People may not be buying newspapers as often these days, but companies keep buying newspaper titles.
Debt-laden newspapers group Johnston Press plc (LON:JPR) saw its shares soar higher after the publisher of the Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post agreed another disposal deal.
The group, the owner of a string of local newspapers, said it had agreed to sell its Johnston Publishing East Anglia unit to family-owned publisher Iliffe News and Media Ltd for £17mln in cash.
Shares advanced 17.4% to 13.5p today but have lost more than three-quarters of their value over the last year.
Talking of debt-laden companies, Canada's Labrador Iron Mines Holdings Limited (LIMH) has had its restructuring plans approved.
That's good news for major shareholder Anglesey Mining plc (LON:AYM), which saw its shares soar by more than a fifth on the news.
OK, the shares issued to creditors mean Anglesey's stake will be diluted from 15% to 11.9%, but the now debt-free LIMH will be able to start developing its assets when the pricing environment for iron improves.
11.49 ...
It's only 17 days since the half-year results from vehicle technology specialist Torotrack PLC (LON:TRK), but that's time enough for things to have turned sour.
The shares lost almost a quarter of their value as the company said a potential licensee of the company's Flybrid Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) technology had advised it of a further deterioration in trading conditions in its market.
As a result, the company now expects negotiation of the licensing deal to be completed in the next financial year, rather than the current one, which runs to the end of March 2017.
“The board believes that this potential licence in the off-highway sector will be delivered but its timing is now looking like unfortunately moving into the next financial year. This likely delay in securing the first KERS licence reflects the unexpected further challenges facing the off-highway industry,” said Adam Robson, chief executive of Torotrak.
It is not often an agreed offer for a company results in the share price tumbling, but that is what has happened in the case of Sepura PLC (LON:SEPU).
Shares in the provider of communications solutions fell 18.45 to 19.375p, as the board agreed to a 20p a share cash offer from Hytera.
Admittedly, 20p is way above the Sepura share price (of 14.75p) on the day before it was announced that the two companies were in bid talks, but clearly the market was expecting Hytera to be a bit more generous.
9.15 ...
Rentokil Initial PLC (LON:RTO) and Haniel are to form a joint venture (JV).
The JV will, in Rentokil's words, create “a leading provider of work-wear and hygiene services in Europe”, with combined revenues of around €1.1bn.
The deal will involve Rentokil's Initial existing work-wear and laundry services being transferred into the JV.
In return, Rentokil will receive around €520mln in cash and an 18% stake in the JV.
More importantly, from a journalistic point of view, hacks can go back to calling Rentokil the “royal rat-catcher”, as the deal effectively gets shot of the businesses it acquired when it took over Initial.
Funds from the deal will be used to reduce net debt and provide fire-power for any acquisitions it wants to make in the area of Pest Control and Hygiene.
Industrial thread manufacturer Coats Group PLC (LON:COA) is off the hook with the UK Pensions Regulator in respect of two of three of its pension schemes.
The company has settled with the trustees of the UK Coats Pension Plan and Brunel Holdings Pension Scheme, agreeing to pay £329.5mln upfront, with annual too-up payments of £17.5mln.
“The settlement allows us to pay dividends to our shareholders, whilst retaining sufficient cash to continue to invest in growth opportunities,” said Mike Clasper, chairman of Coats.
The trustee of the third pension scheme under investigation by the regulator has not accepted the company's proposed settlement.
Coats' shares rose 3.9% on the news and are up more than 25% this week.