Escher Group Holdings Share News (ESCH)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Berkeley Group Holdings, up 7.2%. The housebuilder, focused on London and the South east, said pretax profit dipped in the first half due to gains it made a year earlier from the sale of ground rent assets, though revenue increased and Berkeley also announced a boost to its dividend programme. Berkeley said its pretax profit fell to GBP293.3 million in the six months to the end of October from GBP304.9 million a year before, primarily due to the one-off gain made a year earlier from the sale of ground rent assets. The robust underlying results appeared to have a positive read-across on other blue-chip housebuilders, with Barratt Developments up 1.3%, Persimmon up 1.2% and Taylor Wimpey up 1.1%.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Whitbread, down 2.6%. Barclays downgraded the company, the owner of Premier Inn and Costa Coffee, to Equal Weight from Overweight and cut its target price to 5,200 pence from 5,800p. Whitbread shares were trading at 4,584.00p. Barclays downgraded the company on expectations for slower revenue per available room growth at Premier Inn, deteriorating lead indicators in its markets, and reduced corporate capital expenditure.

Inmarsat, down 1.8%. The satellite communications company was downgraded to Neutral from Buy by Citigroup, which kept its target price of 1,150 pence in place. Inmarsat shares were trading at 1,103.00p.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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JD Sports Fashion, up 3.5%. The sportswear retailer late Thursday said it expects that its headline profit before tax and exceptional items for the current financial year to January 31, 2016 is likely to exceed current consensus market expectations of GBP125.0 million by GBP10.0 million. In giving its expectation, the sports retailer said it recognised the "critical importance" of trading through the remainder of December and early January, and noted "further infrastructure cost increases" during the year to support the increasing international development of the business.

Petrofac, up 3.4%. The oil services company was upgraded to Buy from Hold by Liberum in a wide-ranging note on the oil services industry. Though the broker said it expects Petrofac to miss its guidance for 2015, its robust backlog gives confidence for 2016 and its current valuation looks compelling.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Secure Trust Bank, up 10%. Non-Standard Finance, which was established to acquire consumer finance businesses, said it has agreed to acquire Everyday Loans from Secure Trust for an enterprise value of GBP235.0 million. Non-Standard Finance said it will fund the deal with a trio of measures. First, 188.2 million new shares will be sold at 85.0 pence each in a placing and open offer, then new shares will be issued to Secure Trust Bank, and finally new debt will be put in place. The deal is seen as complementary to Non-Standard Finance's acquisition of Loansathome4u from S&U PLC in July, which enabled it to enter the home credit market. Non-Standard Finance shares were down 4.3%.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Escher Group Holdings, down 30%. The company, which provides software to the postal, retail and financial industries, warned its full-year earnings will be hurt as it will not complete some licence sales that it had expected to close in the second half of the year. But Escher said its results will still be an improvement on last year. Escher said it will not close several anticipated licence sales before the end of the year, but did not state whether the sales would be pushed into 2016 or have been lost altogether.

Motive Television, down 28%. The broadcasting technology company said it is still in talks with holders of its convertible loan notes, which are due to mature on December 31. Motive had previously said the convertible loan notes would need to be extended or further funds raised to pay them down if it is unable to reach an agreement with investors. "The directors believe that progress has been made with the CLN Holders. However if negotiations do not reach a positive conclusion, or further funding cannot be secured in the event the CLN's are repayable, the company would have to take action to reduce its cost base and to consider whether the company would be able to continue to trade," it said.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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