Distil Share News (DIS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Monday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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SABMiller, up 4.4%. Shares in the brewing giant have risen following a report that it approached the owners of Dutch brewer Heineken with a possible bid for the company in an attempt to fend off a potential approach from Anheuser-Busch InBev. SABMiller has long been the subject of speculation about a possible bid from AB InBev, the Belgium-based beer group which has spent nearly USD100 billion on acquisitions in the past decade. The Heineken family, which owns 50% of the Heineken company, rejected the SABMiller offer, saying they want to "preserve the heritage and identity of Heineken as company", according to Bloomberg. Analyst now see SABMiller as an "in play" takeover target, with AB InBev the most likely bidder.

Diageo, up 1.7%. The other FTSE-100 listed drinks giant is getting a boost from the merger and acquisition speculation in the beverage sector following the SABMiller report.

TUI Travel, up 1.7%. The travel operator and its German parent TUI AG revealed the details of their proposed merger which will see TUI Travel shareholders own a 46% stake in the combined group. Under the merger, TUI Travel shareholders with receive 0.399 new TUI AG shares for each share they hold, and TUI Travel shareholders, including TUI AG, will also receive a second interim dividend.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Micro Focus International, up 14%. The software developer announced a USD2.35 billion reverse takeover deal to acquire US-based The Attachmate Group. Analysts have called the deal "transformational" for Micro Focus, which would become one of the biggest software companies in the UK. Under the agreement, Micro Focus plans to acquire the whole of Attachmate by issuing 86.60 million shares to Attachmate's parent company Wizard Parent LLC, equivalent to 40% of the new company's enlarged share capital. Additionally, Micro Focus will return GBP83.9 million to shareholders at 60 pence a share, and simultaneously undertake a proportionate share consolidation, giving shareholders 0.9285 new shares for each existing share held.

Dixons Carphone, up 1.9%. The recently merged mobile phone and electronics retailer received a boost following the weekend news that one of its competitors in the mobile phone market is going into administration. Phones 4U announced its administration on the back of the loss of its EE contract, which left it with none of the UK network carriers. "For Dixons Carphone there could be an opportunity to capture market share in the medium term as customers roll off two-year agreements and switch from Phones 4U to other retailers," says Investec in a morning note to clients.

Beazley, up 0.9%. Analyst coverage of the non-life insurance group was initiated by Bernstein Monday with an Outperform rating and a price target of 305p. The targets suggests an 18% upside from Friday's closing price of 259p.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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AVEVA Group, down 3.0%. The software group lost more than a quarter of its value on Friday after a profit warning, closing at 1,620p, and its stock has continued to fall Monday as analysts continue to cut their price targets. Liberum Capital Monday has lowered its price target to 1,500p, from 2,000p.

Ladbrokes, down 1.8%; William Hill, down 1.6%. A group of UK bookmakers, including William Hill and Ladbrokes, Monday announced voluntary changes to the way they advertise, and the launch of a new self-regulatory body to supervise the implementation of new initiatives in relation to problem gambling. The voluntary changes include restrictions on advertising free bets and promoting increased awareness of responsible gambling. While these measure may help to reduce the levels of problem gambling, they will be negative for the bookmakers profits, and analysts have said that the voluntary measures will not be enough to deflect further regulation in the sector, given increasing pressure from lobbyists on the government.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Alexander Mining, up 19%. The mining company said it has signed an option agreement with an unnamed mid-tier mining company regarding its AmmLeach zinc processing technology. The company has given Alexander Mining a cash payment of USD360,000 and would pay a further USD120,000 per month should the option agreement be extended beyond the initial three months. The option agreement gives the mining company an exclusive three-month option period to complete due diligence on the product.

Reach4entertainment, up 18%. The media and entertainment company saw its shares rise Monday after it expressed confidence in at least meeting market expectations for the full year, as it swung to a profit in the first half of the year thanks partly to a strong performance in its New York operations. The group posted a pretax profit of GBP709,000 for the six months to June 30, compared with a pretax loss of GBP77,000 in the year-earlier period, as revenue improved to GBP41.5 million, from GBP35.0 million.

Sirius Petroleum, up 14%. The investing company that focuses on oil and gas in Nigeria said it has signed an agreement with BTG Pactual Commodities regarding the marketing of crude oil from the Ororo Field and other marketable products from Sirius-owned fields. The agreement offers "significantly more advantageous term to the company" than its previous marketing deal with Glencore, management said Monday. Under the terms of the new deal, BTG, a unit of Brazilian banking group BTG Pactual, will have the exclusive right to market oil crude oil from the Ororo field in Nigeria for an initial 12-month period from the date Sirius makes any crude oil available from the field to be marketed.

Amur Minerals Corporation, up 12%. The mining group saw its shares continue a two-week winning streak Monday, after it moved another step closer to converting 36 square kilometres of of its 950 square kilometre exploration licence at Kun-Manie to a production licence when the application was submitted to Russia's Ministry of Economic Development for a final review of terms.

ProPhotonix, up 11%. The maker of LED light systems said it added the new 488nm laser diode from Osram to its catalogue. The device is ideal for challenging applications such as flow cytometry, medical diagnostics, DNA sequencing, bio-fluorescence and particle counting, ProPhotonix said.

Frontera Resources Corporation, up 10%. Shares in the oil and gas company jumped after the company said internal estimates indicate a big upgrade to its resources estimate at the Mtsare Khevi gas complex in Georgia, and it said it has completed drilling at one well and is due to start work on another by the end of the month. Geological studies have increased the gas in place estimates for the site from up to 1.2 trillion cubic feet to up to 11 trillion cubic feet, with up to 9 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas possible from reservoir targets found between depths of 300 metres and 5,000 metres.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Beacon Hill Resources, down 35%. The mining group saw its shares slide early Monday after it said had raised about GBP1.3 million by placing 1.3 billion shares, money it will add to its existing cash resources to see it through to the end of the year when it hopes it will have arranged a new project expansion financing facility.

Frontier Mining, down 26%. The Kazakhstan-focused miner said its pretax loss in the six months to June 30 was USD21.4 million, against a USD4.6 million loss a year earlier. The loss was due to a massive increase in the group's foreign exchange losses to USD18 million for the period, against USD356,379 last year.

Distil, down 23%. The London-based drinks company has seen almost a quarter of its value wiped off Monday after the company said that a delay in securing regulatory approval for two distributors for its brands in the US means it will now "significantly" miss current market expectations. Distil said in July that it had agreed terms with two US distributors for its brands Blavod Vodka, Blackwoods Gin and Blackwoods Vodka. However the company since has been waiting for approval from the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings, down 19%. The maker of diagnostic testing kits for clinical research warned that its full-year revenue will be below current expectations, after the low level of placements and an acceleration in the decline in manual revenue it previously warned about continued and it was hit by adverse currency fluctuations. The group now expects revenue for the year to March 31, 2015 to be between GBP45 million and GBP47 million, which would be down on the GBP52.3 million revenue it reported for its last financial year. It said adverse currency moves had wiped about GBP1.5 million off its revenue compared with the last year.

GEONG International, down 11%. The China-based internet software company posted a pretax profit of GBP47,000 for the year to end-March, more-than halved from GBP99,000 in the previous year, as revenue declined to GBP9.5 million, from GBP9.6 million.

Plastics Capital, down 11%. The niche plastics products group said its industrial division has experienced weaker demand in the year-to-date than in the prior year. The group said that this was partly expected due to older projects falling away before new projects come into full production in the second-half of the current financial year. However, Plastics Capital also said it understands that "certain customers overstocked last year and this has impacted sales in the current year as compared to our expectations."

EKF Diagnostics Holdings, down 15%. The medical devices company posted a pretax loss of GBP2.5 million for the first half of the year to end June, compared with a profit of GBP191,000 a year earlier, as GBP1.5 million of exceptional costs relating to moving some production to Germany from the UK, helped offset an increase in revenue to GBP16.8 million, from GBP14.9 million.
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By Jon Darby; jondarby@alliancenews.com; @jondarby100

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