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(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Coca-Cola HBC, up 5.0%. The soft drinks bottler hailed 2019 as a strong year of earnings growth. The company, which bottles Coca-Cola and other soft drinks, reported a 3.3% volume rise to 2.26 billion unit cases in 2019 from 2.2 billion in 2018. Net sales revenue was up 5.5% to EUR7.0 billion from EUR6.6 billion a year ago. Operating profit jumped 12% to EUR715.3 million from EUR639.4 million a year ago, helped by demand in emerging markets. Pretax profit rose 8.2% to EUR661.2 million compared to EUR610.9 million in 2018.The company declared a total dividend of EUR0.62 per share, an 8.8% increase on 2018.
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RELX, up 1.5%. The information and analytics provider upped its dividend after reporting growth in annual earnings. RELX recorded pretax profit of GBP1.85 billion in 2019, up 8% from GBP1.72 billion in 2018, on 5% higher revenue at GBP7.87 billion. The revenue rise was attributed to growth in electronic and face-to-face revenue and the further development of the company's analytics and decision tools, partially offset by a continued decline in print revenue. The company, formerly known as Reed Elsevier, added it will return a further GBP400 million in 2020 via a new share buyback following the completion of a GBP600 million share repurchase programme in 2019. RELX proposed a full year dividend of 45.7p, up 9% from 2018.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Centrica, down 17%. The British Gas owner said revenue slipped and it swung to a pretax loss on sharp impairment costs amid a "challenging environment" in 2019. The company also slashed its dividend by 58% to 5.0p per share from 12.0p. The company announced the decision to rebase its payout in July, with the cut attributed to changes regarding the UK default tariff price cap, additional pension deficit contributions and restructuring charges. Revenue slipped 2.0% to GBP26.83 billion from GBP27.38 billion in 2018. Centrica swung to a pretax loss of GBP1.75 billion from a GBP575 pretax profit the year prior. For 2020, Centrica has guided to adjusted operating cash flow of between GBP1.6 billion to GBP1.8 billion. "Centrica belongs to this group of 'challenged' FTSE 100 members because the public have been turning their back on the British Gas brand and management seemed to have lost focus in recent years. It has a plan to get back on track but the journey is likely to be very bumpy," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.
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Royal Dutch Shell 'A', down 3.3%, Shell 'B', down 3.0%, BP, down 3.2%. Shares in the oil majors went ex-dividend, meaning new buyers no longer qualify for the latest payout. Shell is London's largest company by market capitalisation, while BP is London's third biggest.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Bank of Georgia, up 4.7%. The Georgian lender edged its full-year payout higher amid growth in net interest income and profit. Bank of Georgia has upped its total dividend by 4.7% to GEL2.67 per share. In 2019, net interest income was 6.7% higher at GEL789.4 million, about GBP211.7 million, from GEL739.6 million in 2018. Pretax profit surged 27% to GEL556.4 million from GEL437.5 million. There was also 13% growth in assets under management at the year-end to GEL2.57 billion from GEL2.27 billion. Quarter-on-quarter, assets under management were 0.8% higher. The FTSE 250 firm has retail banking and wealth management operations in Georgia.
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Domino's Pizza, up 1.5%. The pizza delivery chain said it will completely exit its Norwegian business as part of the UK-based master franchiser's plan to exit international operations. The pizza chain has agreed to sell its entire 71% shareholding in DP Norway to existing minority shareholders Pizza Holding and EYJA Fjarfestingafelag for a nominal NOK1 in cash and the transfer by minority shareholders of their entire shareholding in Domino's Swedish business to the company. It doesn't plan to hold onto this permanently, however. Domino's Pizza said the transfer of the minority interests in Domino's Sweden "is expected to simplify DPG's disposal of its Swedish business in due course". Domino's Pizza said it will need to make a cash outlay of up to GBP7.0 million as part of the sale, comprising of Domino's Norway's marketing campaign costs, certain future liabilities, and cash retained by the disposed business. The FTSE 250-listed company expects its Norwegian exit to complete by May-end, subject to shareholder approval at an early May general meeting.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Beazley, down 3.0%. Jefferies cut the insurer to Hold from Buy.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Indivior, down 20%. The litigation-laden drugmaker cautioned future legal costs could have a "material impact" on the company as it announced profit fell by more than a third in 2019. Indivior's net revenue was 22% lower at USD785 million in 2019. Pretax profit slipped 35% to USD180 million, Indivior added. This was despite costs falling. Selling, general & administrative expenses was 16% lower year-on-year at USD414 million, meanwhile research & development costs fell 42% to USD53 million. For 2020, the company expects net revenue in the range of USD525 million and USD585 million, which could again represent a year-on-year fall of as much as a third. The company also warned it anticipates to swing to a net loss between USD20 million and USD50 million. In 2019, the company's net profit fell 15% to USD134 million. Turning to litigation, the company in April 2019 said a grand jury in the Western District of Virginia has issued an indictment of 28 felony counts against the company related to fraud. Indivior could face USD3 billion in fines related to the matters.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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