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News & Tips: BP, Afferro Mining, Weir Group, Lamprell & Vialogy

Markets are flying on fiscal cliff relief
January 2, 2013

Equities are off to a flyer on the first morning of trading in 2013 on relief that the US fiscal cliff has been partially resolved, but there are more hurdles to overcome in the coming months.

IC TIP UPDATES:

BP (BP.) has announced that production from the Skarv field in the Norwegian Sea commenced on New Year’s Eve, one of several upstream production projects the company brought on stream in 2012. The field should produce 125,000 barrels of oil per day once fully operational, with 30,000 net to BP. We keep our buy rating.

International Mining and Infrastructure Corporation has confirmed it has made a preliminary approach to IC buy recommendation Afferro Mining (AFF) but has not had a response. Afferro confirmed on Monday that it is in an exclusivity period with another bidder until 13 January.

Weir Group (WEIR) has announced the sale of liquid gas processing business LGE Process to Babcock International (BAB) for an enterprise value of £23m, it has also completed the acquisition of Mathena Inc. We retain our buy rating.

KEY STORIES:

Embattled oil services and engineering business Lamprell (LAM) has received waivers from lenders on its debt facilities which has allowed it to avoid a covenant breach. The company also said it has improved its working capital position recently and ended the year with $100m of net cash although revenues are expected to fall in the opening quarter of the year.

OTHER COMPANY NEWS:

Vialogy (VIY) has won an extended contract with Chevron for the use of its QuantumRD analysis in the Delaware basin.