UK cyber firm bouncing back as bid rumours swirl

RUMOURS are circulating around the City that NCC Group, a British cyber security company, could soon be snapped up by a predator.

Its shares have been creeping up over the last few weeks, after warnings of a UK slowdown knocked 31pc off its value in January. Over the last month, they are up 19.4pc.

NCC, which specialises in ‘ethical hacking’ to help businesses find weaknesses in their systems, was born when the Government’s National Computing Centre sold its commercial divisions in 1999.

Beady-eyed observers have their money on private equity firms, IT giant IBM and, possibly, computer company Dell as potential bidders. Sources close to the company said it was not in takeover talks, but that hasn’t stopped traders speculating that an offer could be on the horizon. The stock was up 2.9pc, or 4.8p, at 172.2p.

Card Factory was proving that greetings cards aren’t dead yet, as it opened an average of almost one store a week last year. Samestore sales at the chain were flat compared to the previous year, although chief executive Karen Hubbard claimed this as a victory in a year when shoppers shunned the High Street.

Although profits slipped 8.3pc to £66.6m, revenue climbed 3.3pc to £436m, helped along by a massive 56.3pc rise in sales on its website.

Hubbard said that, already this year, it had seen record seasonal performances from Valentine’s Day and Mothers’ Day.

After opening 51 stores over the year, bringing its total to 1,200, Card Factory is still planning to expand. It has tested selling products in Aldi in the UK, in an Australian retailer and with a partner in Jersey. Shares climbed 10pc, or 17.7p, to 194.8p.

Operations haven’t run so smoothly for mining giant Rio

Tinto so far this year. Tropical cyclones in Australia battered its iron ore business, causing damage and forcing it to lower its guidance for shipments.

The miner shipped 69.1m tonnes of iron ore in the first three months of the year, 14pc less than a year previously. It now hopes to transport between 333m and 343m tonnes for the whole of 2019, down from 338m to 350m tonnes. Shares slid by 0.6pc, or 30p, to 4672.5p.

Britain’s jobs market isn’t coming to the standstill some feared it might in the run-up to Brexit, says white-collar recruiter Hays.

In the first three months of 2019, Hays’ fee revenue from the UK and Ireland edged up by 3pc. But growth in fees slowed in Germany, where the trade spat between the US and China has also weighed on the economy.

The total net fee growth for the third quarter of Hays’ financial year hit 6pc, missing analysts’ expectations of 7pc. Shares were down 2.6pc, or 4.3p, at 158.8p.

In another uneventful day among Britain’s biggest listed companies, the FTSE 100 ended a marginal 0.4pc, or 33.05 points, up at 7469.92. On the junior market AIM, warnings of tough trading conditions pushed down shares at

Tatton Asset Management, even though it grew assets under management from £4.9bn to £6.1bn for the year ending in March.

Chief executive Paul Hogarth was ‘disappointed’ with the lack of growth at Paradigm Consulting, the part of Tatton that helps wealth managers and financial advisers comply with regulation. Shares fell 10.4pc, or 24p, to 207p. Emerging markets specialist

Ashmore, however, climbed 6.3pc or 28.8p to 484.2p as it raked in £3.8bn of new money from clients. Its strong investment performance generated a further £2.8bn, and chief executive Mark Coombs said calmer political relations in the developed world were helping emerging economies.