Ladbrokes (LON:LAD) has confirmed press speculation that it is in talks with Gala Coral about a merger of their betting businesses.
“A merger with Gala Coral could create a combined business with significant scale and has the potential to generate substantial cost synergies, creating value for both companies' shareholders,” said Jim Mullen, the chief executive of Ladbrokes.
Meanwhile, Boylesports is set to pull the trigger with a bid for Ladbrokes’ Irish arm, despite having failed to persuade the UK bookie to cough up info so Boylesports could do its due diligence.
Rightster (LON:RSTR), the digital video distribution and monetisation network likes a gamble … Procter & Gamble, to be precise. It has signed two new deals with the multi-national fast moving consumer goods company.
In India, a campaign to promote the Vicks brand achieved more than 4mln views, while in France a campaign centred on Tampax tampons generated more than 1.4mln views and in excess of 18,000 “likes” on YouTube alone.
In Glasgow, Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley is not getting very many “likes” from the Rangers supporting half of the city.
The Rangers First pressure group has voted for an official boycott of Sports Direct (LON:SPD) merchandise, in protest over the hold Ashley, who effectively controls both Sports Direct and Rangers football club, has over the Glasgow footie team.
Rangers First, which is committed to Rangers being owned by its fans, is the 10th biggest shareholder in Rangers International Football Club, and wants the current merchandising deal between Rangers and Sports Direct to be renegotiated.
Motif Bio (LON:MTFB) has broken the immutable law of share placings, which is that they invariably lead to a slide in the share price. The shares edged higher to 65.7p from 64.25p overnight after the company said placed shares at 50p a pop, raising £22mln in the process.
Alecto Minerals (LON:ALO), down 0.002p at 0.163p, has not been so fortunate after it placed shares at 0.1p, raising £300,000 in the process.
The funds will provide working capital while it does due diligence on potential acquisition opportunities in the African gold mining sector.
Lastly, oilfield support services group Petrofac (LON:PFC) has been one of the better performing mid-caps this year, and was up sharply again this morning despite warning investors it faces £30mln of extra costs on the Laggan-Tormore project near the Shetland Islands.
Investors seem to be hoping that this morning’s trading update will put a line under the offshore money pit, after Petrofac said construction activities on the project are substantially complete.
There was good news on the order book front, with the group’s backlog of orders standing at record levels at the end of May.