Gift firm enjoys cracking profit
AS the Queen celebrated her 89th birthday at Windsor Castle, International Greetings unwrapped a bullish trading update which lifted its shares 12.5p or 15pc to 95.5p.
The third largest supplier worldwide of gift packaging and crackers revealed profits for the full-year to the end of March will exceed market expectations.
Royal birthdays and occasions such as the imminent birth of the Queen’s newest great grand- child is manna from heaven for the Milton Keynes-based company as royalists send their presents and best wishes.
A combination of a strong operating performance, lower financial costs and an improved mix of tax rates across its global portfolio has significantly enhanced earnings per share for the year. Current consensus forecasts for annual revenue is £224.1m and £8.4m pre-tax profits. The board has, much sooner than anticipated, reduced group leverage to less than two times equity.
It means dividends can be restored and shareholders can therefore look forward to a final dividend. That will delight Anders Hedlund, deputy chairman, who owns 29.6pc of the equity via AC Artistic. Miton Group, the fund manager run by Gervais Williams and Martin Turner, owns just over 20pc.
Sellers put the boot into cheap ‘n’ cheerful footwear retailer Shoe Zone following a profits warning. The shares crashed 72.88p or 28pc to 185.12p on hearing that first-half profits will disappoint and full-year results will be below market expectations as the warm weather conditions had a material impact on autumn/winter trading. Shareholders might have to sing for a dividend.
Carpetright, which has given its followers a pile of trouble over the years, actually rolled out an encouraging trading update and jumped 28.5p to 460.5p. Britain’s biggest floor covering company said full-year profits would be ahead of expectations after sales in its key market continued to recover and trading picked up overseas. Sales in UK stores open more than a year ago rose 10.5pc in the fourth- quarter, ahead of the 7.5pc improvement in the third-quarter.
Shrugging off growing concerns about a possible Greek debt default, the Footsie touched 7105.13 before closing 10.8 points better at 7062.93. Impressive quarterly profit and sales performances from satellite TV giant Sky, 53p up at a 14-year peak of 1105p and chip designer ARM Holdings, 45p higher at 1195p, helped sentiment as did ongoing takeover speculation in Crowne Plaza-to-Holiday Inn hotel chain Intercontinental, up 94p more at 2880p. Wall Street fell 85.34 points to 17,949.59 following disappointing trading updates from Travelers, DuPont and IBM. Meanwhile, the great pharmaceutical takeover boom continues with news of Israeli drugmaker Teva’s $82 per share bid for Mylan. Professional punters are also up to their eyebrows in shares of Swiss chemicals group Clariant, 1pc better at 20 Swiss francs. They believe an offer from Dow Chemical is just around the corner. Take out price could be around 25 Swiss francs. After RBC Capital Markets raised its target price to £15 from 1350p, Aveva jumped 112p to 1686p. The broker cited an improved oil price combined with better cost control and profitability as reason for the upgrade. It expects the oil price to rally to $60-80 by the year end.
International Personal Finance advanced 26p to 501p on relief that the Polish Office of Consumer Protection had given it the allclear following an investigation into the fees it charges. Even better, it will not now have to pay a £2.4m fine. IPF says it is on track to introduce a new product and fee structure for new contracts by August 1, 2015, which will include the fixed fees required by the POCP.
Shares in star fund manager Neil Woodford’s latest fund, Woodford Patient Capital Trust, as expected, got off to a good start. Issued at £1, the heavily oversubscribed stock touched 105p and closed at 102p.
Sold down to 321p on a warning that the board expects full-year net income to be at or slightly below market expectations, accident prone APR Energy rallied strongly to close a 0.5p dearer on the day at 370p. Broker Numis has a target price of 425p and says that while 2015 has seen a number of important contract renewals, contract wins remain the key driver of share price sentiment.
Specialist medtech company Angle rose 9p to 83p. Buyers responded to news that the Medical University of Vienna had published highly encouraging results in support of the use of its Parsortix system in the detection of ovarian cancer.
Asia Resource Minerals soared 8.5p or 30pc to 37.25p after a trust controlled by British financier Nat Rothschild and the parent of Russia’s Siberian Coal Energy said it is considering making a cash offer for the Indonesia-focused coal miner. ÷ REDDE, the former Helphire accident management and legal services group, attracted buyers on yield considerations and ahead of Monday’s trading update, and closed 3.75p higher at 119.5p. Investor Invesco recently increased its stake above 29pc suggesting that the statement will please. Indeed, word is sector analysts will be looking to upgrade again earnings forecasts for this year.