Two more bidders battle for £1bn takeover of SVG
THE battle for private equity firm
SVG Capital intensified last night as Goldman Sachs and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board made a joint offer to buy the business.
SVG said it was urgently examining the bid but did not say how much cash was on the table.
Bidding was kicked off by US rival HarbourVest late last month, but SVG urged shareholders to reject the surprise £1bn proposal and came up with an alternative plan to sell half its portfolio to Pomona Capital and Pantheon Ventures for £379m. Bosses would then wind down the remaining assets.
HarbourVest hit back in a stock market announcement yesterday, claiming SVG shareholders risked losing out if its offer lapses. Shares fell 0.5pc, or 3.5p, to 670.5p.
Shares in British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) edged higher after the carrier reported a 5.7pc rise in customer numbers.
The company, which also owns Aer Lingus in Ireland and Spanish carrier Iberia, said it flew 9.6m passengers last month. It means it has carried 77.5m travellers so far this year – up 17.1pc on the same period of 2015. However, IAG’s load factor, a measure of how well it filled its planes, fell from 84.7pc to 84.1pc in September. But investors reacted well to the carrier numbers, giving shares a welcome boost of 0.8pc, or 3.1p, to 396.8p.
Peer EasyJet saw shares close up ahead of a trading update and September traffic statistics today. Investors will be watching carefully to hear how the airline has reacted to the Brexit vote. Shareholders seem positive of a favourable result. Shares closed up 1.3pc, or 13p, at 1003p.
The FTSE 100 closed 41.09 points lower at 7033.25, having neared a record high in the previous session.
Tesco’s results led the charge, up 9.7pc, or 18.4p, to 207.1p, with analysts at Barclays predicting it would build on its already strong performance. Other retail stocks were also on the rise, with Marks & Spencer up 2.7pc, or 8.8p, to 337.7p,
Morrisons up 1.1pc, or 2.4p, to 223p and Ocado up 0.7pc, or 2p, to 265.1p.
Meanwhile, a group of investors in FTSE 250 motor insurer Hast
ings decided to sell 7pc in the business for almost £100m through a share placing.
Sellers included Neil Utley, a cofounder in the business, and his wife Narmali. Others included Edward Fitzmaurice and Richard Brewster, who both sit on the board as non-executive directors.
The group sought to cash in on the rise in share price, which had climbed 41pc over the past 12 months. Utley, who masterminded the management buyout of the business in 2009, had seen the value of his personal shares climb by £7m over the period. They agreed to sell 46.2m shares in Hastings at 216p per share. Shares fell 2.4pc, or 5.5p, to 223p.
Investors were hungry for shares in Domino’s Pizza master franchise holder DP Poland after it promised to open more stores. The Aimlisted business raised £3.2m to open an additional 20 stores above the current forecast, targeting 100 outlets by 2020. Shares soared 13.1pc, or 6.38p, to 55p on the news.
And there was some positive trading for miners yesterday, after Eqypt-focused Centamin revealed a 6pc increase in production on last quarter. Shares had been gradually sliding after a fall in the price of gold, but the London-listed company said yield from its Sukari Gold Mine was up 41pc on the third quarter of last year.
Grateful investors reacted well to the news, and shares ticked up 1.8pc, or 2.6p, to 147.8p.
However Centamin’s rise was not indicative of general mining stocks, with Fresnillo (down 2.8pc, or 49p, to 1675p), Hochschild Mining (down 6.1pc, or 17p, to 260p) and Poly
metal International (down 5.7pc, or 53p, to 875p) all reporting falls.
A surprise 19pc rise in oil and gas investment company Mercom Cap
ital forced directors to issue a note saying there was ‘no operational or corporate reason’ for the jump. By the end of the day, investors had lost their taste for the mystery and its shares closed down 4.7pc, or 0.25p, at 5p.