Harvest Minerals Ltd (LON:HMI) had a good afternoon, rising more than 11% on the back of good news about its application for a trial mining permit at its Arapua fertiliser project.
The company believes it has now jumped all the hurdles required and submitted the necessary documentation to the Departamento Nacional de Produção Mineral in Brasilia for final approval.
It must have been a good annual general meeting for Karelian Diamond Resources Plc (LON:KDR), the diamond exploration company focused on Finland, today, as the shares rose 15% to 0.58p, although no new information appeared to be revealed in chairman Professor Richard Conroy’s statement.
11.36 ... Daily Mail and General Trust slashes stake in Euromoney
The Daily Mail and General Trust PLC (LON:DMGT) is to sell off a large chunk of shares in Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC (LON:ERM).
DMGT has a 67% stake in publisher and events organiser Euromoney, but announced plans after the market closed yesterday to reduce its stake to less than 50%.
Part of those proposals involved Euromoney buying some of the shares DMGT is offloading, and this morning Euromoney confirmed it would buy shares equivalent to around 15% of its issued share capital from DMGT at 975p a share.
Shares in Euromoney were down 60p at 1,060p in late morning trading, largely because DMGT has signalled its intention to place shares equivalent to 10% of Euromoney’s share capital with institutional investors, also at 975p a throw.
In similar vein, cloud-based video editing platform developer Forbidden Technologies plc (LON:FBT) shares took a tumble, falling 4% to 8.875p, after it emerged that Schroders had reduced its stake from 11.34% to 10.52%.
09.36 ... Fyffes turning Japanese (I really think so)
The share price of Fyffes PLC (LON:FFY) went bananas as Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo swooped for the Irish foods group.
The board of Fyffes has recommended Sumitomo’s offer of €2.23 in cash per share, prompting a 45% jump in the share price in London trading. The terms value Fyffes at €751.4mln.
"Sumitomo Corporation has long admired Fyffes for its outstanding track record and market leading position, and we are delighted that the Fyffes directors have unanimously agreed to recommend our offer to shareholders,” said Sumitomo’s Hirohiko Imura.
“We believe that our offer represents a great reward for Fyffes' shareholders. We are grateful that the McCann family has provided an irrevocable commitment of support and is entrusting us to continue with them the rich Fyffes heritage. Sumitomo will provide Fyffes with experience, support and investment to continue to build on the tremendous Fyffes skills and experience and reach greater potential,” he added.
David McCann, chairman of Fyffes, dipping into his big book of management cliches, described the transacting as “a compelling proposition” (i.e. a good deal), that “crystallises the substantial value created in recent years” (i.e. allows shareholders to take the money and run).
In other mergers & acquisitions news, Premier African Minerals Limited (LON:PREM) has opted not to exercise its option to up its stake in Casa Mining Limited.
To do so would most probably have required Premier to issue shares, and the share price reacted favourably to the decision, rising more than 10% to 0.304p.
Premier currently has a 4.5% interest in Casa, which has three mining licences in the highly prospective South Kivu province in the eastern Congo gold belt of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
That stake was paid for by a £300,000 share issue by Premier African. The Aim-listed firm, which still believes Casa assets have a lot of potential, decided not to take up the option to lift the stake to 30%.