Retail investors are worth courting – Editor’s Letter October 5, 2014 London’s been having a pretty good time of things as far as raising money for newly listed companies is concerned. So far this year 99 floats on the London Stock Exchange and the junior Alternative Investment Market have raised a total of £10.4bn, up from £8.7bn last year and only £2.5bn in 2012 when the [...]
MPC to publish rate verdict but no change seen – London Report October 5, 2014 THE MONETARY Policy Committee (MPC) will announce its latest interest rate decision on Thursday, but Investec does not expect any change from the current 0.5 per cent and quantitative easing target at £375bn. September’s Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) monthly housing data will also be updated on Thursday, after house prices grew at their [...]
Best of the Brokers for 03 October 2014 October 2, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com SAINSBURY Nomura has maintained its “neutral” rating, but cut the target price to 270p from 305p. Nomura remains of the theory that Sainsbury is seeing some relative slowdown, and may now be an underperformer compared to sector rivals, as Asda strengthens and Morrison [...]
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 [...]