Consort Medical to buy fellow UK pharma company Aesica September 30, 2014 Cambridge medical technology business Consort Medical is buying pharmaceutical firm Aesica for £230m in a bid to diversify its markets. Consort Medical said it would fund the acquisition with £115.9m drawn down under a new debt facility, £10m of existing cash and a fully underwritten rights issue which is expected to raise £95.3m and the [...]
Investor fury at Balfour Beatty profit warning September 29, 2014 SHAREHOLDERS are angry and concerned over the latest trading update from beleaguered construction firm Balfour Beatty. The update, published yesterday, is the company’s third in five months, and revealed a £75m profit shortfall in its construction services UK business. Balfour’s share price fell by 20 per cent after the report and closed down 15.3 per [...]
Best of the Brokers for 29 September 2014 September 28, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com BALFOUR BEATTY Deutsche Bank has upgraded to “Buy” from “Hold”, and raised the target price to 270p from 245p. The broker thinks overly negative market sentiment towards Balfour provides a buying opportunity, and Balfour’s sale of Parsons Brinckerhoff will help address balance sheet [...]
Lloyds sells another £160m of TSB shares September 25, 2014 LLOYDS last night announced it would sell another 11.5 per cent of its shares in TSB, the spin-off bank it floated in June. The sale of an extra 57.5m shares will cut Lloyds’ holding in TSB to around 50.5 per cent. At last night’s closing price of 280p, the offering will net Lloyds £161m. Lloyds [...]
The name’s bond …retail bond as Bollywood’s Eros goes for cash September 25, 2014 Bollywood film company Eros International yesterday announced plans to tap the retail bond market, the first media company to use the burgeoning asset type to raise cash. Eros, which makes about 70 films a year and has a library of a back catalogue of about 2,300 films, will raise the cash through a seven-year bond [...]
UK Mail revenue hit by fall in parcel volumes September 25, 2014 UK Mail Group yesterday forecast a one per cent drop in first-half reported revenue, blaming a decline in its mail business and weaker-than-expected parcel volumes. Revenue from mail business, which accounted for nearly half the company’s total revenue, was expected to fall by about six per cent in the six months ended 30 September, it [...]
Tesco profits crisis: Dave Lewis must do “whatever it takes”, says shareholder September 22, 2014 Tesco could be forced to raise cash by way of a rights issue or by speeding up the sale of its UK and overseas assets, as the troubled supermarket chain launched a probe yesterday into a £250m black hole in its accounts. The debacle prompted a profits warning, which puts Tesco on course for trading [...]
Former Investec banker joins the crowd(funders) with CrowdShed September 22, 2014 Crowdfunding is the trend that just keeps giving and now one of the City’s own is striking out of banking and launching his own crowdfunding platform called CrowdShed. The person in question is ex-Investec, ex-Liberum investment manager Henry Freeman (pictured) and having handed in his notice at Investec almost exactly a year ago – his [...]
City Moves for 23 September 2014 | Who’s switching jobs September 22, 2014 Baker & McKenzie Gillian Coyle has been appointed London HR director at the law firm. She joined in 2010 as the head of the HR business partner team, and previously spent 12 years at Deloitte. Coyle will also serve on Baker & McKenzie’s London Management Committee. Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management Astrid Manroth has been appointed [...]
WANdisco share price falls as investment costs lead to higher losses at online tech firm September 18, 2014 WANdisco, the Sheffield-based firm that specialises in big data products for businesses, saw its shares tumble 5.1 per cent yesterday after reporting its losses had more than doubled during the first half of the year. While revenues rose 43 per cent to $5m (£3m), losses increased from $7.5m to $18.5m as the firm invested $4.2m [...]