Entertainment One Share News (ETO)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Wednesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Ashtead Group, up 7.5%. The industrial equipment rental company said its pretax profit and revenue both surged in the first half with good performances from its US and UK divisions, prompting a 33% hike to its interim dividend and the company to say its full-year results should beat its previous expectations. Ashtead said its pretax profit for the half to the end of October rose to GBP176.5 million from GBP141.7 million a year earlier, as total revenue rose to GBP648.9 million from GBP529.4 million. Ashtead lifted its interim dividend 33% to 4.00 pence per share from 3.00p a year earlier.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Anglo American, down 9.9%. The miner was adding to the share price plunge it experienced on Tuesday, when its stock price fell 11% after it outlined plans to sell about 60% of its assets, cut around 85,000 more jobs and suspend its dividend as it tries to cope with the severe and prolonged downturn in commodities markets. Anglo American also received a downgrade from Jefferies and price target cuts from S&P Capital IQ and HSBC.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Entertainment One, up 10%. The television and film producer noted the recent fall in its share price, and confirmed that it continues to trade in line with its full year underlying earnings expectations. Entertainment One reiterated confidence in its target of doubling the size of its business by 2020 through "strong organic growth" and carefully targeted acquisitions. The company recently priced its GBP285 million offering of 6.875% senior secured notes, using the proceeds to refinance its existing credit facilities in full. It noted that its refinancing provides its with greater flexibility when undertaking acquisitions and other corporate activity. However, some analysts have expressed concern at the the issue's pricey coupon.

Carillion, up 3.3%. The construction and support services company said it remains on track to meet its expectations for 2015 and said it has secured around GBP1.0 billion in new business. The group said its revenue and operating profit growth should hit its expectations for the full year, with secured orders and probable orders for the year expected to remain strong at around GBP17.0 billion at year end, down slightly from GBP18.6 billion at the same point a year ago.

Balfour Beatty, up 2.4%. The construction and infrastructure group said it has made progress on its restructuring programme and has won new contracts, along with agreeing a new financing facility. Balfour said it has won new contracts on improved terms and said its order book in the second half of 2015 is broadly flat on the first. It added it remains focused on managing troublesome past contracts through to completion. The company also has agreed a new GBP400.0 million syndicated revolving credit facility, refinancing its existing facilities and extending the maturity to 2018, with the option to be extended up to 2020.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Stagecoach Group, down 14%. The transport operator said its pretax profit dipped in the first half despite higher revenue, and it issued a cautious outlook for the second half, downgrading its full-year guidance. Stagecoach said its pretax profit for the half to the end of October fell to GBP90.8 million from GBP98.3 million, mainly due to higher one-off financing charges in the half. Stripping out the one-offs, pretax profit rose to GBP121.5 million from GBP108.6 million. Stagecoach will pay an interim dividend of 3.5 pence per share, up from 3.2p a year earlier.

Go-Ahead Group, down 3.3%. The transport operator lost on the TransPennine Express and Northern rail franchises in the UK. The TransPennine contract was given to rival FirstGroup, while the Northern franchise went to Arriva. FirstGroup, announcing its contract win, said more than GBP500.0 million will be invested in the franchise, including a large increase in the number of carriages which will drive capacity up by around 80% at peak times. Shares in FirstGroup were up 0.7%.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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FinnAust Mining, up 63%. The miner struck a deal to acquire a titanium project in Greenland, leading it to promote its interim chief executive to become the company's permanent managing director. FinnAust has signed binding agreements to acquire an initial 60% stake in Bluejay Mining Ltd, which wholly-owns the Pituffik titanium project in Greenland, with an option to acquire the remaining 40%. For the initial 60% stake in Bluejay, FinnAust has paid GBP900,000 entirely through the issue of 164.7 million new FinnAust shares, which implies a price of about 0.5 pence per share. If FinnAust elects to acquire the other 40% of Bluejay, it will be required to pay another GBP594,393 through the issue of another 108.1 million shares.

On The Beach Group, up 13%. The travel operator said its loss narrowed and its underlying profit surged in its last financial year, with revenue higher and the group confident on its outlook. The company, which focuses on providing short-haul beach holidays, said it made a pretax loss of GBP2.5 million for the year to the end of September, mainly due to one-off financing costs related to its listing on London Main Market, which it completed at the end of September. Underlying pretax profit for the group, which strips out exceptionals, amortistion costs and shareholder interest payments, rose 47% to GBP14.5 million from GBP9.9 million.

Xchanging, up 9.3%. US IT and professional services company Computer Sciences said it has agreed a deal to acquire the business processing, procurement and technology services provider, trumping the previous offer agreed with FTSE 100 outsourcer Capita. CSC will pay 190.00 pence per share for Xchanging, a 19% premium to the 160.00p offer Capita that made. The offer also represents a 72% premium to Xchanging's closing share price on October 2, when talks with potential suitors started, and an 81% premium to its average closing price for the three months leading up to that date. In total, it values Xchanging at GBP488.0 million. Xchanging's director have unanimously recommended the CSC offer, trumping the bid for Capita and also the 175.0 pence offer proposed by US-based Ebix, supplier of on-demand software and e-commerce services to the insurance, financial and healthcare industries.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Focusrite, down 16%. The company, which provides hardware and software for music production, reported a rise in pretax profit in its first set of full-year results since listing on AIM last December, and said revenue in the first quarter of its new year has been ahead in spite of slower-than-expected initial sales of its new products. For the year to end-August, the company reported a pretax profit of GBP6.5 million, up from GBP5.8 million a year before, as a rise in revenue to GBP48.0 million from GBP41.0 million was partly offset by a rise in administrative expenses. Revenue growth was driven by 19 new product launches during the year. Focusrite said that products it launched at the end of the financial year have been well received, and its revenue for the first quarter was ahead of the first quarter of the previous year despite slower-than-expected initial sales of the new products. Its existing products continued to perform as expected, the company said.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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