e-Coops

Some traders suggest a bid is imminent, with Permira or US operator Starwood Capital the main names in the frame. Others point out that these stories have been circulating for months.

But ICH, which owns Holiday Inn as well as Crowne Plaza was one of the best-performing stocks, up 26p at 1217p. This gives the group a stock market value of 4.27bn but a bid at 1500p would imply a value of 5.26bn.

Intercontinental, which was the hotel division of the old Bass group, owns, manages, leases or franchises 3650 hotels in 100 countries around the world.

In general, trading was quiet with profit taking ahead of the weekend. The FTSE 100 was down 12.0 points at 6218.1. Oil majors led the Footsie fallers, with down 6p at 531p, 10p lower at 1704p and 7p off at 682p.

rose 21p to 734p after strong tips from brokers at ABN Amro and Morgan Stanley.

ABN Amro upgraded the Yorkshirebased company to hold from sell although it cuts its output and achieved price assumptions. Morgan Stanley said it reckons Drax has a more advantageous contracting position for 2006-08 as well as a more attractive policy than the other UK power generators.

Despite bullish statements from Barratt and , the housing sector continued to suffer in the wake of yesterday’s shock interest rate rise. Barratt was down 8p at 1196p while Bellway was 27p lower at 1493p. The potentially damaging effect on consumer sentiment outweighed today’s good news.

Traders also kept a close eye on , steady at 613p. Today is put-up-or-shut-up day for and Sir Tom Hunter. Since the housebuilder rejected their takeover offer of 585p in November, Crest Nicholson has consistently traded above 610p, with the City expecting more money from Sir Tom or a rival.

Meanwhile, serial entrepreneur Nigel Wray has been building up his stake in south-east builder . Wray snapped up just over fivem shares or 6% of the company, taking his total holding to 16% and making him the biggest shareholder.

The housebuilder, worth 67m. has looked like a tasty takeover target for a while. Oakdene has a waterfront development at Newhaven in Sussex and another at Swaylands in Kent, but trades at just eight times earnings.

Commercial finance house Capital UK saw more than 20p wiped from its stock market value as it prepared to write off 4m as a result of the collapse of trailer rental group Transent. Transent has been a longstanding

client of the Business Finance group and the board said the sum would ensure adequate provisions remained for the rest of the group. However, the shock provision countered any positive sentiment emanating from ‘encouraging third quarter results’, also revealed today.

Back to housing, Aim-listed City Lofts group, which jumped aboard the bandwagon by converting warehouses and unloved office buildings into trendy apartments in cities such as Leeds and Manchester, is selling out for a 122.5p a share, valuing the company at 61.6m. City Lofts, 10p up at 120p, reported a loss of 3.235m.

, which specialises in mobile and internet gaming and recently launched online scrabble saw its shares slump by more than 20%, falling 24p to 87p, after it warned that it may need extra funding.

Troublingly, it said that while it is seeking new acquisitions, it is the company’s current working capital position that may force it to raise new funds.

Although sales are in line with expectations, and the response to Scrabble Cubes has been good, margins have fallen compared with last year.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 26th, 2007 at 9:18 am and is filed under Stocks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Yell rang up a 12p rise to 509p as investors sifted through various versions of the story. is being touted in some quarters as a potential buyer, but many see it as a tasty morsel for private equity.

One analyst said such a purchaser would be able to at least double Yell’s level of debt while its three distinct businesses open the way for lucrative restructuring.

After a torrid night on many Asian bourses and a three-figure fall by the Dow, the FTSE 100 index was down 29.5 points at 6494.6.

Broker Lehman Brothers has detected an opportunity to get in cheap at , up 2p to 1545p. Its analysts reckon the shares have substantially underperformed those of its Asian peers, and now look good value.

It has bumped the bank up to from equalweight and raised its target to 1700p from 1584p. It says India and the Middle East provide between 30% and 35% of group profits and and are likely to be growth drivers.

Software group was one of the big mid-cap fallers, sliding 25p to 745p on the back of a placing of 9.5m shares to strengthen its balance sheet and finance general corporate growth.

Autonomy has already said it will demerge video-clips search engine Blinkx through an Aim listing. But speculation is mounting that a big player such as might snap it up before it has a chance. The shares have risen almost a third since the start of the year.

Meat-packing specialist Food has set an offer price of 150p a share for its forthcoming on the main market. This will value the business at 104.5m and sees its 22 founding partners celebrate a bumper payday.

Commercial director Colin Patten and UK and Ireland managing director Philip Heffer are each selling half their 12% holdings, netting them more than 6m apiece.

Aim-listed , which deals with unwanted fluorescent tubes and sodium street lights, slid 5p to 22p despite posting a 25% rise in operating profits. It admitted trading is suffering because of uncertainty about the implementation and impact of new government regulations affecting local councils.

In New York overnight,share prices fell sharply in response to a bigger-than-expected drop in US retail sales. That gave the bears a chance to start selling after the market’s recent strong run, which has carried it to record highs. The Dow ended down147.74 at 13,215.13.

The selling spilled over into Asian markets this morning. Among the biggest fallers in Tokyo was Casio Computers following a weaker-than-expected forecast, which prompted a downgrading of earnings forecasts by brokers.

Worries about the US economy also took a toll on the big Japanese exporters, while property companies also came under selling pressure amid worries about earnings outlook. The Nikkei 225 slumped 183.24 to close at 17,553.72.

In Hong Kong, the US figures and expectations that China will further tighten credit took their toll and the Hang Seng index was down 241.33 at 20,504.94 by the end of the morning session.

TAKING STOCK: Stock market news in brief

Banking finance
Gartmore has increased its holding in , buying ninem shares at an undisclosed price. This lifts its holding in the central Europe and Russia oil and gas explorer to 48.64m shares, or 15.3%.

Building property
John Armitt has been told his first job at the Olympic Delivery Authority will be to thrash out with construction company Sir Robert McAlpine a final specification and price for the design of the main stadium, says Building magazine.

Consumer
Goldman has cut from buy to neutral, the shares having reached its 1280p target. The pubs chain has improved its estate but the future is clouded by falling asset values, the smoking ban and consumer slowdown.

Economy
The City is braced for a damning verdict from the High Street on the Bank of England’s failure to keep inflation under control and the resulting interest rate rises. , and former Dixons group DSGi all report latest figures on the same day next week.

Engineering
managing director Steven has exercised 112,000 share at 50p each, lifting his holding in the AIM-listed engineering technology specialist to 362,000 shares, or 2.06% of the company.

Health
The victory for Stefano Pessina in the bid battle for will see it open operations in Brazil and Chile, Retail Week reports. It adds that it would be the first attempt by a British retailer to break into Latin America.

Industrials
describes trading as reasonable despite sluggish volumes, and it expects first-half profits to be the same as last year. The polythene film, bags and sacks maker says the outlook for polymer prices looks firm.

Leisure
Group traded at a four-and-a-half-year high after saying trading this year had remained strong with all units operating profitably. The home gaming specialist also says the integration of the two businesses acquired last year continues ahead of schedule.

Media
Teather & Greenwood has cut media company rating from hold to reduce, with a price target of 776p, citing structural changes in radio and magazines as the cause. The current price of 825p reflects cost savings from restructuring.

Natural resources
has repeated its buy rating and 2200p target for gas and oil explorer in light of two new oil and gas discoveries in Rajasthan by its Cairn India subsidiary, and remains optimistic of further significant finds.

Retailing
Car dealer failed to impress with its latest trading update. has maintained its neutral rating and 585p target while stays at hold. First-quarter trading was in line with sales up 2.9%.

Support services
Balfour Beatty’s sale of its stake in the Devonport naval dockyard for a 50m profit will allow it to concentrate on its core engineering and maintenance businesses says Panmure Gordon. But the broker warns that the shares are trading around 15% above its valuation.

Technology
Commercial mobile media services provider predicts savings of $3m (1.5m) a year thanks to the use of an offshore centre in St Petersburg, Russia, which was bought by BluePhoenix Solutions, a unit of its Formula Group.

Telecoms
workers are due to strike today in the first walkout since privatisation more than 10 years ago. They are protesting at plans to move 50,000 workers to a newly created T-Service customer service division to save costs.

Transport
is starting eight new routes from its base at Dusseldorf Weeze in Germany. The budget airline will launch flights in September to Fuerteventura, Malaga, Marrakesh, Milan, Seville, Trapani in Sicily, Valencia and Vдxjц in Sweden.

Utilities
The City Council of Loviisa in Finland has voted against selling land to German power company E.On for a nuclear power station, say Finnish media reports. The vote reversed an earlier decision to sell the land to the utility after it sparked public anger.

Other stories:
Barclays to axe 1,100 jobs
HSBC insurance union with Norwich
International Power stoked by home fires
Admiral’s fun factory set for growth
ABN finance chief quits over Barclays deal
Leon builds appetite for float
Trinity ad revenues take another tumble
Airbus rescue stalls earnings at Eads
3i 800m share handout after sell-off
Babcock lands Devonport for 350m
Closures as Premier mixes in RHM buy
EasyJet flies into a ‘green cloud’
BAE in South Africa election storm

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 19th, 2007 at 9:00 am and is filed under Stocks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The shares slipped 1p to 590p as US broker Goldman Sachs turned increasingly bearish of the shares. It has downgraded them from sell to conviction sell (eh?) while repeating its lowly target price of 556p. Goldman says: ‘The shares now price in too much for structural alternatives, including a potential sale of the education businesses at premium multiple.’

It does not reckon there would be much benefit to the share price from asset disposals: ‘With already high margins limiting earnings momentum, we view the valuation at a premium to peers unjustified given lower prospects.’

But rival Swiss broker has repeated its buy rating and jacked up its target from 675p to 700p. Another record-breaking run on Wall Street overnight and fresh gains in the Far East this morning enabled London shares to extend yesterday’s advances. The FTSE 100 index rose 39.5 to 6321.7.

retreated 312p to 775p despite US house Lehman Brothers lifting its target from 680p to 710p on the expectation of a shareholder return of 17% this year.

jumped 6p to 196p after it said it had received a bid approach worth 200p a share. That would value the business at 57m. Universal said in September that trading in the first four months of its current year had been at the upper end of market expectations.

On the strength of that, chairman Alexander Foster topped up his holding, buying 25,000 shares at 150p to take his total stake to 187,500, or less than 1% of the shares in issue. His entire holding is valued at 367,500.

Shares in European online casino operator and poker player responded to its latest trading update and news of a new chief executive with a rise of 4p to 86p, but remain well off their peak of 858p reached in April 2005. The registration of new punters had almost doubled to 28,704 on a year ago while revenues were 1% higher at e9.8m (6.46m).

New chief executive Kenneth Alexander was formerly managing director of rival Sportingbet’s European operations. Today’s news is positive for wealthy hedge fund operator Martin ‘Rottweiler’ Hughes, who has built up a stake of almost 2.5m shares, or about 7% of the company. He recently bought his last tranche at 80p.

Speculators say the odds on a bid for Gaming VC shorten by the day. New York digested another batch of mixed economic data overnight, and today will see the latest jobless claims figures. Overall, it is felt the signs are the US economy is gathering pace, and the Dow raced up 51.99 to finish at a new high of 12,673.68.

In Tokyo today, the Nikkei 225 closed at a 10-month high of 17,547.11, up 27.61, having briefly hit a six-year high with property shares enjoying a mark-up in the belief that developers can expect healthy returns.

Property developers were also in demand in Hong Kong, Henderson Land and leading the way. The Hang Seng index ended the day 133.52 points ahead at 20,563.68.

———————-
TAKING STOCK: Sectors at a glance

BANKING AND FINANCE
The leakage of funds from Asset Management, part of , has weighed on its shares. Keefe Bruyette Woods has downgraded from market perform to , slashed its target from 225p to 160p.

BUILDING AND PROPERTY
Property firms continue to enjoy support. This time, the emphasis on sector consolidation with gossips pointing the finger at , which they reckon could soon become the target of French rival Unibail.

CONSUMER
Oriel Securities says the departure of Pat O’Driscoll as chief executive of comes as no surprise. Her recovery plan was not working out, and the company has since switched its focus to margin improvement. .

ENGINEERING
Dresdner Kleinwort has started coverage of model railway group with a buy rating and a target of 320p. The broker says Hornby well-placed to be a prime consolidator in the European model market.

HEALTH
previewed yesterday’s annual results from drugs giant and rated the shares a sell with a 2767p target. is worried about competition from cheap generic drugs. But Astra rose almost a quid on the figures.

INDUSTRIALS
touched a new high of 469p yesterday despite December’s profits warning. Speculators say last year’s decision to reject two takeover approaches proved to be the right move as there is still value be had.

LEISURE
The decision by pub chains to call time on converting into Real Estate Investment Trusts should not deter investors looking for inherent value within their property portfolios, says ABN Amro. The broker is confident of further improvement in pub shares this year.

MEDIA
UBS has called for a re-rating of after this week’s second-quarter numbers. Lehman has raised its rating on the satellite broadcaster from equalweight to . remains buyer with a 640p target.

NATURAL RESOURCES
responded enthusiastically to an upward revision its oil reserves, the shares briefly touching 95p. Its Kazakhstan field now boasts recoverable reserves 157.9m barrels, which brokers say is way above earlier estimates.

RETAIL
notes Land Leather struggled during the January sales with like-for-likes down almost 5%. But full-year profits are still expected to match City forecasts of 18m. The broker has repeated its hold rating.

SUPPORT SERVICES
has slashed its target from 450p to 150p after yesterday’s trading update. It has also reduced its profit forecast the debt management adviser from 10m to 8.5m but continues to rate the shares buy.

TECHNOLOGY
Cazenove has raised from in-line to following the sell-off that greeted disappointing full-year numbers. The broker says Wolfson’s consumers are still buying fewer chips than they consume.

TELECOMS
describes Kingston Communications’ 20m acquisition of Mistral as ‘very good value’. The group has the highest of any of the smaller companies in the telecom sector and broker repeats its buy rating.

TRANSPORT
Airline Partners Australia, the consortium bidding for Qantas, said today its US$8.7bn (4.4bn) takeover offer was final. ‘The offer price of A$5.60 cannot, and will not, increased in the absence of alternative proposal,’ APA said.

UTILITIES
E.On, the German utility that owns Powergen in the UK, today looked set to walk away with Spain’s biggest power company, Endesa, after rival withdrew from the auction. E.On will pay e36bn (23.8bn) for the company.

Other stories:
Yesterday’s Trading: Fed chases the FTSE
BA blames fog for profits drop

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 at 7:21 am and is filed under Stocks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Sainsbury extended its all-time high, climbing 1p to 517p as it emerged that former Asda boss and retail guru Leighton is not only keen to get involved and has talked to the potential bidders, but he also has a top price of 550p a share in mind.

Leighton reckons paying any more would leave the new owners short of the cash needed to transform the group into a rival able to kick off its perch. This would value the chain at 9.5bn.

Sainsbury, which is currently working on its defences in the event of a hostile bid, said today it had sold a further 5% of its Sainsbury’s Bank for 21 million-Sainsbury’s, which will make 10m from the deal, now holds 50% of the joint venture.

In the wider market the FTSE 100 climbed 44.9 to 6391.3, with oil majors benefiting from surging oil prices with a barrel of crude reaching $60 overnight. This helped counter negative sentiment for , 5p stronger at 540p, which along with and others is being threatened with a lawsuit by the New York state attorney general forcing them to clean up hazardous waste.

slid 2p to 206p with brokers for the research group seeking buyers for some 67.7m shares - a 10.3% chunk owned by Carlyle. News of the placing emerged last night after the markets closed with , Credit suisse and JPMorgan Cazenove handling the deal.

Banknotes printer soared 36p to 697p as it wowed the market with a much stronger than-expected trading update. Its banknote and print businesses are going at full steam, demand for the cash systems business is strong while interest income, cashflows and income from associates are all up. Fullyear profits are now expected to be ’significantly ahead of forecasts’, the group said. Analysts had pencilled in 90.7m.

Online gaming outfit , unchanged at 35p, admitted it was writing off 55m as it ditched software supporting Paradise Poker in favour of the system utilised by Boss Media. Sportingbet is transferring all Paradise Poker players to the Boss network, bringing into question whether the $330m (168m) it paid for the business was too much.

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Meanwhile, discount shopping centre developer fell 22p to 380p as it confirmed takeover talks have ended without an offer being made.

In New York overnight, HSBC’s shock news on bad-debt write-offs combined with a warning from New Century Financial, another big US sub-prime lender, over weaker results due to rising bad-debt provisions to send a chill through the market. The Dow closed down 29.24 at 12,637.63.

In Tokyo today, shipping companies led the market higher and the Nikkei 225 ended up 211.85 at 17,504.33.

In Hong Kong, investors continued to reel from the warning and the Hang Seng index finished the day 57.39 lower at 20,677.66.

TAKING STOCK: Sectors at a glance

BANKING FINANCE
Merrill Lynch warns that bad-debt provisions at HSBCmay have to rise by 893m on top of the 4.46bn already set aside in the wake of yesterday’s profits warning. The bank blames its US business following a slowdown in house prices. Merrill remains a seller and has cut its profit forecast by 10% to 8.42bn.

BUILDING PROPERTY
Such was demand for yesterday, the stock market’s computerised trading system in the shares almost came to a halt. More than sevenm changed hands as the price hit record highs. The construction group is paying 224.5m for Linden Homes after its own first-half profits grew 48% to 20.7m.

STOCK MARKET INFO RESOURCES

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>> Broker’s ‘buy’s and ’sell’s
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CONSUMER
Consumer magazine Which? plans to sue on behalf of thousands of people it alleges have been ‘unlawfully overcharged’ for football shirts. JJB was one of seven companies fined by the Office of Fair Trading in 2003 for running a cartel that unlawfully fixed the price of England and Manchester United football shirts.

ENGINEERING
, still grappling with a switch of focus from film to digital, is cutting 3000 more jobs this year to give a global workforce of 30,000, less than half what it was three years ago. The company, which has targeted a total of 27,000 job losses, says it needs to save money as it tries to muscle into the inkjet-printer market.

HEALTH
says tests have shown that patients with heart disease who took an 80mg dose of Lipitor cut the risk of hospitalisation for heart failure significantly compared with patients taking a 10mg dose. Patients with heart disease who took an 80mg dose cut their risk of hospitalisation for heart failure by 26%.

INDUSTRIALS
has cut Imperial Group from neutral to reduce in the wake of the tobacco manufacturer’s decision to pay 974m for Commonwealth Brands. The shares have performed well of late but the broker is still raising its target from 1930p to 2065p. It continues to see a chance of Imps buying Spain’s .

LEISURE
Merrill Lynch has raised Holidays from 300p to 335p with a buy rating. It reckons the sale of the company’s mainstream division is worth between 790m and 920m. Once it is complete, the shares should be re-rated, given that its focus will be on the most attractive and high growth segments of the market.

MEDIA
continues to reel from this week’s profits alert, which warned of deteriorating trading conditions in radio and tough times in publishing. Bear Stearns has downgraded from peer perform to while Lehman Brothers has slashed its target from 855p to 794p. Goldman Sachs has moved from buy to neutral.

NATURAL RESOURCES
has come up from a low of 90p since the start of the year to 119p yesterday. But reckons we may have seen the best of the shares for now. Yesterday’s gold production report fell short of expectations, and now the broker has cut from buy to hold although it is sticking with its 124p target.

RETAILING
Suggestions that may want launch a takeover of Sainsbury have been described as thought-provoking by Oriel Securities. It believes M&S management has give the idea serious consideration and has therefore decided to downgrade M&S from buy to hold. It is worried a bidding war might ensue.

SUPPORT SERVICES
SThreewas marked higher after UBS repeated its buy rating and raised its target from 450p to 490p as well as raising its estimates following Wednesday’s results. The broker says the IT recruitment specialist’s full-year pre-tax profits were ahead of expectations, coming in at 40.3m against the 39.7m forecast.

TECHNOLOGY
needs to invest heavily in management, sales and research and development to provide a platform for growth, says UBS. There is potential for growth on a three- to five-year view, it adds. The shares have responded positively to the appointment of chief executive Mike Lawrie and the broker has lifted its sights from 245p to 260p.

TELECOMS
ING has hailed as a positive move the get-together between and France Telecom to share radio networks. The UK is the most competitive environment in Europe for mobile operators, so it makes sense to share networks, says the broker. But it accounts for just 9% of Vodafone’s overall value and will have limited impact.

TRANSPORT
No-frills airline is nudging back toward record highs following its latest trading update. ABN Amro retains its hold rating but has raised its target from 600p to 640p. It has also revised his forecast of pre-tax profits for the current year from 188m to 194m. describing the company’s guidance as conservative.

UTILITIES
Japanese utility Osaka Gas has become the first company to sign a deal to buy liquefied natural gas from Russian gasfield Sakhalin-2 since gas monopoly Gazprom snatched control the project from , Mitsubishi and . Osaka will buy 200,000 tonnes of LNG every year for 23 years from 2008.

Other stories:
Yesterday’s trading: Car hire firm hits the skids
Reckitt cleans up in battle with Unilever
S&N hands 761m back to shareholders
BT starts to win back custom
HSBC in shock profit warning
M&S ponders takeover bid for Sainsbury
Imperial buys US rival in 1bn deal
FirstGroup fights unions over bus stake

This entry was posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 12:44 am and is filed under Stocks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The shares slipped 1p to 590p as US broker Goldman Sachs turned increasingly bearish of the shares. It has downgraded them from sell to conviction sell (eh?) while repeating its lowly target price of 556p. Goldman says: ‘The shares now price in too much for structural alternatives, including a potential sale of the education businesses at premium multiple.’

It does not reckon there would be much benefit to the share price from asset disposals: ‘With already high margins limiting earnings momentum, we view the valuation at a premium to peers unjustified given lower prospects.’

But rival Swiss broker has repeated its buy rating and jacked up its target from 675p to 700p. Another record-breaking run on Wall Street overnight and fresh gains in the Far East this morning enabled London shares to extend yesterday’s advances. The FTSE 100 index rose 39.5 to 6321.7.

retreated 312p to 775p despite US house Lehman Brothers lifting its target from 680p to 710p on the expectation of a shareholder return of 17% this year.

jumped 6p to 196p after it said it had received a bid approach worth 200p a share. That would value the business at 57m. Universal said in September that trading in the first four months of its current year had been at the upper end of market expectations.

On the strength of that, chairman Alexander Foster topped up his holding, buying 25,000 shares at 150p to take his total stake to 187,500, or less than 1% of the shares in issue. His entire holding is valued at 367,500.

Shares in European online casino operator and poker player responded to its latest trading update and news of a new chief executive with a rise of 4p to 86p, but remain well off their peak of 858p reached in April 2005. The registration of new punters had almost doubled to 28,704 on a year ago while revenues were 1% higher at e9.8m (6.46m).

New chief executive Kenneth Alexander was formerly managing director of rival Sportingbet’s European operations. Today’s news is positive for wealthy hedge fund operator Martin ‘Rottweiler’ Hughes, who has built up a stake of almost 2.5m shares, or about 7% of the company. He recently bought his last tranche at 80p.

Speculators say the odds on a bid for Gaming VC shorten by the day. New York digested another batch of mixed economic data overnight, and today will see the latest jobless claims figures. Overall, it is felt the signs are the US economy is gathering pace, and the Dow raced up 51.99 to finish at a new high of 12,673.68.

In Tokyo today, the Nikkei 225 closed at a 10-month high of 17,547.11, up 27.61, having briefly hit a six-year high with property shares enjoying a mark-up in the belief that developers can expect healthy returns.

Property developers were also in demand in Hong Kong, Henderson Land and leading the way. The Hang Seng index ended the day 133.52 points ahead at 20,563.68.

———————-
TAKING STOCK: Sectors at a glance

BANKING AND FINANCE
The leakage of funds from Asset Management, part of , has weighed on its shares. Keefe Bruyette Woods has downgraded from market perform to , slashed its target from 225p to 160p.

BUILDING AND PROPERTY
Property firms continue to enjoy support. This time, the emphasis on sector consolidation with gossips pointing the finger at , which they reckon could soon become the target of French rival Unibail.

CONSUMER
Oriel Securities says the departure of Pat O’Driscoll as chief executive of comes as no surprise. Her recovery plan was not working out, and the company has since switched its focus to margin improvement. .

ENGINEERING
Dresdner Kleinwort has started coverage of model railway group with a buy rating and a target of 320p. The broker says Hornby well-placed to be a prime consolidator in the European model market.

HEALTH
previewed yesterday’s annual results from drugs giant and rated the shares a sell with a 2767p target. is worried about competition from cheap generic drugs. But Astra rose almost a quid on the figures.

INDUSTRIALS
touched a new high of 469p yesterday despite December’s profits warning. Speculators say last year’s decision to reject two takeover approaches proved to be the right move as there is still value be had.

LEISURE
The decision by pub chains to call time on converting into Real Estate Investment Trusts should not deter investors looking for inherent value within their property portfolios, says ABN Amro. The broker is confident of further improvement in pub shares this year.

MEDIA
UBS has called for a re-rating of after this week’s second-quarter numbers. Lehman has raised its rating on the satellite broadcaster from equalweight to . remains buyer with a 640p target.

NATURAL RESOURCES
responded enthusiastically to an upward revision its oil reserves, the shares briefly touching 95p. Its Kazakhstan field now boasts recoverable reserves 157.9m barrels, which brokers say is way above earlier estimates.

RETAIL
notes Land Leather struggled during the January sales with like-for-likes down almost 5%. But full-year profits are still expected to match City forecasts of 18m. The broker has repeated its hold rating.

SUPPORT SERVICES
has slashed its target from 450p to 150p after yesterday’s trading update. It has also reduced its profit forecast the debt management adviser from 10m to 8.5m but continues to rate the shares buy.

TECHNOLOGY
Cazenove has raised from in-line to following the sell-off that greeted disappointing full-year numbers. The broker says Wolfson’s consumers are still buying fewer chips than they consume.

TELECOMS
describes Kingston Communications’ 20m acquisition of Mistral as ‘very good value’. The group has the highest of any of the smaller companies in the telecom sector and broker repeats its buy rating.

TRANSPORT
Airline Partners Australia, the consortium bidding for Qantas, said today its US$8.7bn (4.4bn) takeover offer was final. ‘The offer price of A$5.60 cannot, and will not, increased in the absence of alternative proposal,’ APA said.

UTILITIES
E.On, the German utility that owns Powergen in the UK, today looked set to walk away with Spain’s biggest power company, Endesa, after rival withdrew from the auction. E.On will pay e36bn (23.8bn) for the company.

Other stories:
Yesterday’s Trading: Fed chases the FTSE
BA blames fog for profits drop

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 5:24 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Despite Nasdaq boss Bob Greifeld’s fresh claim that his 1243p-ashare bid is final, the stock slipped just 3p to 1280p, suggesting shareholders are still betting on a higher offer.

Nasdaq could in theory broker a higher deal with the LSE’s approval, but Greifeld has said he will not raise his offer under any circumstances.

To emphasise his tough stance, he today caught a flight home to New York. Meanwhile, New York Stock Exchange chief John Thain hinted he was unlikely to make a counterbid for the LSE or set up a rival stock exchange in London.

Trading got off to a slow start as investors weighed up the implications of overnight falls on Wall Street and less-than-thrilling US housing data. The FTSE gave up 42.9 points at one stage but recovered to trade at 6253.7, down 15.6 .

Pharmaceuticals were out of favour, with and on the receiving end of downgrades. shunted to hold from buy and trimmed its target price to 1180p from 1200p. The

shares have climbed 50% since the middle of last year, but Citigroup believes uncertainties surrounding its attention-deficit disorder treatments will be badly received by the market. Shire slid 12p to 1087p.

AstraZeneca slipped 30p to 2814p as JPMorgan cut its price target to 2950p from 3220p. JPM has based its new target on a 12.8 times multiple of forward earnings, which it argues ‘adequately reflects the fiveyear outlook for AstraZeneca, given its 2.5% annual sales growth’.

Vague takeover rumours helped top the Footsie risers with a 52p gain to 2105p. The most likely scenario would be a friendly merger with Franco-Spanish group , which would go down well with investors. Analysts also expect investors to rechannel money into Imps following Japan Tobacco’s takeover of .

Aim-listed media recruiter Harvey Nashwas in demand after saying full-year results would beat analysts’ estimates. The shares rose 7p, or more than 10% to 78p.

Online sportsbook and casino operator hit new lows after warning that poor trading at Bet-Direct would drive profits below market expectations. 32Red was down 11p at 26p.

The biggest faller among the midcaps was debt solutions group , down 121p to 101p. Competition among providers of Individual Voluntary Arrangements, which help people avoid personal bankruptcy, has forced down prices while resistance from banks and other creditors has also hit business, meaning profits may be below market expectations.

, which supplies IT systems to big High Street retailers, including , , Selfridges and Argos, issued a dire profit warning and asked for its shares to be suspended on Aim.

Profits are expected to be significantly below previous estimates, and lack of cash means that debt is spiralling upward. Shareholders can expect another 23m to be added to the 180m debt forecast for the end of the financial year. The shares were frozen at 41p.

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TAKING STOCK: Sectors at a glance

BANKING AND FINANCE
is paying $71.5m (36m) to double its stake in the Vietnam Technological Commercial Joint-Stock Bank (Techcombank) to 20%. The deal can only go through once Vietnam raises the cap on foreign ownership.

BUILDING AND PROPERTY
Around 95% of Britons expect to own a property in their lifetime, a Propertyfinder.com survey shows. But only 49% of under-35s own property nowagainst 59% in 2001. Threem more people will retire in a rented property than expect to.

CONSUMER
says it will start trialling Guinness Red in 142 bars across the UK next month. The new drink aimed at infrequent drinkers of the stout. But if you go into a pub Dublin and ask for a glass of red, you will get a lemonade.

ENGINEERING
, the consultant engineer floated at 158p last March, won a fourth upgrade from which says it has delivered the three big rail contracts it promised and improved margins. Numis raised its price target from 317p to 351p.

HEALTH
has started trials in India of ChimeriVax TM-JE, its singledose vaccine for Japanese encephalitis, contracted through mosquitoes. The drug’s safety immunogenicity will be matched against a mouse-brain vaccine.

INDUSTRIALS
Hopes for an bid for may be receding but the paints giant’s recent good run may go further, says Collins Stewart. With a 500p target, the broker says there is still some upside. ICI is to set new business targets next month.

LEISURE
The acquisition of Eldridge Pope pubs for 155m put a head on shares of brewer Marston’s. Altium describes it as a ‘very sensible’ bolt-on acquisition. At eight times earnings, the deal is better value than others in the sector. The shares are rated a buy.

MEDIA
New chairman Michael Grade has brought in management consultants. He has appointed Carolyn Fairbairn from McKinsey as director of group development and strategy. She had a similar role at the BBC until three years ago.

NATURAL RESOURCES
A dry Kenyanwell has ledMorgan Stanley to slash its target for from 1560p to 1405p. This has implications for Dana’s second prospect in its Kenyan campaign. Dana will drill 30 wells during the next two years.

RETAIL
Another drop in sales over Christmas at fashion retailer came as little surprise. Richard Ratner at house broker has cut his pre-tax profit forecast for the year to May from 59.9m to 55m

SUPPORT SERVICES
Seymour Pierce has repeated its buy rating on social housing service provider following its trading update. Inspace said trading was in line with expectations, but the broker reckons it has the right combination of services to win business.

TECHNOLOGY
Altium Securities has downgraded from buy to hold, saying the shares are fully valued. It adds that the outlook for the software supplier to the insurance industry remains positive, but the shares are up with events.

TELECOMS
ABN Amro has begun coverage of with a buy rating and 380p target. It says selling generated by the fallout with on the retail side has been overdone and the shares look attractive.

TRANSPORT
Business may be booming at trains and buses group but the shares have got way ahead of themselves, says Teather Greenwood. The broker says at more than 700p share, they are trading ahead of peers at over 20 times earnings.

UTILITIES
was one of the biggest bluechip casualties after downgrades by JPMorgan and Citigroup. JPM has dropped its rating from neutral to because lower gas and electricity prices will affect revenues. Citigroup has cut its target from 700p to 650p.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 5:23 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Sainsbury extended its all-time high, climbing 1p to 517p as it emerged that former Asda boss and retail guru Leighton is not only keen to get involved and has talked to the potential bidders, but he also has a top price of 550p a share in mind.

Leighton reckons paying any more would leave the new owners short of the cash needed to transform the group into a rival able to kick off its perch. This would value the chain at 9.5bn.

Sainsbury, which is currently working on its defences in the event of a hostile bid, said today it had sold a further 5% of its Sainsbury’s Bank for 21 million-Sainsbury’s, which will make 10m from the deal, now holds 50% of the joint venture.

In the wider market the FTSE 100 climbed 44.9 to 6391.3, with oil majors benefiting from surging oil prices with a barrel of crude reaching $60 overnight. This helped counter negative sentiment for , 5p stronger at 540p, which along with and others is being threatened with a lawsuit by the New York state attorney general forcing them to clean up hazardous waste.

slid 2p to 206p with brokers for the research group seeking buyers for some 67.7m shares - a 10.3% chunk owned by Carlyle. News of the placing emerged last night after the markets closed with , Credit suisse and JPMorgan Cazenove handling the deal.

Banknotes printer soared 36p to 697p as it wowed the market with a much stronger than-expected trading update. Its banknote and print businesses are going at full steam, demand for the cash systems business is strong while interest income, cashflows and income from associates are all up. Fullyear profits are now expected to be ’significantly ahead of forecasts’, the group said. Analysts had pencilled in 90.7m.

Online gaming outfit , unchanged at 35p, admitted it was writing off 55m as it ditched software supporting Paradise Poker in favour of the system utilised by Boss Media. Sportingbet is transferring all Paradise Poker players to the Boss network, bringing into question whether the $330m (168m) it paid for the business was too much.

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Meanwhile, discount shopping centre developer fell 22p to 380p as it confirmed takeover talks have ended without an offer being made.

In New York overnight, HSBC’s shock news on bad-debt write-offs combined with a warning from New Century Financial, another big US sub-prime lender, over weaker results due to rising bad-debt provisions to send a chill through the market. The Dow closed down 29.24 at 12,637.63.

In Tokyo today, shipping companies led the market higher and the Nikkei 225 ended up 211.85 at 17,504.33.

In Hong Kong, investors continued to reel from the warning and the Hang Seng index finished the day 57.39 lower at 20,677.66.

TAKING STOCK: Sectors at a glance

BANKING FINANCE
Merrill Lynch warns that bad-debt provisions at HSBCmay have to rise by 893m on top of the 4.46bn already set aside in the wake of yesterday’s profits warning. The bank blames its US business following a slowdown in house prices. Merrill remains a seller and has cut its profit forecast by 10% to 8.42bn.

BUILDING PROPERTY
Such was demand for yesterday, the stock market’s computerised trading system in the shares almost came to a halt. More than sevenm changed hands as the price hit record highs. The construction group is paying 224.5m for Linden Homes after its own first-half profits grew 48% to 20.7m.

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CONSUMER
Consumer magazine Which? plans to sue on behalf of thousands of people it alleges have been ‘unlawfully overcharged’ for football shirts. JJB was one of seven companies fined by the Office of Fair Trading in 2003 for running a cartel that unlawfully fixed the price of England and Manchester United football shirts.

ENGINEERING
, still grappling with a switch of focus from film to digital, is cutting 3000 more jobs this year to give a global workforce of 30,000, less than half what it was three years ago. The company, which has targeted a total of 27,000 job losses, says it needs to save money as it tries to muscle into the inkjet-printer market.

HEALTH
says tests have shown that patients with heart disease who took an 80mg dose of Lipitor cut the risk of hospitalisation for heart failure significantly compared with patients taking a 10mg dose. Patients with heart disease who took an 80mg dose cut their risk of hospitalisation for heart failure by 26%.

INDUSTRIALS
has cut Imperial Group from neutral to reduce in the wake of the tobacco manufacturer’s decision to pay 974m for Commonwealth Brands. The shares have performed well of late but the broker is still raising its target from 1930p to 2065p. It continues to see a chance of Imps buying Spain’s .

LEISURE
Merrill Lynch has raised Holidays from 300p to 335p with a buy rating. It reckons the sale of the company’s mainstream division is worth between 790m and 920m. Once it is complete, the shares should be re-rated, given that its focus will be on the most attractive and high growth segments of the market.

MEDIA
continues to reel from this week’s profits alert, which warned of deteriorating trading conditions in radio and tough times in publishing. Bear Stearns has downgraded from peer perform to while Lehman Brothers has slashed its target from 855p to 794p. Goldman Sachs has moved from buy to neutral.

NATURAL RESOURCES
has come up from a low of 90p since the start of the year to 119p yesterday. But reckons we may have seen the best of the shares for now. Yesterday’s gold production report fell short of expectations, and now the broker has cut from buy to hold although it is sticking with its 124p target.

RETAILING
Suggestions that may want launch a takeover of Sainsbury have been described as thought-provoking by Oriel Securities. It believes M&S management has give the idea serious consideration and has therefore decided to downgrade M&S from buy to hold. It is worried a bidding war might ensue.

SUPPORT SERVICES
SThreewas marked higher after UBS repeated its buy rating and raised its target from 450p to 490p as well as raising its estimates following Wednesday’s results. The broker says the IT recruitment specialist’s full-year pre-tax profits were ahead of expectations, coming in at 40.3m against the 39.7m forecast.

TECHNOLOGY
needs to invest heavily in management, sales and research and development to provide a platform for growth, says UBS. There is potential for growth on a three- to five-year view, it adds. The shares have responded positively to the appointment of chief executive Mike Lawrie and the broker has lifted its sights from 245p to 260p.

TELECOMS
ING has hailed as a positive move the get-together between and France Telecom to share radio networks. The UK is the most competitive environment in Europe for mobile operators, so it makes sense to share networks, says the broker. But it accounts for just 9% of Vodafone’s overall value and will have limited impact.

TRANSPORT
No-frills airline is nudging back toward record highs following its latest trading update. ABN Amro retains its hold rating but has raised its target from 600p to 640p. It has also revised his forecast of pre-tax profits for the current year from 188m to 194m. describing the company’s guidance as conservative.

UTILITIES
Japanese utility Osaka Gas has become the first company to sign a deal to buy liquefied natural gas from Russian gasfield Sakhalin-2 since gas monopoly Gazprom snatched control the project from , Mitsubishi and . Osaka will buy 200,000 tonnes of LNG every year for 23 years from 2008.

Other stories:
Yesterday’s trading: Car hire firm hits the skids
Reckitt cleans up in battle with Unilever
S&N hands 761m back to shareholders
BT starts to win back custom
HSBC in shock profit warning
M&S ponders takeover bid for Sainsbury
Imperial buys US rival in 1bn deal
FirstGroup fights unions over bus stake

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 2:22 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

That was the story from Mumbai today, and it drove the Corus shares up 10p to 548p. Such a move would value Corus at 5.67bn, and is far higher than Tata’s current offer of 500p a share and the 515p a share being offered by CSN.

Reports in the Indian press claim the eventual price Tata pays will be left up to chairman Ratan Tata and managing director B Mithurman. But dealers in London expressed surprise at suggestions Tata was prepared to be so generous.

Many of them feel the current offer already fairly values Corus, and point out that both Tata and CSN are fully stretched financially.

Share prices generally traded in a fairly narrow range after another lacklustre overnight performance on Wall Street. The FTSE 100 index fell 15.0 points to 6195.3.

has picked up a 2% stake, worth about 160m. in after its shares, down 1p at 1139p, slipped below its bid price. Japan Tobacco has an offer on the table that values Gallaher at 7.5 billion.

It would be the biggest foreign-takeover by a Japanese company.

Among builders, was up 11p to 2278p as City speculators licked their lips at the prospect of a bidding war. Word is Scottish financier Sir Tom Hunter, who has just received the backing of the board for his 713m bid, is ready to offer 2bn for Wilson Bowden.

But the speculators say he may face opposition from George , down 19p at 531p, and , 4p cheaper at 1172p, which may be close to tabling their own bids. Just four months ago, Hunter agreed to pay 1.1bn for retirement homes builder McCarthy & Stone.

dipped 2p to 411p in the wake of this week’s Christmas trading update. Despite the plaudits for the supermarkets chain’s performance, its seems not everyone was impressed. Broker Dresdner-Kleinwort has downgraded from add to hold with a 425p target.

gained 3p to 69p after Bridgewell repeated its buy rating. The company says full-year operating profits are in line with expectations as trading ‘ continued to improve’ in the second half.

Investors were on the back foot in New York as hopes of an early cut in interest rates receded following some bearish economic news. Headline consumer inflation rose for the first time since August but this was cushioned by further weakness in oil prices.

Some economists now warn that the chances of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates in the first part of 2007 are very low. Adding to investors’ gloom was another selloff in hi-tech companies following the trading statement from microchip maker this week. The Dow ended off 9.22 at 12,567.93.

The sell-off of US chipmakers spilled over to Tokyo, and the Nikkei 225 closed down 60.49 at 17.310.44. Hong Kong investors continued to rotate from one sector to another, so undervalued companies such as benefited from a sell-off among life assurers. The Hang Seng index ended the day 50.21 higher at 20,327.72.

Other stories:
The Reit way to buy property?
Top funds for 2007
The stock market’s stars
Share tips - best of the rest

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Stocks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Some traders suggest a bid is imminent, with Permira or US operator Starwood Capital the main names in the frame. Others point out that these stories have been circulating for months.

But ICH, which owns Holiday Inn as well as Crowne Plaza was one of the best-performing stocks, up 26p at 1217p. This gives the group a stock market value of 4.27bn but a bid at 1500p would imply a value of 5.26bn.

Intercontinental, which was the hotel division of the old Bass group, owns, manages, leases or franchises 3650 hotels in 100 countries around the world.

In general, trading was quiet with profit taking ahead of the weekend. The FTSE 100 was down 12.0 points at 6218.1. Oil majors led the Footsie fallers, with down 6p at 531p, 10p lower at 1704p and 7p off at 682p.

rose 21p to 734p after strong tips from brokers at ABN Amro and Morgan Stanley.

ABN Amro upgraded the Yorkshirebased company to hold from sell although it cuts its output and achieved price assumptions. Morgan Stanley said it reckons Drax has a more advantageous contracting position for 2006-08 as well as a more attractive policy than the other UK power generators.

Despite bullish statements from Barratt and , the housing sector continued to suffer in the wake of yesterday’s shock interest rate rise. Barratt was down 8p at 1196p while Bellway was 27p lower at 1493p. The potentially damaging effect on consumer sentiment outweighed today’s good news.

Traders also kept a close eye on , steady at 613p. Today is put-up-or-shut-up day for and Sir Tom Hunter. Since the housebuilder rejected their takeover offer of 585p in November, Crest Nicholson has consistently traded above 610p, with the City expecting more money from Sir Tom or a rival.

Meanwhile, serial entrepreneur Nigel Wray has been building up his stake in south-east builder . Wray snapped up just over fivem shares or 6% of the company, taking his total holding to 16% and making him the biggest shareholder.

The housebuilder, worth 67m. has looked like a tasty takeover target for a while. Oakdene has a waterfront development at Newhaven in Sussex and another at Swaylands in Kent, but trades at just eight times earnings.

Commercial finance house Capital UK saw more than 20p wiped from its stock market value as it prepared to write off 4m as a result of the collapse of trailer rental group Transent. Transent has been a longstanding

client of the Business Finance group and the board said the sum would ensure adequate provisions remained for the rest of the group. However, the shock provision countered any positive sentiment emanating from ‘encouraging third quarter results’, also revealed today.

Back to housing, Aim-listed City Lofts group, which jumped aboard the bandwagon by converting warehouses and unloved office buildings into trendy apartments in cities such as Leeds and Manchester, is selling out for a 122.5p a share, valuing the company at 61.6m. City Lofts, 10p up at 120p, reported a loss of 3.235m.

, which specialises in mobile and internet gaming and recently launched online scrabble saw its shares slump by more than 20%, falling 24p to 87p, after it warned that it may need extra funding.

Troublingly, it said that while it is seeking new acquisitions, it is the company’s current working capital position that may force it to raise new funds.

Although sales are in line with expectations, and the response to Scrabble Cubes has been good, margins have fallen compared with last year.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 12th, 2007 at 7:11 pm and is filed under Stocks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

ICI led blue-chips higher with a rise of 4p to 465p as talk of a bid from Dutch rival gathered pace. The Crown paint group has put its Organon drugs business up for sale instead of floating its separately.

Bids for Organon are expected to reach 5.4bn, providing Akzo with the funding to launch an assault on one of the most famous names in UK business.

Late last year, ICI sold its Quest subsidiary for 1.2bn, enabling it to reduce debts and tackle its growing pension deficit. That has made it attractive to would-be suitors.

Elsewhere in the market, the sell-off continued apace following another lacklustre performance overnight on Wall Street where the absence of an interest rate cut continues to weigh heavily on sentiment. The FTSE 100 index fell 16.5 to 6270.5.

Fashion retailer rose a further 6p to 1862p as brokers continued to reflect on yesterday’s Christmas trading update. Broker ING has raised its recommendation from hold to buy but says that weak sales continue to cause concern. Next still trades at a 29% discount to the rest of the retail sector.

However, rival broker has raised its sights on Next from 2050p to 2170p and repeated its rating.

Despite poor autumn trading conditions, tight control of stocks was achieved. This meant second-half margin performance was significantly ahead of expectations.

Ark Therapeutics’ final-stage trials of an experimental drug to treat brain cancer has been cleared to continue without modification, by Europe’s medicine regulator. Cerepro is already being assessed by the regulators for marketing approval and the outcome should be known by the end of March.

The drug, for the treatment of high-grade glioma, or malignant brain tumour, is the first gene-based medicine to undergo full regulatory scrutiny outside of China. It has been shown in previous trials to extend life by 7.5 months, giving around 15.5 months’ survival in a disease where most patients will live for only eight months. Ark rose 3p to 106p.

, which last week sold its gaming websites to rival marked time at 42p. It emerged late yesterday that chief executive Noam Lanir had bought a further fourm shares at 42.69p, raising his stake in Empire to 101.1m shares, or 34.5%.

Investors were in cautious mood in New York overnight. Even so, shares managed to claw back opening losses with the help of demand for technology stocks. They outperformed blue-chip and oil companies, which had been suffering from the sharp downturn in the price of crude. The Dow closed up just 6.19 at 12,480.69.

In Tokyo today, shares suffered their biggest one-day loss in six weeks as profit-takers moved in, targeting exporters such as Honda and Fanus and steelmakers. The Nikkei 225 shed 262.08 to 17,091.59.

In Hong Kong, profit-taking also took a toll after the market’s record run but the Hang Seng index rallied to end the day up 185.70 at 20,211.28.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Stocks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.