Peppa Pig owner flying on fresh takeover talk

ENTERTAINMENT One was spurred further forward as anticipation mounted that it may receive another takeover bid.

Speculation that ITV would buy the business behind children’s television favourite Peppa Pig first began back in April.

Last week eOne rejected a £1bn offer from the broadcaster. The bid was equivalent to 236p a share. EOne said the offer undervalued the Canadian company, which has rights to more than 40,000 film and TV titles.

Now it is rumoured private equity firm KKR could wade into the bidding war. It is understood the firm, which owns rail ticketing website the Trainline and Toys R Us, has held talks with eOne’s biggest shareholder, the Canadian Pension fund, and is considering a bid.

Broker Liberum is sceptical that ITV will be prepared to pay the price that eOne shareholders want – reportedly at least 300p a share. Analysts also pointed out that such a major acquisition would call into question ITV’s special dividend, which was 10p a share in 2015. There is also speculation that ITV might try to separate out eOne’s assets and only bid for the TV part of the business. Liberum suggested that drama-driven ITV may even want to offload the Peppa Pig brand to a more child-focused firm.

EOne shares advanced 6.8pc, or 16.2p to 255p. ITV lost 0.4pc, or 0.8p to 199.2p.

The market was perhaps unnecessarily harsh on Bovis, which saw its shares slip despite strong halfyear results. At £412.8m in the six months to June 30, the housebuilder’s revenue was up 18pc on a year ago while pre-tax profit climbed 15pc to £61.7m.

The firm reported a 5pc increase on completions to 1,601 and said its average sales price had risen 14pc to £254,000. At 3,877, the group achieved 90pc of its planned home sales for the year by August 12.

Bovis also has a landbank of 19,477 consented plots across 138 plots. After a short-term slowdown in reservation rates in July, chief executive David Ritchie said it was too early to judge the impact of the EU Referendum and the Bank of England’s recent rate cuts but the outlook for US housing remains fundamentally positive.

George Salmon, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘The decision to raise the dividend [by 9pc to 15p a share] is a sign of the group’s confidence but investors should be mindful of the firm’s struggles with controlling labour costs, which have held back profit margins in recent years, and which look set to continue.’ Shares fell 2.8pc, or 23p to 813p. Countryside Properties (down 3.5pc, or 8.5p to 234.3p) also suffered as JPMorgan slashed target prices across the board for house builder stocks. On the FtSE 100

Berkeley Group fell back 1.8pc, or 46p to 2493p, while Barratt was off 0.8pc, or 3.5p 436.8p.

Despite that, the main market continued its climb, up 0.36pc, or 25.17 points to 6941.19. The index is hovering tantalisingly close to 7,000. Its all-time high was reached on April 27, 2015 when it closed at 7103.9. Several of the miners were among the highest risers of the day, Anglo American, the greatest mover among them, was up 1.8pc, or 15.8p to 877.1p. BHP Billiton (up 0.25pc, or 2.5p to 1042.5p) and antofagasta (flat at 514p) are due to report today.

Georgia Healthcare advanced as it announced record profits in the first half of the year. The firm, which provides healthcare services in Georgia, said net profit in the first six months was £14.4m, while revenue was up 55.5pc year-on-year to £58m.

But profit in the medical insurance side of the business, where a chief executive was appointed in July, almost halved to around £765,600.

The firm said Givi Giorgadze’s expertise will be invaluable in improving results in the division. Georgia has been upping its staff numbers over the past six months and has 11,884 employees; in May the firm also completed the acquisition of pharmacy chain GPC. Shares gained 1.8pc, or 5.5p to 307.5p.