19th Mar 2018 10:34
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------
Barclays, up 3.9%. The lender said activist investor Sherborne Investors Management had built a 5.2% stake after transactions by a number of related parties last Thursday. Sherborne Investors Management and its leading figures Edward Bramson and Stephen Welker built a 331.5 million voting stake in the bank, equivalent to 5.2% of the 17.07 billion shares outstanding. In response, Barclays said it was engaging with Sherborne. "As with all its shareholders," the bank said, "Barclays will continue to engage with Sherborne, and welcomes them as a shareholder." Sherborne said it had invested
GBP580 million in Barclays to build the stake. It added that it believed that "its turnaround assumptions indicate a potential return on the investment in line with Sherborne Investors' customary return objectives".
GKN, up 0.8%.
Melrose Industries lowered the acceptance condition for its
GBP8.40 billion hostile takeover bid and urged shareholders of the engineering company to accept its offer. Melrose, which has raised its offer for GKN to
GBP8.40 billion from the initial
GBP7.10 billion announced in January, said its final offer of
466.00 pence per GKN share is a superior alternative to what is considered a "hasty break-up" that GKN. The turnaround specialist also said after GKN's planned disposals, its aerospace division would become overburdened with up to
GBP3.00 billion of volatile gross pension liabilities, equal to three times its trading profit. GKN, separately, confirmed that the newly enlarged Dana firm will be listed on both the New York and London Stock Exchange. The company earlier in March agreed to combine its automotive business Driveline with New York-listed engineering firm Dana in a
USD6.10 billion deal. Melrose shares was down 1.0%.
AstraZeneca, up 0.3%. Jefferies raised the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker to Buy from Hold. ----------
FTSE 100 - LOSERS----------
Micro Focus International, down 55%. The software firm said Chief Executive Officer Chris Hsu has stepped down immediately as it reported that full year revenue is expected to decline further than originally anticipated. Hsu - CEO since September 2017 - resigned in order to "spend more time with his family and pursue another opportunity". He will be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Stephen Murdoch. Micro Focus said year-on-year revenue decline has been "greater than anticipated" since reporting its interim results in January. As a result, it expects constant-currency revenue for the year ending October to decline more than originally forecast. Micro Focus now expects pro forma constant-currency revenue to fall between 6% and 9%. This is compared to a 2% to 4% fall originally forecast in January. For the six months ending April, Micro Focus expects constant-currency revenue to fall between 9% and 12%.----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------
Hammerson, up 26% at 550.20p. The shopping centre owner noted an earlier announcement from France's Klepierre, and confirmed it rejected the "unsolicited and entirely opportunistic" takeover approach. Hammerson said it unanimously rejected the proposal on the grounds that it "very significantly undervalues Hammerson, its track record of delivery, the quality of its portfolio, its market positions, and the opportunities it has for future value creation". The deal would have comprised 50% in new Klepierre shares and 50% in cash. Hammerson said it remains fully committed to its Intu Properties acquisition. The proposal price of 615p per share represents a "significant discount" of 21% to Hammerson's EPRA NAV per share of 776p as at December 31, the company added. Hammerson's response came after Klepierre earlier on Monday confirmed it made a preliminary approach to acquire the London-listed company.
William Hill, up 4.3%,
Ladbrokes Coral, up 3.0%. The UK Gambling Commission set out its advice to support the government with its review of gaming machines and social responsibility measures. The commission in its report said there is a "precautionary case" for a
GBP2.00 stake limit for B2 - also known as fixed odds betting terminals - slots games, and a stake limit "at or below"
GBP30 for B2 non-slots. B2 refers to a category of betting machine. "Data from twenty billion plays shows slot games are the most damaging to the punters' pocket, so it's no surprise to see the Gambling Commission recommend the maximum stake on these machines is slashed to
GBP2 a pop. However, crucially it's open to a less strict limit of up to
GBP30 on other game types, including roulette - the most popular FOBT game," said George Salmon, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. This is better than feared in January, Salmon said, when there were reports the Department of Culture, Media, & Sport official was considering a
GBP2 limit.
GVC Holdings, which is to buy Ladbrokes, was up 0.7%----------
MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------
Miton Group, up 8.8%. The asset manager reported a double-digit increase in annual profit, and said that it has made a strong start to 2018. Miton reported pretax profit of
GBP6.2 million for 2017, up 44% from
GBP4.3 million reported the year before, on net revenue of
GBP21.8 million, up 21% from
GBP19.0 million. Assets under management at the end of the year stood at
GBP3.82 billion, up 32% from
GBP2.91 billion at the end of 2016, helped by positive net inflows of
GBP494.0 million, up significantly from
GBP1.0 million the year before. Assets in the multi-asset range rose by 29% in the period, with UK equities growing by 27%, US by 60% and European equities more than doubling during the period. Miton proposed a dividend of
1.40 pence per share, up 40% from 1.00p the prior year.----------
MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------
Weatherly International, down 17%. The miner cautioned it was unable to meet loan repayments amid its interim losses narrowing on exceptional copper production levels in Namibia. For the six months ended December 31, pretax loss narrowed to
USD5.9 million from
USD11.3 million the year prior. This was after revenue grew to
USD47.7 million from
USD37.8 million the year before. This was amid copper cathode production rising to 8,844 tonnes from 4,739 tonnes the year prior, helped by a strong December quarter performance. This is compared to 14,759 tonnes being produced during the financial year ended June 2017. "While the strong December quarter demonstrates the capacity of the Tschudi SXEW plant to operate at well above nameplate levels when leaching rates provide sufficient copper into solution, full year production is not expected to exceed its nameplate producing capacity of 17,000 tpa [tonnes per annum] copper cathode," Weatherly said.----------
