Booker Group (LON:BOK) will be in focus as it report its fourth quarter trading update in the wake of backlash over Tesco plc’s (LON:TSCO) plans to buy the food wholesaler.
Tesco’s proposed £3.7bn bid for Booker was thrown into doubt yesterday after two of its largest shareholders, Schroders and Artisan Partners, expressed their opposition to the deal.
The shareholders, which own 9% of Tesco between them, argued the bid for Booker was too high and the merger would detract the company's focus away from its restructuring.
Tesco’s boss Dave Lewis defended the proposal and insisted the supermarket was “completely committed to the deal”.
Tesco announced in January it had agreed to buy Booker - which owns the Budgens, Premier and Londis convenience-store brands - as the supermarket expands beyond its traditional retail business amid fierce competition from smaller rivals, including Aldi and Lidl.
Booker, the largest cash and carrier operator in the UK, in January said it remains on course to meet full year expectations as it reported a 3.2% increase in like-for-like sales in the third quarter, citing growth in catering and retail.
Meanwhile, BeHeard Group plc (LON:BHRD) reports its full year results tomorrow as the digital marketing group continues to expand its operations through a number of acquisitions.
In November 2015 it bought digital media agency agenda21 followed by the acquisition of content marketing firm Kameleon in December 2016.
More recently it bought a 75% stake in Freemavens, a marketing innovation consultancy, in February.
“The group now has representation in each of the four marketing pillars it has targeted and we expect the group will continue to scale from here,” Numis analyst Paul Richards said.
“We remain strong supporters of BeHeard, which has a highly experienced management team and a well-invested central resource that enables further acquisitions to be materially accretive to earnings. We retain our ‘buy’ recommendation and target price of 5.0p.”
Thursday 30 March
Finals
SciSys PLC (LON:SSY); Genel Energy PLC (LON:GENL); International Public Partnership Ltd (LON:INPP); Booker Group PLC (LON:BOK); Amryt Pharma (LON:AMYT); Anglo Pacific Group PLC (LON:APF); Starcom Plc (LON:STAR); Chesnara Plc (LON:CSN); Management Resource Solutions Plc (LON:MRS)
IPSA Group PLC (LON:IPSA); Arria NLG PLC (LON:NLG)
Trading Statement
RPC Group PLC (LON:RPC); Booker Group PLC (LON:BOK)
AGMs
Intelligent Energy Holdings Plc (LON:IEH); Milestone Group PLC (LON:MSG); Aberdeen Diversified Income And Growth Trust Plc (LON:ADIG); Cathay International Holdings Ltd (LON:CTI); Finansbank (LON:01LS)
Ex-Dividend
PPHE Hotel Group; Old Mutual Group; Origin Enterprises;
Maven Income & Growth VCT 5; Schroders PLC; Schroders; Wynnstay Group, Value And Income Trust (VIN), Synectics Plc ,Smith & Nephew, Maven Income and Growth VCT 3 PLC, LSL Property Services PLC ,Devro, Diverse Income Trust PLC(The),Craneware, British Land, Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust Plc, Go-Ahead Group, Kingspan Group, Jardine Lloyd Thompson, Idox, Headlam, Abbey