Arriva Confirms Takeover Talks

Banking and commodity stocks slipped back after recent strong gains on Thursday, but their weakness was offset by strength in pharmaceuticals and energy and the FTSE 100 index closed virtually unchanged at 5,642.62 points.

Dominic Turner
shareprices.com - Thursday, March 18, 2010

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Arriva

Barclays, down 6.5p or 1.81% to 352.9p, Lloyds Banking Group, down 1.82p or 3.17% to 55.55p and

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), down 1.55p or 3.56% to 42p were all in the doldrums. Strength in the U.S. dollar softened metal prices and mining stocks fell accordingly; Vedanta Resources, which has operations in India, Zambia and Australia, was the worst sufferer, down 65p or 2.35% to 2,706p, but Fresnillo, Kazakhyms and Antofagasta were all in negative territory to a similar degree.

The worst kept secret in mergers and acquisitions was confirmed on Thursday with German state-controlled transport operator Deutsche Bahn admitting that it was in talks with bus and train operator Arriva over a possible cash offer. Arriva shares rose a further 31p or 4.58% to 708p.

Elsewhere, Marks & Spencer (M&S) recovered a little poise after Wednesday's losses, gaining 2.2p or 0.62% to 356.1p at the close after executive chairman Sir Stuart Rose agreed to a 23% pay cut when he steps down from his executive duties. M&S had been criticised for its pay award, worth £15 million, to new CEO Marc Bolland, who is due to take over on 1st May and shareholders had called for Sir Stuart to take a pay cut by way of offsetting this. Sir Stuart will now leave M&S in March, rather than July.

 

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