Tempus in the Times peers behind the marital curtain of Austrian firm Bwin and British outfit PartyGaming. When they merged and became Bwin.Party last year it was supposed to create an online gaming goliath. Instead regulatory changes in Germany have led to a goodwill write-off of 390m euros.
That said the firm's seeming to be saving money by reducing headcount and cutting expenses. Stripping out the non-cash impairment, earnings appear solid. There is no clear "buy" recommendation, Tempus thinks the shares will take a long time to get back to the 210p achieved after the merger (Last IC rating: Buy, 13 Dec).
Centamin Egypt also gets the once over in The Times. The gold miner only has one mine, Sukari in Egypt's Eastern Desert. It's not exactly been plain sailing of late, with costs of an extension at the mine rising in line with inflation across the whole mining sector. To make matters worse government fuel subsidies could be drying up and there has been significant labour unrest. Tempus sits on the fence, yes there could be a lot of value in Centamin, which has fallen significantly of late, but the risk is it will miss production targets again (Last IC rating: Buy, 18 Oct).
We get a bit more clarity in The Telegraph from Questor who likes International Power, which has risen 45 per cent since the last tip in August. The utilities group is now facing a serious bid from French giant GDF Suez for the 30 per cent of the group it does not already own. The current bid is 390p, the shares sit at 406.5p, Questor thinks they may have further to go (Last IC rating: Hold, 8 Feb).
