Analyst Views: Do the F&C results change your view of the proposed takeover?
MICHAEL SANDERSON | SOCIETE GENERALE
F&C has made progress on its strategic repositioning. However, we move our rating from ‘buy’ to “hold” as see a relatively limited probability of another bidder emerging at this point, and even if another bidder were to emerge, we would not expect a counter offer to be as high as 138p.
ARUN MELMANE | CANACCORD GENUITY
F&C were expected to make the numbers this year. The next year was always going to be the challenge in terms of earnings per share growth given outflows this year. The annual meeting will be interesting and should tell us more than these results given Elliot Capital’s recent 10 per cent stake.
OWEN JONES | SHORE CAPITAL
When the deal was announced our initial reaction was that 120p represented good value from a shareholder point of view. With the results published yesterday, our opinion has not changed. An exit multiple of about 13 times earnings places F&C broadly in line with its peers.