BEST OF THE BROKERS November 24, 2009 BLACKS LEISURE Seymour Pierce yesterday upgraded to “Outperform” from “Sell” its rating on Blacks Leisure. It said the approval of a Company Voluntary Arrangement eighteen months into turnaround plans at the company was the catalyst for the upgrade. The terms return financial stability to the store’s portfolio, Seymour Pierce said, leaving it in substantially better [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 6, 2010 MENZIES Numis believes the shares are significantly undervalued and raised its target price from 411p to 423p on the back of a positive trading update. Management said Menzies Aviation had seen a slight improvement in fourth quarter trading, while Menzies Distribution saw the rate of decline for magazine sales slow. UK COAL Charles Kernot has [...]
Weak sterling helps push up inflation rate January 17, 2010 INFLATION is forecast to have surged in December, fuelling concerns that the Bank of England’s ultra-loose monetary policy is allowing inflationary pressures to build up. Economists on average expect the annual rate of inflation in December – published on Tuesday – to hit 2.5 per cent, with further rises in the pipeline. December marks the [...]
Thumbs down for Greek rescue plan February 11, 2010 INITIAL City enthusiasm over an expected bailout for Greece quickly switched to disappointment yesterday as the 16 nations in the eurozone failed to come up with a solid rescue plan. The euro plunged almost one per cent against the dollar – at one stage breaching a fresh eight-month low –?and despite recovering slightly lost most [...]
Cadbury dips below Kraft offer price January 7, 2010 CADBURY shares breached the psychologically-important level of Kraft’s hostile bid price for the first time yesterday, as pressure for the US food giant to increase its offer substantially starts to wane. Cadbury’s stock dipped to an intraday low of 767.5p on the London Stock Exchange yesterday, well below the 771p at which Kraft’s cash-and-shares bid [...]
Interest rate kept on hold again by Bank January 7, 2010 THE Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) yesterday froze the interest rate at 0.5 per cent while persevering with quantitative easing until next month. The interest rate has remained unchanged since March after the MPC took drastic action to tackle the global economic crisis. Quantitative easing, aimed at pumping cash into the financial system, [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS November 30, 2009 ATKINSInvestec said yesterday Atkins was weathering the economic downturn well, as it continued to adjust its resources to meet expected market demand. The group responded early to the recessionary challenges, it added, which shows in its results. The broker is keeping its “hold” view and raising its target price on the stock. DMGTInvestec also said [...]
Good day for blue-chips sees FTSE flirt with the 5,300 level February 17, 2010 Britain’s top share index rose for the third consecutive day yesterday, led by financials and miners on bullish corporate results and economic data, and adding to growing optimism over the health of the global economy. The FTSE 100 ended up 32.58 points, or 0.6 per cent at 5,276.64, touching a two-week high during the session [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 25, 2010 Investec The investment bank has hired Paul Bail as a director in its debt advisory team, focusing on expanding its profile in the private equity space. Bail joins from Barclays, where he was managing director of leveraged finance in the financial sponsors group and a board director of Barclays Financial Investments. Prior to that, he [...]
Cadbury talks to Hershey to fend off Kraft January 6, 2010 CADBURY was last night locked in talks with Hershey in a bid to stave off Kraft’s hostile takeover attempt. The British confectionery giant is not only seeking a higher price than Kraft’s £10.5bn hostile offer, but also a merger partner that would let it have some say in a combined company, two sources familiar with [...]