Iofina Share News (IOF)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Monday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Old Mutual, up 7.7%, and Mondi, up 3.1%. The financial services company and the packaging manufacturer, both of which are Anglo-South African entities, regained ground after making heavy losses last week when the South African finance minister was abruptly removed. Nhlanhla Nene was replaced by little-known parliamentarian David Van Rooyen, sparking a huge sell-off of the rand and in shares of South Africa-exposed stocks. On Monday, some of those concerns eased when Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, re-appointed Pravin Gordhan, who had held the position prior to Nene, as the finance minister, replacing Van Rooyen. In the FTSE 250, Investec, another Anglo-South African financial services group, rose 9.4% on the news.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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Pearson, 1.2%. A string of British universities have stopped buying the education company's teaching materials in a row over charges for ebooks, The Telegraph reported, citing publishing industry sources. According to the newspaper report, some universities including Imperial College London have sought to purge all Pearson materials from their courses. Pearson's UK higher education unit told universities in August that it would bring in sharp price rices on library purchases of their ebooks, resulting in some library bodies to writing to Pearson Chief Executive John Fallon to appeal for a reverse in policy.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Drax Group, up 7.5%. Goldman Sachs raised its recommendation on the power plant operator to Buy from Sell, while edging up its target price to 260 pence from 245p. Drax was trading at 228.1p.

Man Group, up 3.3%. The hedge fund manager confirmed the potential appointment of Lord Livingston as the successor to Chairman Jon Aisbitt, saying it is subject to regulatory review. Man Group said in May that Aisbitt planned to step down from his role following the company's annual general meeting of shareholders in May 2016. Man Group's confirmation of the potential appointment of Lord Livingston, the former trade minister and BT Group chief executive, followed a Sky News report.

RPC Group, up 2.1%. The plastic packaging company launched a fully underwritten rights issue to raise GBP232.6 million to help fund the acquisition of Global Closure Systems from private equity firm PAI Partners, in a move to strengthen the packaging maker's position in Europe and beyond. RPC is acquiring the plastic closures and dispensing systems specialist for an enterprise value of EUR650.0 million, equivalent to about GBP470.0 million, on a cash-free, debt-free basis. The cash deal will be funded through a combination of debt and RPC equity, in the form of the one-for-five rights issue, with up to 50.6 million new shares to be issued at 460.0 pence each. RPC shares closed at 764.00p on Friday. The debt component of the financing arrangements means that RPC's revolving credit facility has been increased to GBP770.0 million from GBP490.0 million.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Independent Oil & Gas, up 16%. The oil and gas company said it has signed a rig contract with Transocean Drilling UK to procure the Transocean John Shaw semi-submersible rig to drill the company's appraisal well on the Skipper oil discovery in Block 9/21a in the Northern North Sea in licence P1609. Chief Executive Mark Routh said the signing of the semi-submersible rig contract with Transocean is "the breakthrough" the company has been waiting for. "This allows us to drill the Skipper well in the New Year which will enable us to optimise the Skipper Field Development Plan in addition to targeting two exploration prospects at low cost," Routh said.

Iofina, up 7.9%. The iodine production and iodine chemical derivatives maker sought to reassure investors about the impact of a recent earthquake in Oklahoma on its operations in the US state. A fortnight ago, the stock took a hit after Iofina warned available brine for its facility would decline due to the earthquake last month, which occurred around five miles south of one of its IOsorb plants in Oklahoma. On Monday, however, the company said the availability of brine for its facilities has held up and said the further restrictions placed on salt water injection will not directly affect its other plants. While brine availability has declined, the company said this will only fall marginally year-on-year and said it is consulting with its partners on how to secure alternative brine sources to mitigate the problem.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Tribal Group, down 45%. The education support-services company said it plans to raise up to GBP30.0 million in a rights issue early next year in order to cut debt and provide working capital and said it will move to AIM to cut costs. The group said it has suffered from "slow" sales momentum, while several "key customer contract milestones" have moved into 2016, meaning that adjusted operating profit for 2015 is likely to be "significantly lower" than expected. Tribal has warned its lenders that it may breach the covenants of its revolving credit facility, under which the group is able to borrow up to GBP50.0 million. The group has also begun talks with its bankers to "negotiate amendments to the operation of covenants and the waiver of any event of default that may result from our current trading performance".

Circle Oil, down 24%. The oil and gas company said progress on its new financing deal had been slower-than-expected, leaving it scrambling to shore up its position. The company reached a deal with International Finance Corp in November to extend its reserve-based lending facility, but progress on securing this financing has been slower than Circle had originally envisaged. Circle said despite the low cost of its operations, trading remains very challenging for the business due to the further weakening in global oil prices and varying production levels from its NW Gemsa project in Egypt. Due to the continued problems the company has faced, the borrowing base for the reserve-based lending facility from the IFC is set to be reduced, leaving a shortfall in Circle's funding. It is actively considering options, including issuing equity or restructuring its debt in order to shore up its finances.

Audioboom Group, down 24%. The audio platform operator said that, whilst its revenue for the year to end-November was significantly ahead of the previous year, it fell short of market expectations. The company, which operates an on-demand spoken work audio platform, is continuing to target profitability and positive cash generation in 2017. Audioboom said that real revenue growth only began towards the end of its fourth quarter, with revenue in the quarter more than double the previous three quarters combined.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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