Distil Share News (DIS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 WINNERS
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Pearson, up 4.5%. The publisher said it expects to report 2014 adjusted earnings per share of 66 pence, at the upper end of its 62 to 67p guidance, because its tax rate will be lower than expected and its North American higher education business and Penguin Random House put in strong performances despite challenging market conditions. It is preliminarily guiding that EPS will rise further to between 75p and 80p in 2015.

BAE Systems, up 2.0%. The defence, security and aerospace company has been raised by Goldman Sachs to Buy from Neutral.

ARM Holdings, up 1.8%. Citigroup has raised the chip maker to Buy from Neutral, with a price target increase to 1,200.00 pence from 850.00p. The stock currently trades at 1,046.00p.

SABMiller, up 1.5%. The brewing giant reported a 1% drop in lager volume in the third quarter of its financial year, hit by continued weakness in China and lower US shipments, but its soft drink volumes continued to expand, rising 4%. The company said its net producer revenue for the three months to end-December grew 4% at constant currency rates. The figure declined by 5% at actual rates as it was hit by adverse currency movements. Net producer revenue per hectolitre grew in all regions, as it continued to sell a greater proportion of its premium lagers and drinks.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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Sports Direct International, down 4.6%. The UK's biggest sporting goods retailer by revenue said founder Mike Ashley sold GBP110.9 million worth of shares, roughly 2.6% of the entire share capital of the company. Ashley sold 15.4 million Sports Direct shares for 720 pence each on Tuesday, reducing his shareholding in the retailer to just over 55.1%. The shares were sold via his MASH Holdings Ltd investment vehicle, which is wholly owned by Ashley.

Weir Group, down 2.7%. The engineering firm has been downgraded by JP Morgan to Underweight from Neutral and by Barclays to Equal Weight from Overweight.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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FirstGroup, up 4.3%. The rail and bus operator said its overall trading is meeting its expectations, with weakness in its US Greyhound bus operations offset by growth in UK Rail and US First Transit, and its plan to turn around several of its units is continuing to make progress. The company said it has experienced robust volume and revenue growth in its UK rail operations and the unit's financial performance is towards the top end of its expectations, while its UK bus business has reported continued volume growth and is making progress with cost savings.

Pets At Home Group, up 2.6%. The pet products retailer said it remains on track to meet its full year expectations, after reporting a rise in revenue in its financial third quarter. The company said revenue in the 12 weeks to January 1 grew 7.8% to GBP182.2 million, buoyed by merchandise revenue growth of 6.5% to GBP168.2 million, with growth in its food segment continuing to outpace accessories, and services revenue growth of 26% to GBP14 million.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Afren, down 10%. The oil and gas company late Tuesday confirmed that it is discussions with its lenders regarding amendments to its existing facilities and is seeking a deferral of a USD50 million amortisation payment that is due at the end of January. In response to press speculation about a possible financial restructuring, Afren said it has has been reviewing its capital structure, liquidity and funding requirements with its advisors. Additionally, it is reviewing its cost base and capital expenditure plans for 2015 "given the rapid decline in the oil price."

Poundland Group, down 4.6%. The discount retail chain said sales rose by around 10% in the third quarter of its financial year, driven by both existing stores and new store openings, while it also said it saw a "record" Christmas trading period. However, the group's shares were sold off as it said sales from its new stores were lower than the year before, due to delays in openings.

Domino's Pizza Group, down 3.1%. Numis has downgraded the pizza delivery company to Add from Buy on valuation grounds but raises its earnings forecasts for the company. Domino's said it has started looking for a new chief financial officer after Sean Wilkins resigned and stepped down with immediate effect, as it said that trading in the final quarter of its last financial year continued to be positive and pretax profit will be in line with, or even marginally ahead of, consensus forecasts.

Drax Group, down 2.5%. Goldman Sachs has cut the electricity generator to Neutral from Conviction Buy, with a price target cut to 420.00p, from 665.00p. The company's shares currently trade at 353.11p.

JD Wetherspoon, down 2.3%. The British pub chain said sales growth has slowed in recent weeks, while its operating margin for the first half of the year will be slightly lower than the year before, due to increases in staff pay and supplier costs. JD Wetherspoon said like-for-like sales for the first 12-weeks of its second quarter to January 18 were up 2.8%, while total sales grew by 6.8%.

Derwent London, down 1.2%. Goldman Sachs has cut the property investors to Neutral from Buy.

Diploma, down 1.6%. The technical products and services company reported its revenue growth was held back by the strength of sterling again in the first quarter of its financial year. It said group revenue for the first quarter to the end of December rose 4% year-on-year, in line with its expectations and on track with its guidance for underlying growth. On a constant currency basis, revenue for the group rose 14% year-on-year.

WH Smith, down 1.4%. The stationer and bookseller reported a fall in total and like-for-like sales in the 20 weeks to January 17, though it said it is performing in line with its expectations. The company said total sales for the 20 weeks fell 1%, with like-for-like sales declining 2%.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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ScotGold Resources, up 52%. The company said its resource at the Cononish gold project in Scotland has been significantly upgraded and it is preparing a mine development plan for the project whilst evaluating options for financing. The indicated and measured ore tonnage at the project has almost trebled from the previous estimate to 541,000 tonnes, whilst the average gold grade of the tonnage rose by 18% to 13.4 grammes of gold per tonne. This led to gold metal content trebling to 248,000 ounces, with the average grade of gold increasing by 9% to 14.3 grammes of gold per tonne.

Distil, up 25%. The group said its Blackwoods Small Batch Gin has received full approval from the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for sale in the US, and it has signed a new distribution deal with The Winebow Group. Distil said production and shipping of the first cases of Blackwoods in the US is expected to start in the next couple of weeks. It added it will make a separate announcement about Blavod black vodka distribution in the US in due course.

Blur Group, up 16%. The company said it has now started work on a USD3 million enterprise project with a "leading", unnamed, fast-moving consumer goods company. The two-year project is the largest so far undertaken by an enterprise customer using Blur's platform, the company said, without giving any financial details about the deal.

InternetQ, up 8.6%. The mobile marketing firm expressed confidence in delivering strong revenue and earnings growth in the years ahead, as its revenue rose nearly 27% in 2014 and its adjusted pretax profit rose 61%. InternetQ said its 2014 revenue was well over EUR130 million, with 79% coming from its mobile marketing segment and 21% from its digital entertainment segment.

Edenville Energy, up 8.3%. The company said the most recent results for the Mkomolo and Muze prospects in Tanzania confirmed the presence of high quality, near-surface coal across the Rukwa Coal Project. For Mkomolo, the sample results showed the potential to boost the project economics by adding tonnage without a significant reduction in grades to the near surface coal seams. The results for Muze also indicate the uppermost coal seam is of sufficient quality to supply coal to a coal-fire power plant, improving the project economics.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Gowin New Energy Group, down 37%. The company warned investors to expect a big writedown when it reports full-year results for 2014, blaming difficulties in collecting money owed to the company by its debtors. Gowin New Energy also said its working capital position has been "severely constrained" by the continued delays with debtor recoverability, and it's having to look for alternatives to Chinese banks for new funding because the Chinese institutions have become more risk-adverse in their lending.

Weatherly International, off 18%. The company said production fell quarter-on-quarter at the end of 2014 as costs rose, prompting the company to review its operations as they are currently "unsustainable". During the second quarter ended December 31, the company treated 75,512 tonnes of ore at a grade of 1.75% copper, recovering 91.94% to produce 5,146 tonnes of copper concentrate and 1,213 tonnes of contained copper.

TXO, down 17%. The energy and clean technology investment company said it will conduct a share placing to raise GBP100,000, and had drawn down more from its convertible loan note facility, although it won't take the full amount of the facility as the lender has now done a direct finance deal with Grand Bahama Group Ltd, in which TXO is invested. It also announced other financing deals, including another convertible loan note facility with a second Bahamian investor.

Intercede Group, down 15%. The maker of identity and credential management software said it will report a loss for current financial year, after it warned that revenue is now set to be below its hopes due to a number of order delays.

Amara Mining, down 9.8%. The company raised GBP14.6 million in a discounted share placing, a higher amount than it said it would raise on Tuesday. Amara said it has conditionally placed 91.3 million shares at 16 pence per share to raise GBP14.6 million, an increase from the GBP13.2 million the company said it would seek to raise on Tuesday.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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