Asos surges after £1bn bid from Turkish rival
ASOS shares were in demand following reports over the weekend that it had received a £1bn takeover bid last year.
The fast-fashion group, which owns Topshop and Miss Selfridge, was recently booted out of the FTSE 250. It was valued at between £10 to £12 a share in an offer from the Turkish online retailer Trendyol in December.
That was much higher than Asos’s closing share price of £3.50 on Friday.
While talks with Trendyol – which is backed by China’s ecommerce giant Alibaba – appear to have ended, the approach was seen as a sign that Asos was attracting interest from potential bidders. That could see Asos become the latest household name to be taken off the London stock market.
Asos shares soared 7.1pc, or 24.8p, to 375.2p.
But the stock remains some way off its peak of more than 7700p in March 2018.
Asos declined to comment. The London-listed group last month tapped investors for £75m to shore up its finances and help fund a turnaround plan. The retailer revealed losses of over £290m for the six months to the end of February as it was hit by pressure on household budgets.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: ‘Takeover interest often emerges when a broken company lays out a recovery plan and there are early signs it is working.
‘Those green shoots can give a suitor confidence it is worth making a bid now rather than waiting for the company to be repaired and then having to pay a much higher price when the risks are lower.’
The FTSE 100 slid by 0.1pc or 7.29 points to 7599.99 and the FTSE 250 fell 0.2pc, or 35.76 points, to 19113.55.
Oil prices rose more than 2pc to over $78 a barrel after Saudi Arabia said it will cut output by 1m barrels per day from next month.
The decision came on Sunday following a meeting with Opec+, a group of oil-producing countries, which also said production targets would fall by a further 1.4m barrels per day from 2024.
Such moves are aimed at increasing oil prices. The rise in the oil price failed to help BP as shares slid 0.3pc, or 1.4p, to 472.95p and Shell, down 0.2pc, or 5p, to 2285p.
There was good news for Indivior after it settled a seven-year litigation with dozens of US states at a lower price than forecast.
The pharma group, which makes drugs to treat opioid addiction, has agreed to pay £82.7m following claims that it illegally suppressed generic competition for its product Suboxone.
This was far lower than the £242m it set aside to cover the lawsuit which began in 2016. Payment is expected to be made this month, the company added.
Shares rocketed 7.8pc, or 115p, to 1590p.
Fund manager Abrdn was among the top blue-chip gainers after it launched a share buyback programme worth up to £150m. Shares added 3.2pc, or 6.5p, to 210p.
Housing developer Watkin Jones landed a deal to sell a built-to-rent project in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter. The buyers, Legal & General (down 0.7pc, or 1.6p, to 234.4p) and Clanmil Housing Association, will pay £155m and become owners of The Loft Lines development once it is completed.
The brownfield site will be transformed into a community with 627 built-to-rent units and 81 ‘social rent affordable homes’ built on the site of the former Harland & Wolff (0.7pc, or 0.1p, to 13.75p) shipyard. Shares rose 1.6pc, or 1.1p, to 69.4p.
There was little respite for Dr Martens after the bootmaker’s target price was cut by Morgan Stanley and Barclays. Shares fell 4.1pc, or 5.7p, to 134.1p.