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London afternoon: RSA puts pressure on Aviva
Wed, 08 Feb, 2012
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London afternoon: RSA puts pressure on Aviva
Mon, 16 Aug 2010, 13:28:00
After threatening to regain Friday night's closing level in the dying moments of the morning session, the Footsie drifted lower over the lunch time session. Insurer <b>RSA </b>attempted to put a spark in proceedings by saying it was still interested in buying the general insurance businesses in the UK, Ireland and Canada of rival insurer <b>Aviva</b>. Aviva had earlier outlined its reasons for rejecting RSA's approach. It considered that "the highest value to shareholders will be delivered by retaining these businesses within the group," a view obviously not shared by RSA, which believes a tie-up would make "strong strategic sense". "The proposed transaction represents in-market consolidation in geographies and lines of business that RSA knows well and in RSA's view, would give rise to significant cost synergies estimated at £300m per annum pre-tax," RSA said. Two companies that are seeing eye to eye on a transaction are oil explorer <b>Cairn Energy</b> and Indian miner <b>Vedanta Resources</b>. Cairn has sold a 51% stake in its Indian business to Vedanta for $8.5bn (£5.4bn). The deal will result in a cash windfall for shareholders in the Scottish oil explorer. The money will give Cairn financial flexibility to focus on an active multi-year exploration and drilling programme in Greenland and also consider "further material growth opportunities", said Cairn chief Bill Gammell. Vedanta's gain exceeds that of Cairn, though that may be due to the general buoyancy of mining stocks today. A disposal on a much smaller scale has been announced by speciality chemicals group <b>Johnson Matthey</b>, which is to sell its Vertec titanates division to Dorf Ketal chemicals for £4.6m. Hotels and coffee shops owner <b>Whitbread </b>is a little off the pace. The company completed an issue of private placement notes with an equivalent sterling value of about £102m. The proceeds will be used to repay drawings under existing shorter-dated bank facilities. In the mid-cap index, a rise in permanent recruitment and improved confidence levels helped <b>Michael Page</b> deliver a surge in half yearly earnings. The recruiter posted profit before tax of £61.4m in the six months to 30 June 2010 from £43.2m the same time a year before. Revenue for the period increased to £393.5m from £364.7m. Oil services group<b> Hunting</b> is to acquire Innova-Extel, a Texas-based supplier of 'harsh environment' electronics technology for $125m. Software group <b>Misys </b>has taken another step in its divestment of its stake in US medical software firm Allscripts. It has announced the start of a public offering of 25m Allscripts-Misys Healthcare shares of its common stock on behalf of certain wholly-owned subsidiaries of Misys. <b>Balfour Beatty's</b> share of work on the first phase of the Eagle P3 commuter rail project in the Denver area is put at £560m, the infrastructure specialist said. <b>Gulfsands Petroleum</b> is disappointed that the first reservoir target at its Lambouka-1 well in Tunisia looks to be water-bearing, although it's looking on the bright side. Vouchers and Christmas hampers supplier <b>Park Group</b> has received £1.9m back from the taxman after appealing against the VAT accounting treatment of commission paid to agents. Aim-listed insurance broker CBG warned 2010 will be another tough year and, despite ongoing cost cuts, it is not likely to reach current market expectations for the full year. The share price of <b>Landkom </b>is back in double figures after the Ukrainian grain and oilseeds grower said it expects to benefit from higher wheat prices caused by hot weather . The company's crops missed out on the worst of the heat damage that is ravaging crops in the east of Ukraine and Russia. Shares in Australian coal miner <b>Caledon Resources</b> fell after it said it was no longer in an offer period having received 'a number of unsolicited and indicative enquiries from third parties.' Shares in Chinese battery producer <b>China Shoto</b> fell after it said trading conditions have continued to be challenging an that revenues will fall by about 11% and profits by about 12% in the six months to June 30. Engineering design software group <b>Delcam</b> saw a rise in profits and sales in the year to June 30 as it saw a recovery in demand for software across all major markets, especially in Asia and South America. Medical technology firm <b>Lifeline Scientific</b> has enjoyed "steady" growth during 2010 and now expects to make much more than it did last year.
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