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Equiniti jumps after unveiling plans to acquire Wells Fargo & Co's share registration and services business

Last updated: 15:45 12 Jul 2017 BST, First published: 13:34 12 Jul 2017 BST

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Equiniti Group PLC (LON:EQN) was a strong gainer in late afternoon trade, adding over 9%, or 22.75p at 265.5p after it unveiled plans to acquire the share registration and services business of US banking giant Wells Fargo & Co for US$227mln.

The cash deal, partially funded by a £122mln rights issue, will combine the largest UK share registrar with the third-largest US operation, creating a more diversified group.

Equiniti said it expects the deal to be strongly earnings accretive in its first full year of ownership, and double-digit earnings accretive by the end of the second year. Expected cost synergies are put are US$10.0 million per annum, achievable by the third full year of ownership.

Windar up as losses narrow; Forbidden Tech bags license deal

Another strong small cap gainer was Windar Photonics PLC (LON:WPHO), up 12%, or 9.0p to 82.5p after the wind sensor technology company said its interim loss had narrowed after an increase in revenue and a reduction in costs.

The AIM-listed firm said net losses for the six months ended June 30 were reduced by 52% to €800,000, down from €1.8mln a year earlier, as revenue jumped by 62% to €1.3mln from €800,000 the previous year.

The group also pointed out that its revenue is already higher than the total revenue recorded for calendar year 2016 of €1.2mln.

And shares in Forbidden Technologies plc (LON:FBT) rose 15%, or 0.75p to 5.75p as the video technology company said it has licensed its Forscene video platform to an unnamed US broadcaster and sports rights holder.

The latest news follows the announcement on Tuesday that Forbidden Tech would increase its commercial capacity in Canada through the signing of a reseller agreement with F2 Technologies.

Carillion kicking continues

Selling the stock of Carillion PLC (LON:CLLN) short has been a can’t fail trade this week.

There has been no shortage of brokers lining up to stick the boot in, some of them even had the foresight before Monday’s grim trading update from the infrastructure and construction group to predict hard times for Carillion.

READ: Carillion shares continue in freefall, with RBC predicting a cash call

Canadian bank RBC has joined the chorus of doom-sayers, predicting that an emergency cash call is on the cards while it even thinks an exit from construction activities could be on the cards.

Carillion shares have fallen from 192p at Friday’s close to around 68p now, so RBC’s price target of 100p looks on the optimistic side, even though it has been slashed from 230p.

Micro Focus can't shake off concerns over its blockbuster deal

Carillion’s story demonstrates how quickly fortunes of big companies can change, which brings us on to enterprise software company Micro Focus International PLC (LON:MCRO).

The stock recently made it into the FTSE 100 but it is currently languishing in the bottom five in terms of market capitalisation of index constituents, which makes it a candidate to return to the FTSE 250- at the next review.

Today’s 8.5% fall following full-year results has not helped its cause, though Numis Securities said the results were in line with its forecasts.

READ: Micro Focus shares fall on "broadly flat" revenue outlook after in-line final results

Numis is the house broker so its forecasts should have been pretty much on the money.

As house broker, it won’t be inclined to say what many in the market are thinking: that the £7bn purchase of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s software assets might prove to be a pig in a poke.

Numis did go so far to say that “the key question remains the shape of the business on arrival, which will determine the scale (and thus cost and timing) of restructuring as well as potentially de-risk the process.”

Global Petroleum "bigs up" Gemsbok prospect; market "bigs down" share price

Away from the FTSE 350, and completing our trio of troubled stocks, Global Petroleum Ltd (LON:GBP) plunged 39% to 1.75p as it said the cost of its 2D seismic data acquisition programme for its operated block PEL 0029 in Namibia was about US$740,000, excluding processing costs.

Global's licence PEL 0029, in which it holds an 85% interest, covers offshore blocks 1910B and 2010A in the Republic of Namibia.

“Initial examination of the high quality raw data confirms the extremely large extent of the Gemsbok prospect in the south east of the block,” Global said.

If that is the case then the loss of almost two-fifths of the value of the company is a puzzler, unless traders are just preparing for a big fund-raising exercise. 

Premier Oil soars after announcing "world class" discovery

(Mexican) Hats off to Premier Oil PLC (LON:PMO), which has announced a new “world class” oil discovery off the coast of Mexico.

READ: Premier Oil surges as it hits ‘world class’ discovery offshore Mexico

The shares shot up 30% to 60p on news of a discovery of an interval that indicates more than one billion barrels of oil in place.

Not surprisingly, the Premier Oil social media team had a (oil) field day with the news.

Apparently, “focusing our exploration portfolio on high impact opportunities in proven but under-drilled basins has led to this world class discovery,” according to Premier.

The news looks just as good in Spanish (probably).

Asa Resource tops the greasy pole as Chinese shareholder swoops

Asa Resource Group PLC (LON:ASA) was the best performing UK stock early doors after Rich Pro Investments (RPI) made a takeover bid.

Shares in Asa shot up by more than a third to 1.75p on the cash offer, though this is still some way below the 2.1p offer price being dangled before Asa shareholders by Rich Pro.

RPI, an investment company owned by Chinese outfit Hailiang, currently holds just under 3% of ASA but this rises to 15.7% when parties acting in concert with it are taking into account.

The offer looks opportunistic, given that Asa’s share price has fallen by a third this year, and RPI was laying it on thick, pointing out a number of risks and uncertainties facing Asa, such as the standard ones facing junior explorers, namely a lot of debt and a frightening cash burn rate.

RPI said there are also “several material uncertainties as to the good-standing or longevity of certain of the Wider ASA Group's mining licences” and exposure to multiple legal disputes, accounting uncertainties and foreign exchange restrictions.

All of which makes you wonder why they want to buy the company.

For its part, Asa has advised shareholders to take no action for now while it engages in discussions with the RPI board to seek various assurances.

Proactive News Headlines:

US-based cell engineering technology firm MaxCyte Inc (LON:MXCT) is poised for continued growth after a solid first half of the year.

ClearStar Inc (LON:CLSU) expects to report first-half year-on-year revenue growth of approximately 12% to US$8.9mln, the highest level of revenue it has generated in a six-month reporting period.

Galantas Gold Corporation (LON:GAL)  says the underground development of its Omagh mine is going well, with the development tunnel advanced by approximately 47m from the underground portal.  The Ulster-based miner said plans are in hand to increase the blasting frequency, while a narrow vein of gold shooting off from the Kearney system has also been intercepted as expected.

Berkeley Energia PLC (LON:BKY) has received delivery of the primary crusher at the Salamanca uranium mine in Spain. The 400 tonne per hour crusher was one of the long lead items identified in last year’s fund raise and marks the start of the build and commissioning phases that are scheduled to be completed during the second half of 2018.

Trading in shares of Premier African Minerals Limited resume trading following a temporary suspension after the firm announced that it has posted its Annual Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2016 to shareholders.

Richard Burrell, chief executive officer of Aggregated Micro Power Holdings PLC (LON:AMPH) has transferred 40,000 of his AMP shares to his self-invested personal pension. Burrell’s holding in AMP remains at around 7.2% of the company following the housekeeping sales and purchase transaction.

It is often said that ‘charity begins at home’, but for WideCells Group PLC (LON:WDC) boss João Andrade, his goodwill starts at the office. Andrade has started training for a 135-mile ultramarathon in the Californian desert – dubbed ‘the world’s toughest foot race’ – as part of the stem cell specialist’s corporate charity engagement plan

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