Hogg Robinson shares are up almost 50% today, above 2006’s all-time highs of 106p, after agreeing to both a takeover by Amex GBT and disposal of its payments tech business Fraedom to Visa. Whilst the £361-394m takeover isn’t contingent on the £142m asset sale to Visa (nor vice-versa), the offer price is: worth a maximum…
UK Index Utilities remains a sector under extreme pressure, down another 1% this morning and underperforming the wider market, failing to display the defensive attributes that would normally have one rushing to their safe revenue, profit and dividend streams. Especially during a market volatility storm such as that which we were handed this week. As…
After the European Central Bank began its long-awaited tapering programme and having bid farewell to the Federal Reserve’s Janet Yellen, it’s finally time for the Bank of England to take the spotlight with its quarterly ‘Super Thursday’. The Bank will publish its latest inflation report alongside the monetary policy decision from the nine-strong Monetary Policy…
Redrow shares are positive this morning, lifting UK Housebuilding peers along with it – despite a weaker than expected UK Halifax House Price Index print – after reporting a record-breaking set of half-year results, just six months after doing exactly the same with full-year figures; group revenues +20%, profits +26% and completions +14% were all…
Shares in Stagecoach are sharply lower this morning with the UK government (UK Transport Secretary Grayling), once again, set to take control of the struggling East Coast Mainline rail service from April. This comes with the current Stagecoach/Virgin franchise (run 90/10 by the former, branded the latter) on the verge of hitting the buffers after…
Shares in Vodafone are down 2.5% this morning, depriving the UK Index of a valuable 5pts, after it confirmed preliminary discussions with international cable network owner Liberty Global about the acquisition/swap of overlapping continental European assets (Germany, Eastern Europe). Shares in CityFibre Infrastructure, however, are faring worse, down closer to 4%. This may stem from…