Flybe plunges as £100m takeover is abandoned
ShareS in airline Flybe nosedived by more than a quarter after Stobart Group abandoned plans for a takeover that could have been worth more than £100m.
Stobart, the FTSe 250-listed owner of London Southend airport, reached for the ejector button after failing to agree terms with Flybe.
The transport firm said it was not in shareholders’ interests to increase its bid for Flybe, europe’s largest independent regional airline. While both sides refuse to reveal the value of the bid, Flybe was worth £101.8m when the deal was first floated last month.
The collapse is a major blow to exeter-based Flybe which has been burdened by dwindling profits and soaring costs. Plans to make a bid took off last month when Stobart revealed it was eyeing the airline, sending Flybe’s shares up by more than a third.
Stobart already has an agreement with the airline to operate flights in Ireland using the Flybe brand. Flybe’s board said it remained highly confident in the prospects of the firm and believed it had an ‘ exciting future as an independent company’.
It plans to increase profit by slashing its fleet size and concentrate its efforts on flying the most profitable routes.
Flybe’s share price fell by 25.9pc, or 12.1p, to close at 34.6p last night, while Stobart’s dipped 4.1pc, or 9.5p, to 220p.
The FTSE 100 finished down 1.2pc, or 86.38 points, at a 15month low of 6952.59 as the Bank of england held interest rates at 0.5pc. In the US, the sell-off of big technology stocks continued, with Facebook, Twitter and alphabet, the owner of Google, down more than 2pc.
But at home, small British technology companies put in a good showing. Talk of a £24m takeover of Vipera sent its shares up.
Vipera, which makes software for mobile banking apps, revealed Italian firm Sella Open Fintech Platform is mulling a bid.
however, both urged shareholders not to jump the gun. a statement said: ‘The board of directors of Vipera and SOFP would like to emphasise that at this stage there can be no assurances that an offer will be made.’ Vipera’s shares leapt 12pc, or 0.75p, to 7p.
Shares in Quixant, which makes hardware for the gaming industry, bolted higher. Quixant reported a 29pc in pre-tax profit to £10.6m in 2017 while revenue was up 21pc to £77.4m. It shipped 52,000 gaming platforms last year, up from 41,000 in 2016. Shares rose 8.6pc, or 32.5p, to 411.5p.
however, it was another tough day for Micro Focus, Britain’s biggest tech company.
ratings agency Moody’s downgraded the firm’s outlook to ‘negative’ due to heightened uncertainty over revenue after Micro Focus issued a warning about its revenues on Monday.
Its shares fell another 6.3pc ,or 60.8p, to 911.8p, and more than £4.2bn has been wiped off the company’s value this week.
The craze for cryptocurrencies has driven IG Group to record revenue of £152.9m for the three months to February 28, an increase of 30pc annually.
Bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrency trading accounted for 11pc of revenue, compared to 1pc in the same period of 2017.
however, trades have ‘slowed markedly’ since the end of January. Its shares hopped up 2.9pc, or 23.5p, to 841p.
a contract with fashion retailer Primark sent shares in recruitment firm Parity Group fizzing.
Parity will provide Primark with IT staff as the retailer looks to upgrade its IT systems. The deal is expected to be worth £20m-£25m over three years. Parity shares rose 7.1pc, or 0.8p, to 12.05p.