Takeover fever in City as dealmakers go into battle
Takeover talk swept through trading floors yesterday as a raft of deals was announced.
Investors had three deals, and three potential deals, to get their teeth into as firms went on a spending spree.
among the potential deals, British airways owner International
Airlines Group revealed it is eyeing a bid for Norwegian after snapping up a 4.6pc stake in its budget rival. IAG’S shares were down 1.1pc, or 7p, at 608.6p. Shares in train and bus operator
First Group shot up 8.2pc, or 8.3p, to 110.1p after the transport giant spurned what it called an ‘opportunistic’ takeover offer from US private equity giant apollo.
and Shire was boosted by reports that Japan’s Takeda wants banks to help it fund a £35.1m bid for the FTSE 100 rare disease specialist. Takeda has until april 25 to make a bid. Shire rose 2.7pc, or 96p, to 3685.5p.
There were also more concrete
deals. FTSE 250 gambling software firm Playtech splashed out £732m for a 70.6pc stake in Italian gaming firm Snaitech, giving it a foothold in one of europe’s fastestgrowing gaming markets.
Playtech’s shares bumped up 5.7pc, or 43.4p, to 804.8p.
Countryside Properties, the FTSE 250 housebuilder, hoovered up smaller rival Westleigh Group in a £135.4m deal.
The deal will boost Countryside’s partnership business, which delivers affordable homes by working with councils and housing associations. In the past year, Westleigh built 1,159 homes and has a bank of nearly 5,000 plots.
Countryside’s shares floated up 4.4pc, or 15p, to 353p. Intertek, the industrial testing group, added tiny Colombian laboratory testing firm Proasem to its stable. The terms have not been released, although Intertek would have probably had to pay more than Proasem’s £4.5m turnover last year. Intertek’s shares edged up 0.1pc, or 5p, to 4810p.
The FTSE 100 was pretty much at a standstill, ending the day up just 0.02pc, or 1.2 points, at 7258.34. elsewhere, investors were popping the champagne corks as
Greene King and City Pub Group emerged from the ‘Beast from the east’ relatively unscathed.
Greene king, which owns more than 2,900 pubs and hotels, suffered a 1.8pc dip in sales in the 49 weeks to april 8 but sales were up 2.8pc over easter and it expects full-year profits of between £240m and £245m.
City Pub Group, with 34 pubs in the South, grew sales by 22pc in the first 14 weeks of the year. In 2017, revenue was up 35pc to £37.4m and profit rose 102pc to £3.2m.
Greene king shares were up 13.6pc, or 63.1p, to 528p, while City Pub Group’s were up 1.6pc, or 2.5p, to 163p.
a slump in the Uk market deflated shares in recruitment firm Hays. It grew net fees by 9pc year-on-year in the three months ending March 31, but in the Uk, which Hays describes as ‘subdued but broadly stable’, net fees fell 2pc compared to the same period last year. Hays shares slipped 2.6pc, or 4.9p, to 181.3p.
In the small caps, a glowing broker note boosted furniture chain
DFS. analysts at Peel Hunt said: ‘DFS is winning market share through its foresightedness online, and is more financially driven in terms of ensuring that it is well positioned to take advantage of the more recent evolution of the property market.’ Shares ticked up 7.1pc, or 14p, to 211p.
Pets At Home was in the doghouse with bankers Morgan Stanley, which cut the pet retailer’s target price from 145p to 125p, and gave it an ‘ underweight’ rating. Shares dipped 4.9pc, or 8.1p, to 156.5p.