mandatory offer to buy all the shares in Metals Exploration he doesn't own for 13p each.

■ Ultra Electronics has won a contract to supply advanced sonar systems to the Royal Netherlands Navy.

■ Former Collins Stewart man Paul Compton is the new chief executive at stock broking firm WH Ireland.

■ HSBC has teamed up with French oil heavyweight Total to create new energy-specific over-the-counter (OTC) derivative products for its wealthy clients.

■ Pensions group Standard Life, which has shares in Tomkins, has rejected a recent offer for the engineering and manufacturing group from a Canadian private equity firm.

■ Advertising campaign management firm Alterian said trading in its first quarter, which runs to the end of June, was in line with expectations for revenue, costs and cash flow.

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NEWSPAPER SHARE TIPS (23 JULY 2010):

PRESS HEADLINES

British Airways has issued legal proceedings against 24 rival airlines that it claims should share potential damages arising from a price-fixing lawsuit, The Times has learnt.

BA has been sued by about 250 companies after it pleaded guilty in the United States to being part of a cartel that fixed the price of cargo. The airline has issued proceedings, called a Part 20, to enjoin the other alleged conspirators in the damages lawsuit. Air France, Qantas, Lufthansa, Cathay Pacific and Singapore are among the airlines to have been added as defendants to the suit.

Public spending cuts and tax increases should be imposed immediately across the industrialised world as evidence of a healthy European recovery mounts, according to Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank. Trichet told the FT that policymakers who want to prolong the stimulus are mistaken and that cutting borrowing would have "very limited" effects on growth. The view from Europe's senior economic policymaker contrasts with continued US demands for fiscal tightening to be delayed at least until 2011 and suggests there is still little agreement over the best way to foster a strong global recovery from the financial and economic crisis of the past two years.

BP's deep-sea efforts to plug its ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico are being hampered by a tropical storm brewing in the Caribbean, officials have admitted. Government and BP officials have been anxiously watching to see whether the bad weather in the Caribbean becomes a tropical storm and veers towards the Gulf, the Telegraph reports.

BP, the oil giant, is suing six former fuel oil traders for breach of contract for allegedly trying to persuade team members to defect to a rival business. The company has filed a lawsuit against the former senior staff in Singapore, after around 20 employees left in quick succession last month, the Telegraph adds.

Swiss regulators will on Friday attempt to steal the thunder of long-awaited European Union stress tests for banks by publishing the results of an exercise Swiss bankers say was "twice as tough" as the EU scenario.

The tactic, which is expected to give a clean bill of health to both Credit Suisse and UBS, coincides with the publication on Friday evening of a four-month-long exercise to stress test the biggest banks across the EU, the FT reports.

Two leading shareholders in Tomkins warned management of the engineering group last night not to sell out on the cheap. Standard Life, which holds 3 per cent of Tomkins shares, called for the rejection of a £3bn indicative takeover approach from the Canadian private equity group Onex. In a rare public statement, David Cumming, Standard Life's head of UK equities, said: "We are disappointed that the board of Tomkins has agreed to open the books at 325p. We feel that, at this price, the proposed bid materially undervalues the group and its prospects. Should the board choose to recommend a bid at this level, we will vote against the transaction," the Times reports.

Angry Equitable Life policyholders accused the Treasury last night of a shameful U-turn after it was revealed that their total compensation payments could amount to only £400m. Campaigners say that they lost as much as £4.7bn. Paul Braithwaite, general secretary of Emag, which speaks for 40,000 of the near-collapsed Mutual's customers, described the figure - 90 per cent less than hoped for - as a "shocker". He accused the Treasury of playing "dirty tricks" with policyholders, the Times reports.

Microsoft beat Wall Street's expectations yesterday to report a 48 per cent rise in quarterly net income, in a sign that businesses are again spending on technology. The world's biggest software company said that a rebound in spending by corporate customers pushed revenue up 22 per cent to $16.04bn (£10.5bn) in the fourth quarter, from $13.1bn in the same period a year ago. Net income jumped by 48% to $4.52bn, or 51c a share, the Times reports.

Michael Dell, the founder of the computer manufacturer that bears his surname, is personally paying $4m (£2.6m) to settle charges that he misled investors by hiding the real source of Dell's profits over several years in the last decade. The entrepreneur, along with two of his most senior former lieutenants, was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US stock market regulator, with violating disclosure rules when Dell was relying heavily on secret rebate payments from Intel, the maker of computer chips, to meet Wall Street profit forecasts, the Independent reports.

Richard Desmond, publisher of the Daily Express and Star newspapers, has made an offer of £104m to buy Five and agreed to bear the consequences of any possible regulatory risk. It would see him become the first individual to control a UK public service broadcaster, the FT reports.