API (API) has failed to find a buyer willing to pay a fair price for the packaging materials business. It also issued a profits warning, which removes a second major reason for buying the shares.
IC TIP:
Hold
at
58p
API opened its books and received "several" indicative proposals, but it admitted last month that all were below 90p - a £9.3m pension deficit is thought to have tempered enthusiasm. Obviously, its two major shareholders - US-based Steel Partners and Wynnefield Capital - wanted more. A promised second-half recovery at API's smaller holographics unit has not arrived, either, which means full-year results will miss forecasts.
