Smurfit slumps as doubt grows over £7.8bn US bid
ShareS in paper and packaging firm Smurfit Kappa dived in trading yesterday as doubts grew over a £7.8bn takeover by a US rival.
The board of Dublin- based Smurfit has rejected two bids from International Paper Company (IPC), arguing they ‘fundamentally undervalue’ the firm.
Major shareholders have spent the past two months trying to get Smurfit to sit down at the negotiating table with IPC.
It is thought an offer of £35 a share, which would value Smurfit at £8.3bn, would be enough to tempt Smurfit’s board to open talks with IPC.
however, a deal is hanging in the balance with the Irish takeover panel giving IPC until Wednesday to make a binding offer or walk away. Smurfit shares sank 7.2pc, or 222p, to 2880p.
The FTSE 100 rallied as political concerns in Italy and Spain faded. The index of leading firms was up 0.51pc, or 39.52 points, at 7741.29 while the FTSE 250 rose 0.6pc, or 125.68 points, to 21110.6.
Soaring passenger numbers caused Wizz Air shares to take off. The FTSe 250-listed budget airline carried more than 2.8m passengers in May, up 18.1pc on the same month of 2017.
Over the past 12 months, Wizz air flew 30.5m holidaymakers to 141 destinations across 44 countries in europe and the Middle east – up 23.3pc on the previous 12 months. Shares edged up 0.2pc, or 7p, to 3519p.
Wizz air rival EasyJet topped the FTSe 100 after analysts at Deutsche Bank raised the airline’s target price from 1560p to 1915p.
easyJet shares ended the day up 3.8pc, or 65p, at 1778.5p. It was another tough day for Alfa
Financial Software, which was downgraded by Berenberg after dishing out a profit warning on Friday. The German investment bank slashed the software firm’s rating from ‘buy’ to ‘hold’ and cut its target price from 600p to 170p after it warned of lower-thanexpected full-year revenues.
The downgrade caused alfa’s shares to plummet 16.8pc, or 31p, to 154p, wiping £93m off its value.
Deal mania swept through trading floors yesterday, with a number of small- cap firms sounding the takeover klaxon. electrical components firm TT
Electronics snapped up US transformer manufacturer Precision Inc for an initial £17.7m.
Precision, based in Minneapolis, designs and makes electromagnetic products for the medical, industrial, aerospace and defence markets. It employs 160 people in the US and China.
TT’s shares ticked up 0.2pc, or 0.5p, to 250.5p.
Keypad and lift component maker Dewhurst signed a £10.5m deal to buy electrical component wholesalers a&a electrical Distributors. Dewhurst shares were flat at 910p. Digital advertising firm Ocean
Outdoor splashed out £32m on outdoor marketing specialists Forrest Media.
The deal for Glasgow-based Forrest gives aIM- listed Ocean, which operates the giant advertising screen at Piccadilly Lights in London, a footprint in Scotland.
Ocean shares are temporarily suspended after its private equity owner Searchlight sold it to Ocelot Partners. It plans to relist them ‘as soon as practicable,’ the firm says.
aIM-listed financial planning group AFH reported a 63pc uptick in revenue to £22.7m and a whopping 177pc rise in profit to £2.5m in its first-half results.
aFh shares rocketed 9.7pc, or 30p, to 340p.
One of Britain’s fastest-growing regional law firms announced plans to float on aIM.
The float will value Knights, which has 430 employees, at more than £100m and is set to make a paper fortune for chief executive David Beech, who owns 65pc.