Clarkson Share News (CKN)

LONDON (Alliance News) - London opened broadly flat on Monday following weak economic data from Japan and as bookmaker William Hill rebuffed another takeover offer from Rank Group and 888 Holdings.

William Hill, having already rejected an offer from Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casinos-owner Rank and online betting firm 888 Holdings last week, reiterated its view the offer undervalues its business and it "sees no merit" in engaging with the bidding consortium.

In Japan, economic growth slowed to an annual rate of 0.2% in the April-to-June period, amid slumping consumer spending, the Japanese government said. The reading was far below the 0.7% growth forecast by analysts surveyed in the Nikkei business daily. The weak data supported expectations among investors of further stimuli from the Bank of Japan on the horizon.

Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: down 0.1% at 6,910.79
FTSE 250: flat at 17,928.57
AIM ALL-SHARE: up 0.1% at 784.13
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Hang Seng: up 0.7% at 22,927.81
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.3% at 16,869.56
DJIA: closed down 0.2% at 18,576.47
S&P 500: closed down 0.1% at 2,184.05
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GBP: flat at USD1.2932 (USD1.2931)
EUR: down at USD1.168 (USD1.1176)

GOLD: down at USD1,339.49 per ounce (USD1,351.59)
OIL (Brent): up at USD47.19 a barrel (USD46.75)

(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Monday's Key Economic Events still to come
(all times in BST)

0815 Switzerland producer and import prices
1330 US New York Empire State manufacturing index
1500 US NAHB housing market index
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The average asking price for a house in the UK slipped 1.2% on month in August, property tracking website Rightmove said on Monday - coming in at GBP304,222. That follows the 0.9% decline in July. On a yearly basis, house prices advanced 4.1%, slowing from 4.5% in the previous month. "Many prospective buyers take a summer break from home-hunting, and those who come to market at this quieter time of year tend to price more aggressively," Rightmove Director Miles Shipside said.
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History-makers Andy Murray and Max Whitlock helped take Team GB into second place on the medal table at Rio 2016 after winning three golds between them on day nine of the Olympic Games. Golfer Justin Rose and cyclist Jason Kenny added further gloss to a fine day's competition in Rio with two more golds. By defending his London 2012 title, Murray, 29, became the the first tennis player to win back-to-back singles golds at the Olympics. The overall medal tally for Team GB stands at 38, including 15 golds. Gymnast Whitlock, 23, had earlier become the first British man to win an Olympic medal on the floor which he followed with a second gold on the pommel horse 75 minutes later. Kenny, the 28-year-old reigning Olympic sprint champion beat team mate Callum Skinner to add a 14th gold, while sailor Giles Scott's victory in the men's finn will be confirmed in the medal race on Tuesday.
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Japan's economic growth slowed to an annual rate of 0.2% in the April-to-June period, amid slumping consumer spending, the Japanese government said. The reading was far below the 0.7% growth forecast by analysts surveyed in the Nikkei business daily. Private consumption, which makes up 60% of output, edged up 0.2% quarter-on-quarter, compared with an 0.7% increase in the January-to-March period, the Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report. Corporate investment fell 0.4%, following a 0.7% decline in the previous quarter, the office said. Exports fell 1.5% for the first contraction in two quarters amid a rising yen and slow growth emerging economies, while imports edged down 0.1%, compared with a 0.5% fall in the previous quarter. The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.0% in the January-to-March period following a 1.7% contraction in the last quarter of 2015.
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US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump went on a rant against the media for what he dubs unfair and dishonest coverage of his campaign on Sunday. Trump has long been critical of the media, while simultaneously benefiting from widespread coverage of his unconvential campaign, but a New York Times article characterizing turmoil in his campaign team over his controversial statements set him off. The candidate attacked the Times' reporting as "fiction" and said the media are protecting his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. In a series of tweets, Trump called the media "disgusting and corrupt" and said he would be beating Clinton if the coverage were more fair.
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The Boko Haram terror group released a video on Sunday showing dozens of young women who were abducted two years ago from north-eastern Nigeria's Chibok village. In the video, a masked gunman clutching an assault rifle calls on the parents of the "Chibok girls" to pressure the Nigerian government to release detained Boko Haram members, promising to let the kidnapped young women go in return. Bring Back Our Girls, a group working to recover the kidnapping victims, confirmed the identity of a girl speaking in the video and said several others shown in the video were also among those abducted leaving "no room for doubt that these are our girls."
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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TRADERS: BARCLAYS CUTS COBHAM TO 'EQUAL WEIGHT' ('OVERWEIGHT')
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JPMORGAN RAISES PERSIMMON TO 'OVERWEIGHT' ('UNDERWEIGHT') - TARGET 1950 (2100) PENCE
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JPMORGAN CUTS COUNTRYSIDE PROPERTIES TO 'NEUTRAL' (OVERWEIGHT); TARGET 250 (280) PENCE
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Liberum Starts Clarkson With Buy, Price Target At 2,600p
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Private equity house KKR & Co is considering a bid for London-listed television and film producer Entertainment One after the latter rejected an offer from UK broadcaster ITV, the Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Entertainment One rejected a takeover offer from ITV after the two sides couldn't agree on a price. The Canadian company said the bid was too low but suggested it would be open to a higher one. ITV is prepared to raise its bid to as much as 280 pence per share, or GBP1.2 billion, the Mail on Sunday reported without saying where it got the information or when a new offer would be submitted.
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Bookmaker William Hill said it has rejected a revised takeover offer tabled by fellow gaming companies Rank Group and 888 Holdings. Under the new offer, which was put forward on Sunday, 888 would act as the acquiring entity to create BidCo, which would offer to buy William Hill for 199 pence in cash and 0.860 BidCo shares per William Hill share, and would result in William Hill shareholders owning 48.8% of the combined group. This equates to an estimated value of 352p per share. The previous proposal was for 199p in cash and 0.725 BidCo shares, which William Hill rejected on the grounds of it "undervaluing" the company. On Monday, the bookmaker gave the same reason for rejecting the new offer and also reiterated that it "sees no merit" in engaging with the consortium. It added that the revised proposal continues to present "significant" risk to shareholders due to it being a "highly complicated" three-way combination at a very low premium.
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Housebuilder Bovis Homes Group reported higher pretax profit and revenue for the first half and said it remains confident on the underlying fundamentals of the UK housing market post-Brexit. The mid-cap company said pretax profit in the half to the end of June grew to GBP61.7 million from GBP53.8 million a year prior, up 15%. This was driven by an 18% rise in revenue to GBP412.8 million from GBP350.7 million. Bovis said it sold 1,601 new homes in the first half, up 5.0% year-on-year, at an average price of GBP254,500 per unit, a 14% rise. Bovis Chief Executive David Ritchie said it is "too early to judge" the impact the UK's EU referendum result and the subsequent policy moves made by the Bank of England will have, but the "underlying market fundamentals for UK housing remain positive".
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Security company G4S said it has hired Tim Weller from oil services company Petrofac as its new chief financial officer. Weller, who leaves his role as CFO at Petrofac, will take over from Himanshu Raja in the role when he retires from the board on October 1. Weller is currently a non-executive director on G4S's board and will step down from its Audit Committee with immediate effect. Petrofac said the search for a successor to Weller is underway.
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Shipping services firm Clarkson said its pretax profit grew in the first half of 2016 year-on-year despite it trading against a tough backdrop in global shipping markets. "The global shipping industry is experiencing the most challenging rate environment seen in many years which, as previously highlighted, has inevitably impacted the group's performance for the first six months of 2016," said Chief Executive Andi Case. "In the short term we believe our markets will remain highly challenged, reflecting the ongoing supply-demand imbalance with the resultant low levels of newbuilding contracts and a prevalence of spot business continuing to limit forward visibility of earnings," he added.
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A US court jury has decided animal genetics company Genus is liable to pay damages to Inguran, operating as Sexing Technologies, after infringing two of Inguran's patents and a confidentiality agreement. On Friday, the US district court for the western district of Wisconsin found that the two patents held by Inguran were valid and infringed by Genus' sexed semen processing technology. The court also ruled Genus had breached its confidentiality obligations under the 2012 semen sorting agreement between the two parties. The jury decided Genus should pay Inguran USD750,000 upfront and an ongoing royalty of USD1.25 per dose of semen for Genus' first patent infringement. Genus will pay another USD500,000 upfront and a USD0.50 per dose royalty for its second patent infringement.
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COMPANIES - LONDON MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Toscafund Asset Management published a response to the letter published on Friday by tool and equipment hire firm Speedy Hire in the ongoing dispute between the company and its activist shareholder. The pair traded blows last week ahead of a meeting on September 9 requisitioned by Toscafund calling for the removal of Speedy Executive Chairman Jan Astrand. Toscafund on Monday turned its attention to the appointment of Robert Contreras as a non-executive director on Speedy's board. It noted Astrand has a "longstanding association" with Contreras, having supported Contreras's appointment as finance director and then chief executive of UK-listed vehicle hire company Northgate PLC. "In appointing Contreras, Jan Astrand clearly ignored good governance requirements that apply to the selection of truly independent directors," Toscafund said.
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Georgia Healthcare Group reported growth in profit in the first half of 2016 and said it is well-positioned to deliver a strong performance in 2016 and beyond. The company, which provides healthcare services in Georgia, said its pretax profit in the first half grew to GEL16.8 million from GEL13.3 million the year before, as revenue rose to GEL174.2 million from GEL112.0 million. This equates to a pretax profit of GBP5.5 million from GBP4.4 million and revenue of GBP57.5 million from GBP37.0 million. Georgia Healthcare said it continued to deliver a strong performance in its healthcare services division, while starting the integration process for its pharmaceutical business GPC, which it acquired in the second quarter.
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COMPANIES - INTERNATIONAL
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German carmaker Volkswagen has received German regulatory approval to carry out technical fixes on 460,000 diesel cars fitted with software that cheats emissions tests. The company noted that Germany's the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has approved the technical solutions for vehicles with the 1.2-litre EA189 TDI engine. The KBA approval applies to 460,000 vehicles of affected Group brands, including the Volkswagen Polo and SEAT Ibiza models.
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Google parent Alphabet is rethinking its high-speed internet business after initial rollouts proved more expensive and time consuming than anticipated, the Wall Street Journal reported. Alphabet's internet provider, Google Fiber, has spent hundreds of millions dollars digging up streets and laying fiber-optic cables in a handful of cities to offer web connections roughly 30 times faster than the US average. The Journal reported that the company is hoping to use wireless technology to connect homes, rather than cables, in about a dozen new metro areas, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas, according to people familiar with the company's plans. As a result Alphabet has suspended projects in San Jose, California, and Portland, Oregon.
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Monday's Shareholder Meetings

Nothing scheduled
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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