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Friday's company news

Created:

18 April 2008

Written by:

Tanya Malick

• Punch Taverns confirmed today that it has walked away from talks with rival pub group Mitchells & Butlers concerning a possible deal. (IC COMMENT)

• Royal Bank of Scotland is being hotly tipped to announce details of a multi-billion pound rights issue when it makes its interim management statement next week.

• Oil and gas services provider Petrofac has secured an additional award at the Kashagan facility in Kazakhstan, operated by Agip KCO, which could be worth $115m.

• Oil explorer BG Group has been selected by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) of Singapore to be the sole supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Singapore.

• Horizon Technology has agreed a recommended cash offer from US-firm Avnet, valuing the Dublin-based IT outfit at about €101.3m.

Continues below...

• Helen Weir has been named as Lloyds TSB's new head of UK Retail Banking, replacing the well respected Terri Dial who announced her resignation last month.

• Staffing and recruitment firm Empresaria doubled revenue and pre-tax profits as it benefited from diversifying its operations internationally.

• Food & Drink Group slumped after the bar and restaurant firm said performance for the year will be "significantly" below expectations as it endured worsening conditions over the last two months.

• Online advertising company Deal Group Media's strategy of focusing on the Asia-Pacific region is paying off after revenues surged in 2007 and 2008 started strongly.

• Aerospace and defence contractor Ultra Electronics has bought a designer and supplier of submarine acoustic transducers and arrays.

• UK Coal saw pre-tax profit grow almost four-fold in 2007, as expected, and believes higher coal prices will boost revenue significantly this year.

• GNE Group, or Global Natural Energy, has confirmed it is in talks that could lead to a bid for the group which owns and operates petrol retailing sites.

• Ukrainian poultry producer Mironovskiy Hleboproduct (MHP) announced this week that it plans to float on London's main market.

• Engineer Morgan Crucible has continued to experience good trading conditions across all its divisions since February's final figures and expects this year to be in-line with expectations.

• Online payments specialist Neteller has seen revenue drop 7% in the first quarter, although it remains pleased with progress and confident about prospects for the business.

• Shopping centre owner Liberty International has predicted a fall in adjusted net asset value (NAV) per share of more than 6½ % due to upward pressure on commercial property valuation yields.

• Ukraine-based miner Ferrexpo said first quarter production continued at the high levels established in 2007.

• Car repair manual publisher Haynes said there is a realistic possibility of improvement in the second half though economic conditions remain challenging and the weak dollar is a concern.

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

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PRESS SUMMARY:

Land Securities, the UK's biggest listed property company, moved a step closer to its planned break-up by receiving indicative bids for its outsourcing arm Trillium, reveals the Telegraph.

Société Générale moved to draw a line under the rogue trader scandal which cost the bank almost €5 billion (£3.2 billion) last night when it announced that Daniel Bouton, its figurehead, would be stripped of his operational role, says the Times.

Inflation is likely to rise above 3pc later this year as a weak pound exacerbates rising commodity prices and labour costs in China pick up, the Bank of England's chief economist has warned, writes the Telegraph.

House prices will fall by 15 per cent in the next two years, pushing one in ten homeowners into negative equity, leading investment bank Morgan Stanley has forecast, says the Times.

A £20bn ($39.9bn) British government contract to supply Saudi Arabia with Typhoon fighter jets could be in jeopardy because of an internal US administration debate over whether to approve the deal, says the FT. BAE is the prime contractor to the UK government on the deal.

Josh Birnbaum, a previously obscure employee on a mortgage trading desk inside Goldman Sachs hits the headlines by helping make a $4bn (£2bn) profit betting on a housing market crash, the biggest single windfall ever by a major Wall Street bank, and takes home a bonus for last year estimated at around $10m, says the Independent.