Land Securities nabs Bluewater
IT is not every day that a 30pc stake in the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent comes up for sale.
It is the fourth-largest centre in the UK and occupies 240 acres and a sales floor area of 1.6m sq.ft over two levels.
It has outperformed the wider UK retail sector over the past five years and the three biggest Real Estate Investment Trusts in the UK have thrown their hats in the ring, all apparently willing to pay north of £600m to seller Lend Lease to take over managing the centre.
Land Securities rose 15p to 1028p on rumours that it has beaten British Land (11p up at 687p) and retail specialist Hammerson (6.5p dearer at 568p) to the punch and Bluewater will soon come under its umbrella.
Land Securities has helped clear the decks for a move on Bluewater with the £152m sale of The Bridges shopping centre in Sunderland to clients of AEW Europe, reflecting net initial yield of 6.9pc.
Liberum Capital says Land Secs has created room for Bluewater in its retail portfolio through the disposals of Overgate, Dundee and The Bridges in Sunderland, which together with the anticipated sale of its 50pc stake in Cabot Circus in Bristol would realise £550m and reduce its loan to value ratio to 30pc.
The broker said while Land Secs has a number of attractive development opportunities in its Retail portfolio (Glasgow, Oxford and the O2), Bluewater would deliver a more immediate upgrade.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney’s apparent dovish U-turn on interest rates, less than two weeks after he had suggested rates would go up much sooner than expected, left the Footsie 13.49 points off at 6,787.07.
Wall Street climbed 18 points in early trad- ing to a record level after encouraging data on consumer confidence and new home sales. It later fell on profit taking, closing 119.13 points down at 16,818.13.
Rumours of a higher offer from AbbVie or counter bid from Pfizer helped Shire Pharmaceuticals climb 101p to 4404p. The Irish drugmaker has already forecast it will double annual sales by 2020 as it kicked an unwanted £27bn bid from its US rival into touch.
Sports Direct International came on offer at 720p, down 22.5p. Institutional investors have July 2 in their diaries for when they will again vote against boss Mike Ashley’s hefty incentive package for a third time. The fear is that if they do, a chippy Ashley will sell another large line of stock. That has been his response the past two times after losing a vote on his share option incentive scheme.
Tullow Oil eased a penny to 871p despite giving an encouraging update on its Ngamia well in Kenya. Broker Killik said the group has five rigs drilling in Kenya and Ethiopia, leaving plenty of potential share price catalysts for the second half of the year.
Printing technology kit supplier Domino Printing plummeted 123p or nearly 17pc to 615p on a disappointing trading update. It reported double-digit underlying growth in the first-half but warned that progress may be limited next year. The interim dividend is lifted 5pc. A shock profits warning left Croda Interna
tional 218p down at 2188p. An unscheduled second- quarter trading update indicated that second-quarter profits will be weaker than previously anticipated. The group cited sterling’s strength, a poor product mix in the high value consumer care business and ongoing weakness in Europe and industrial chemicals for the underperformance.
Agrochemicals group Syngenta climbed SWf 18.7 to 345.8 amid a report the group had been in talks about a $40bn takeover by US rival Monsanto.
Satellite TV giant BSkyB rose 7p to 897.5p on suggestions that it has closed down its door-to-door sales operation, laying off up to 600 staff, following allegations of mis-selling.
A combination of bear closing and some brave buying helped computer services company Blinkx put on 6p to 66p.
AMEC succumbed to scrappy selling and lost 13p at 1220p. Berenberg is a fan, believing there is huge growth potential in the Middle East And Latin America. Brazil’s upstream oil and gas market remains a key growth opportunity for AMEC following its strategic acquisition of a Brazilian engineering company in 2012.
Kalibrate Technologies, which provides pricing and retail planning tools to petroleum retailers worldwide, jumped 11.5p to 112.5p on a bullish trading update. The company said it had performd strongly in the past 12 months as it won and maintained customer contracts and expects revenues for the year slightly ahead of current market expectations. The balance sheet is strong with net cash of £5.3m.