Punch Taverns PLC (LON:PUB) served up an early Christmas present for its investors on Wednesday afternoon after the pub chain confirmed it had received two takeovers.
One offer from Dutch brewery giant Heineken priced shares at 174p each, while a separate offer from one of Punch’s original founders, Alan McIntosh, offered shareholders 185p a share.
News of the offers, and the potential for a bidding war, sent the share price soaring to 176p – an increase of 40% on yesterday’s close.
McIntosh’s proposal is conditional on confirmatory due diligence being carried out, arranging committed financing and receiving the backing of the Punch board.
Any tie-up with Heineken, which itself owns 1,100 leased pubs across the country, would likely come under scrutiny from competition regulators.
Punch is the UK’s second-largest pub chain with an estate of more than 3,000 pubs across the nation.
Last month, the firm reported its first annual profit for three years, having reached the conclusion of a disposal programme designed to reduce its hefty debt pile.
Elsewhere, Orogen Gold PLC (LON:ORE) shares dived by 14% after investors reacted unenthusiastically to a trading update today.
11.15am...Plant Health Care shoots up as it signs four distribution deals
The announcement of four new distribution deals for Plant Health Care PLC (LON:PHC) sent shares in the agricultural care specialist shooting skywards on Wednesday.
The company – which provides natural biological treatments to farmers to help improve crop yields and fight off damaging diseases – said the agreements would help to drive sales growth in 2017 and beyond.
“The distribution arrangements announced today reflect further progress in developing sales of the product in significant markets,” said interim chief executive Chris Richard.
“We expect that these agreements, together with other projects in progress, will drive strong sales growth of products based on Harpin over the coming years.”
The four deals will give the North Carolina-based firm access to some lucrative markets, including the Florida citrus fruit industry and the 90mln US corn market.
It has expanded an existing deal to increase the number of sub-Saharan countries it distributes to to 23, while another tie-up has allowed it to create a presence in Portugal.
Investors were clearly with the commercial distribution agreements, with Plant Health Care’s share price soaring to 19.5p – 40% higher than yesterday’s close.
9.15am...TP Group booms as it expects to smash full-year forecasts
Shares in specialist services and engineering firm TP Group PLC (LON:TPG) soared early on Wednesday morning after it told investors full-year results will “significantly exceed” expectations.
The group, which was known as Corac until last summer, expects its underlying earnings and cash position to come in ahead of original forecasts.
This isn’t a one-off just for this year, either.
TP said recent contract wins and a strong order book, including the two MoD contracts it inked over the summer, means underlying earnings for next year will also be “materially ahead” of expectations.
“We have made excellent progress during the year, capturing a number of new strategic orders and generally increasing margins across the business,” said chief executive Phil Cartmell.
Cartmell added that the Farnborough-based group will look to make some acquisitions in the New Year to drive growth further.
Elsewhere, Boohoo.com PLC (LON:BOO) was well in the black after telling investors it expects revenues and margins to be better than expected this year.
Shares were up 7% on the bullish trading update, which also revealed that the online retailer has snapped up a majority stake in a similar company, PrettyLittleThing, for £3.3mln.
It wasn’t such an enjoyable for investors of MediaZest PLC (LON:MDZ) which was down more than 16% in early deals.
The audio visual marketing specialist posted a slight rose in profits for the six months to September, but an 8% fall in revenues didn’t seem to sit well with shareholders.