LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.----------FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------Dairy Crest, up 13%. The Cathedral City cheese maker said Canadian firm Saputo will acquire the company in a deal valuing Dairy Crest at around GBP975 million. Saputo will pay 620 pence per share for Dairy Crest, a premium of around 12% to the FTSE 250-listed company's 555p closing price on Thursday and a 21% premium to its 30-day volume weighted average share price of 488p. Dairy Crest's directors will accept the deal and have "unanimously" recommended Dairy Crest shareholders do the same.----------Metro Bank, up 5.0%. The bank has received GBP120 million from Banking Competition Remedies, a fund set up by the Royal Bank of Scotland. The GBP775 million RBS fund, which was a UK government requirement for bailing out RBS during the financial crisis a decade ago, is to be used for UK small and medium-sized enterprise lending.----------Serco, up 6.4%. CFRA has raised the outsourcer to a Hold rating from Sell. ----------Provident Financial, up 3.9%. Non-Standard Finance has made an all-share offer worth GBP1.3 billion to acquire bigger rival home credit provider Provident. Non-Standard Finance, which provides home credit under the brands Loans at Home and Everyday Loans, will pay for each Provident Financial share with 8.88 new Non-Standard Finance shares. Based on Non-Standard Finance's Thursday closing share price of 58 pence, the offer values each Provident Financial share at 511 pence. Provident shareholders will own around 88% of the enlarged Non-Standard Finance group following the combination, Non-Standard Finance said.----------FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------CYBG, down 5.3%. The bank has missed out on the same funding Metro Bank has received, but said it will continue "competing" in the sector. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS----------Bahamas Petroleum, up 22%. The the oil and gas explorer has received notification from the government of the Bahamas its exploration period has been extended to the end of 2020. The company has been seeking clarification on its four licenses after disruptions "outside the company's control" interrupted progress since 2015. "The confirmation from the government of the Bahamas the current term of our four southern licences extends to December 2020 provides the company with a certainty of tenure over the company's licences, replacing any perceived 'above ground' issues with complete clarity in fact and law," said Chief Executive Simon Potter. ----------OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------Haydale Graphene, down 74%. The firm reported a widened interim pretax loss due to a 20% fall in revenue and will also raise around GBP3.8 million to fund general working capital, restructuring costs, and equipment investments. The company, which develops additives to create enhanced materials like carbon fibre and silicon carbide, will place 190 million new ordinary shares at 2p per share. It also launched a 200 million share open offer at the same price to raise a further GBP4 million. Following shareholder approval for the fundraising, the company's Chief Operating Officer Keith Broadbent will move to the chief executive role. For the six months to 2018-end, the company recorded a pretax loss of GBP3.5 million compared with a GBP2.7 million loss in the year ago period, on revenue of GBP1.6 million from GBP2.0 million. ----------Flybe, down 31%. The airline said all of its assets and operations have now been sold to Connect Airways, although shareholder approval is still needed to complete the full acquisition. Flybe's two operating subsidiaries, Flybe Ltd and Flybe.com Ltd, were sold for GBP2.8 million, meaning Flybe is now a non-trading entity and has no subsidiaries or material assets apart from the GBP2.8 million. The separate sale of Flybe's entire issued share capital, however, still requires shareholder approval. Flybe advised its shareholders to back the deal, which values the company at just 1 pence per share, or GBP2.2 million, or they are likely to receive "no value" for their Flybe shares.----------
21 Mar 2016 08:14
