Equities look set to end the week on a positive note although The Trader Dominic Picarda’s weekly column raises concerns about small and mid cap shares.
KEY STORIES:
TSB (TSB) has begun life as a quoted company in positive fashion today with its shares rising from their issue price of 260p to 295p in early conditional trading. Such was the demand for shares in the ‘challenger’ bank that Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) was able to offload 35 per cent of the business rather than the intended 25 per cent, with around one third going to retail investors. Lloyds will bank £455m from the sale.
Shares in pharmaceutical company Shire (SHP) rose sharply after it confirmed that it has rejected an 'unsolicited and highly conditional' takeover proposal from US rival AbbVie, pitched at £46.11 in a mixture of cash and shares. Shire has launched a detailed rebuttal of the offer.
Sainsbury (SBRY) has announced a joint venture with Dansk Supermarked to bring the Netto discount superstore brand back to the UK. The first store will open later this year with 15 planned by the end of 2015. The two partners are each investing £12.5m in start up costs.
Debenhams (DEB) has managed to push like for like sales up by just 0.7 per cent in the 14 weeks to 7 June, giving the same figure for the first 41 weeks of its financial year. Online sales are doing well but growth in store sales is subdued. Meanwhile new concessions for Sports Direct and Costa Coffee are expected to open in some stores later this year.
Marine engineering specialist James Fisher (FSJ) is to spend £8m on the acquisition of Testconsult, a provider of monitoring, instrumentation and testing services.
The latest business to emerge from Stelio Haji-Ioannou’s easyGroup, easyHotel, has updated on its plans to float in London with the shares set to begin trading next Friday, although there is no confirmation yet of how much will be raised.
OTHER COMPANY NEWS:
Tritax BigBox real estate investment trust (BBOX) is considering raising another £150m from investors to further pursue its strategy of acquiring large scale out of town logistics assets.
Gulfsands Petroleum (GPX) has recommenced drilling on the Rharb Centre Permit in Northern Morocco, where its current target is a gas bearing prospect.
