BEST OF THE BROKERS
FEDERAL GRID COMPANY (GDR)
Goldman Sachs transfers its coverage of Russia’s largest electricity transmission company grid from the local stock exchange to its global depositary receipt listing in London, rating it as a “buy” with a target price of $7.50. The broker says news flow on Russian power utilities reached its most negative in autumn 2011 but is now reversing, with Federal Grid offering the most liquid exposure to the upturn in sentiment.
KUONI
UBS transfers coverage of the tour operator with an unchanged “buy” rating and target price of SwFr350, seeing the company’s recent de-rating following financing difficulties at rival Thomas Cook as unjustified. The broker expects an outsourcing contract slated to be signed this quarter with Saudi Arabia to boost earnings, and sees growth in Kuoni’s tour operations as most of those profits are from Scandinavia, which it considers to be resilient.
BSKYB
Nomura rates the pay-TV and broadband supplier as a “buy” with a target price of 1,000p, saying that the company has a lot of challenges to negotiate in 2012, but that it has done so successfully in the past. The broker expects similar trends as seen in the last quarter when Sky reports second quarter results on 31 January, with net TV adds of 55,000, around 140,000 in broadband and around 100,000 in HDTV.