NHS supplier’s float brings buoyancy to subdued City
LONDON’S float market has been subdued this year but it got a shot in the arm today from NHS outsourcer Medica, which soared on debut.
Investors piled into the company, which provides radiology reports including X-rays to more than 100 NHS hospitals. Medica raised £121 million at 135p but there was a scrum for the shares, which were up by a third to 180p as they started trading. Listings in London have been few and far between this year and the City was keen to get a piece of Medica, which is hoping to benefit from the NHS crisis.
On the wider market, the FTSE 100 lost gains — down 15.35 points at 7414.46 — after the inflation-driven pound rally.
Distribution firm Bunzl is not known for being the market’s most exciting stock, but it captured the imagination of the City today.
Its shares were up 16.64p to 2351.64p as Barclays upgraded to Overweight and said the company’s organic growth and acquisition spending were at “an inflection point”.
Shares in industrial laundry firm Berendsen were binned after Barclays cut its rating to Underweight.
The investment bank’s analysts said they were “slightly puzzled” by the plans to splash the cash to dig it out of a hole. “Undertaking a major capex programme is a challenge for any business but it looks even trickier to execute while churning around 40% of the UK managers (around 180 people leaving, 150 new hires planned),” Barclays said.
At the smaller end of the spectrum, semiconductor specialist IQE lost some of its spark after its annual results. The shares fell from record highs yesterday, down 3.58p, or 6.5%, to 51.17p.
Accesso Technology Group, which manages queues for the theme parks such as Thorpe Park, crept up 2.5p to 1570p. Its annual results revealed that revenues grew 10% to $102.5 million (£82 million) and adjusted earnings jumped 26% to $19.1 million.
And it was a tale of two drugs firms on AIM as Sinclair Pharma, down 1.5p to 33.5p, agreed to pay £5 million in compensation to Alliance Pharma, which rose 1.3p to 48.3p. It follows a “material reduction in business” for Kelo-stretch, a cream for stretch marks that Alliance bought from Sinclair. @jamienimmo63