Tags
Aberdeen, Alliant Techsystems, Atkins (company), Australia, CINE, Competition Commission, Direct Line, Fiscal year, Insurance, Picturehouse, Public company, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, September, Stock, Trader Dominic Picarda, Victrex
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Today’s market overview
Equities are stuck in a rut and The Trader Dominic Picarda expects this mild downtrend to go on for a little while yet.
IC TIP UPDATES:
Chesnara (CSN) has agreed a deal with Direct Line Insurance (DLG) to acquire its Direct Line Life Insurance business for £39.3m in cash. Following the deal Direct Line will pay its shareholders a special dividend of 4p a share. We keep our buy on Chesnara and a sell recommendation on Direct Line.
Cineworld (CINE) has been told by the Competition Commission that it must sell cinemas in Cmabridge, Aberdeen and Bury St Edmonds following its acquisition of the Picturehouse cinema group. We keep ourbuy rating.
Tangiers Petroleum (TPET) has pulled out of a potential farm out deal in Australia after the other party, CWH Resources, failed to fulfil its obligations. We retain our buy recommendation.
KEY STORIES:
Consumer debt purchaser Arrow Global (ARW) has announced that its forthcoming initial public offering will be priced at 205p a share, which will value the company at £357.6m on admission. The company is raising £50m from the float.
Engineer WS Atkins (ATK) has been appointed to work as designer on three of the six lines of the Riyadh metro in Saudi Arabia in a contract worth £75m.
Polymers specialist Victrex (VCT) reports improved trading in the second half of its financial year which meant that full year volumes edged ahead of the previous year at 2,920 tonnes. Both the polymer and biomaterials businesses saw volumes improve by around 10 per cent in the second half after a weaker first half to the year.
Recruiter Robert Walters (RWA) has posted a 7 per cent improvement in gross profits in the third quarter of its financial year with the UK leading the way after growing profits by 21 per cent.
OTHER COMPANY NEWS:
Retail and manufacturing software specialist Sanderson Group (SND) is shifting into the cloud computing space with the acquisition of retail business One iota for £5.4m. Sanderson is raising £3.5m from investors towards the cost of the deal.
Asset manager Impax (IPX) has grown assets under management by 20 per cent to £2.1bn during the year to September and the company expects to meet market forecasts after all its investment strategies outperformed their benchmarks.
Related articles
- Insurer Chesnara to buy Direct Line’s closed life fund (uk.reuters.com)
- RBS to sell fifth of Direct Line (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)
- RBS to sell 18.2% share in Direct Line (itv.com)
- UPDATE 1-RBS raises 630 mln stg in Direct Line share sale (uk.reuters.com)
- RBS pockets £630m in Direct Line stake sale (thisismoney.co.uk)
- RBS pockets £630m in Direct Line stake sale (dailymail.co.uk)
- Thieves had my car for weeks. Direct Line has had it for months (theguardian.com)
- Morocco: Royal Project To Accelerate Development Of Tangier And Place It As A Leading Destination – OpEd (eurasiareview.com)
- Market week: Fed, Syria and Greece make for unsettled outlook (theguardian.com)
- Review of first night at the Arc bar (interzonemusicbristol.wordpress.com)