(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Just Eat, up 24% at 728.40 pence. Just Eat rejected a takeover bid from Prosus saying it "significantly" undervalues the company. Prosus made a GBP4.9 billion bid for the online takeaway platform, trumping an earlier offer made by Dutch rival Takeaway.com. Prosus, majority owned by South African media and technology investor Naspers, offered 710 pence per Just Eat share, which it noted is a 20% premium to Takeaway.com's own offer of 594p per share and a 20% premium to Just Eat's closing price in London on Monday. In August, Takeaway.com and Just Eat proposed an all-share combination to create one of the largest food delivery companies in the world with a market capitalisation around EUR10 billion and processing orders worth over EUR7 billion per year. Prosus, which owns food delivery businesses such as Delivery Hero and Swiggy, said the proposed merger with Takeaway.com would not be able to bring in the investment needed. Further, Prosus said, its bid is an all-cash option for Just Eat shareholders. Takeaway.com was up 5.1% in Amsterdam.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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TUI, down 5.1%. Morgan Stanley downgraded the Anglo-German travel operator to Equal Weight from Overweight.
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Reckitt Benckiser, down 4.6%. The household goods maker reported a "disappointing" third quarter performance and cut its annual sales estimate for a second time in 2019. The Slough, England-based consumer goods maker now expects its 2019 like-for-like net revenue growth to be in the range of flat to 2% from previous 2% to 3% growth estimate. In July, Reckitt lowered its annual like-for-like sales growth target to range of 2% to 3% from 3% to 4%. Reckitt also expects a "modest" decline in 2019 adjusted operating margins compared with a previous expectation of a flat margin performance. The company, which owns antiseptic brand Dettol, sore throat medicine Strepsils and hair removal brand Veet, said like-for-like sales for the three months to September 30 grew 1.6%, with reported sales rises 5.3% year-on-year to GBP3.29 billion. Year-to-date comparable sales were up 0.9%, while reported sales increased 2.9% to GBP9.53 billion.
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Bunzl, down 3.5%. The distribution firm said underlying revenue growth continued to slow in tough markets. For the three months ended September, revenue grew 4% on a reported basis with constant-currency growth of 0.5%. Underlying revenue was 1% lower after adjusting for the contribution of acquisition activity. In 2018, Bunzl reported GBP424.8 million in pretax profit on revenue of GBP9.08 billion. In 2018, underlying revenue growth stood at 4.3% with reported growth at 6%. The lower underlying revenue "primarily reflects the previously announced lower sales to a large grocery customer in North America due to account specific product specification changes and price deflation," Bunzl said.
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Lloyds Banking Group, down 1.0%. Citigroup cut the high street bank to Neutral from Buy.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Airtel Africa, up 1.5% and Finablr, up 1.2%. Airtel Africa and Finablr said they have entered into an "extensive" global partnership for "seamless" cross-border payments. The coupling will see Airtel's mobile money operations integrate into Finablr's technology platform, allowing Airtel customers to perform inward and outbound cross-border payments. Airtel said it will benefit from Finablr's global payment platform, which spans 170 countries, and Finablr said it will be able to expand across Africa due to Airtel's 100 million subscribers in the continent.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Gear4music Holdings, up 11%. The musical instruments retailer said profit rose in the first half of its financial year, due to a jump in group sales, particularly from the regions outside the UK. For the six months to the end of September, gross profit is estimated to increase by 29% to GBP12.4 million from GBP9.6 million for the six months ended August 31 the year before. First half gross margins is predicted to improve to 25.2% from 22.7%. Group sales rose by 16% to GBP49.4 million, up from GBP42.5 million the prior year, buoyed by a strong performance in and outside the UK, the company said. Gear4Music's European & Rest of the World segment sales rose by 33% to GBP24.6 million, while the UK market edged upwards by 3% to GBP24.8 million. As a result of the strong interim period, Gear4music said it is trading in line with its full year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation expectations.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Thor Mining, down 29% at 0.23p. The miner said it intends to raise GBP510,000 through a placing of shares, which will go towards funding activities in the company's tungsten and copper projects. Thor Mining will raise the funds through the issue of 255.0 million shares at a price of 0.2 pence per share. The placing price reflects a 38% discount to Thor last closing price at 0.32p. Of the shares raised, 113.3 million shares will be issued shortly, while the remaining 141.7 million shares are subject to shareholder approval at Thor's annual general meeting on or around November 28. London-listed natural resources investor Metal Tiger said it took part in the placing by Thor, subscribing for 22.5 million shares for GBP45,000. Metal Tiger was down 0.4%.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com
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