MTMY.L Share News (MTMY)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Monday.
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COMPANIES
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Synergy Health saw its shares surge 30% after it recommended a USD1.9 billion cash and shares takeover offer from US medical technology and hospital services company Steris Corp. In a statement, Steris said Synergy Health was recommending its GBP19.50 a share takeover offer, which would create a combined business with about USD2.6 million in annual revenue from over 60 countries and about 14,000 employees.The combined company will be incorporated in the UK, while its operational and U.S. headquarters will remain in Mentor, Ohio. Separately, Synergy said revenue was up 2.8% on the year in the first of its current financial year, although it booked a GBP8.8 million revenue hit from adverse currency movements.
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Medical devices maker Smith & Nephew said a Phase III study in North America into developmental venous leg ulcer treatment HP802-247 failed to meet its primary endpoint, and there was no statistically significant improvement in healing compared with a placebo. In a statement, the company said it will now full analyse the efficacy data and study methodology, while a second Phase III study in the EU, which is expected to report in 2016, will continue while the analysis is completed.
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The upheaval among senior executives at Tesco continues with two more directors heading for the door as Britain’s biggest retailer continues its investigation into a GBP250 million hole in profits, the Financial Times reported. Jonathan Lloyd, company secretary at Tesco, will leave the retailer next March after serving his notice period. Ken Hanna, audit committee chairman and non-executive director, is also expected to stand down when his six-year tenure comes to an end later this year, the paper said, adding that neither departure is linked to the discovery of the overstatement in profits
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British Sky Broadcasting Group said it has bought a USD0.5 million convertible debt security in California-based early stage technology company Pluto.TV, a deal that continues the broadcaster's recent stake building in tech startups. Pluto.TV specialises in aggregating online video on demand content and curating it into linear, genre-based channels which are distributed through its application across web, mobile and connected TVs, BSkyB said in a short statement.
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Packaging components company Essentra said revenue was up 8% on the year at constant currencies in the third quarter, as higher sales of components and protection products and filter products offset a decline in sales of its porous technologies, meaning its on track to hit the targets set out in its strategic plan three years ago. In a statement, the company said like-for-like sales growth was 7% in the third quarter of 2014. Like-for-like sales also exclude the impact of acquisitions and disposals.
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BTG said it will start selling its drug-eluting bead and embolisation products, DC Bead and Bead Block, directly to customers in 11 European countries from April 1, 2015, a move that comes after it built up its direct sales force in the region for a different product. The company's DC Bead and Bead Block products are currently sold in Europe by Terumo Corp, but that contract expires on March 31, 2015.
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Matomy Media Group said French advertising and PR giant Publicis Groupe has acquired a 20% equity stake in the company, and has the option to acquire a further 4.9% shareholding within the next 45 days. In a statement, Matomy Media, a digital performance-based advertising company, said Publicis Groupe will acquire 17.9 million shares from existing Matomy shareholders for 227 pence per share, representing a 20% stake in the company and making the deal worth GBP40.6 million. It said Publicis has also been granted an irrevocable option, valid for 45 days, to acquire a further 4.4 million shares, worth a further 4.9% stake, from its shareholders for the same price.
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Melrose Industries said it has reached a deal to sell its Bridon division to the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan for GBP365 million on a debt and cash free basis, money it will use to pay down debt and to finance a return of capital "in due course". As part of the transaction, which is expected to complete before the end of 2014, Melrose will contribute GBP6.7 million into the Bridon Group (2013) Pension Scheme, which will remain with Bridon on disposal. Bridon supplies high-performance ropes for energy, mining and industrial applications.
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MARKETS
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Miners have led a blue-chip recovery after concerns about the eurozone economy saw the FTSE 100 index open lower. The FTSE 100 touched a 15-month low in early trade at 6,294.64 but has recovered by mid-morning to trade marginally higher.
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FTSE 100: up 0.03% at 6,342.10
FTSE 250: down 0.3% at 14,600.62
AIM ALL-SHARE: down 0.7% at 703.86
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The pound and euro both trade higher against the dollar on a light day in the economic calendar.
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GBP-USD: up at USD1.6092
EUR-USD: up at USD1.2680

GOLD: up at USD1227.96 per ounce
OIL (Brent): down at USD88.14 a barrel

(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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British manufacturers expect growth to slow in the final quarter of 2014, reports said citing a survey from accountancy group BDO. The index measuring businesses' growth expectations declined to 111.6 from 113.2 in August. However, a reading above 100 still indicates growth. "With global conditions becoming increasingly challenging, it was only a matter of time before the stellar increases in economic growth recorded earlier this year came to an end," Peter Hemington, a partner at BDO, said.
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UK income tax receipts are likely to fall short of the government's target for the current financial year despite record employment, the Office for Budget Responsibility Chairman Robert Chote reportedly said. "We've been getting fewer pence of revenue coming in for every pound of wages and salaries that's generated. From the perspective of the public finances that's not particularly good news," Chote was quoted as saying by broadcaster BBC. The first GBP 10,000 in annual earnings is exempt from tax and the BBC cited official figures showing that 35% of self-employed earned less that that figure.
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Thousands of jobs in Britain's National Health Service would have to go if the government met pay demands from nurses, midwives and other staff, Health Minister Jeremy Hunt said Monday as a four-hour strike began. Unions said up to 400,000 of the service's 1.3 million staff could join a stoppage that would be followed up this week by work-to-rule industrial action. Nurses and midwives were set to stop work as part of the strike. However, doctors and dentists will stay on the job, and ambulances will keep running.
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Germany's wholesale prices declined at a faster rate in September, data from Destatis showed. Wholesale prices fell 0.9% year-over-year in September following the 0.6% fall in August. This marked the fifteenth consecutive month of drop in prices.
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China's exports surged by 15.3% year-on-year in September, exceeding forecasts and posting the fastest growth in 19 months, the government said. Analysts played down the significance of the jump in trade, warning that it was likely to make little impact on flagging economic growth. Export value reached 214 billion dollars in September, while imports grew by 7% year-on-year to 183 billion dollars, the General Administration of Customs reported.
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A group of men wearing face masks tried to pick fights with protesters and remove barricades in Hong Kong's business district as pro-democracy demonstrations entered their third week. The group provoked scuffles with protesters, while about 100 older people also joined in to shout "Occupy Central is illegal." "Before the police came to stop them we were very scared that organized gang members were paid to destroy protest sites," Ian Yuen, a 29-year-old protester, told dpa. Police separated both sides and cleared a way for opponents to peacefully leave the area.
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The International Monetary Fund's member countries are determined to take "bold and ambitious measures" to invigorate the slow-growing global economy, the Washington-based crisis lender's board said Saturday. "We are committed to lifting potential growth and to creating a more robust, sustainable, balanced and job-rich global economy," the managing committee of the IMF board said in its statement from annual meetings in Washington.
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Islamic State jihadists have seized an army base in the town of Hit as they continue their advance in Iraq's western province of al-Anbar, local media report. Troops in the base conducted a "tactical retreat" to the al-Baghdadi area, taking all the base's military equipment with them, Iraq's Alsumaria News reported. Iraqi news agency Al-Mada Press reported the base fell after hours of clashes.
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A health care provider who worked at the Dallas hospital where a Liberian man was treated for Ebola tested positive for the deadly virus, health authorities said Sunday. "We don't know what occurred in the care of the index patient, the original patient in Dallas," US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden said. "But at some point, there was a breach in protocol and that breach led to infection." Frieden warned that there may be more US cases in the coming days, but said authorities were working to ensure that the virus stays contained. The CDC is investigating further possible breaches of protocol that could lead to more cases.
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A powerful typhoon pounded the southern Japanese island of Kyushu and was projected to lash wide areas of the country, weather authorities said. One Chinese person was missing in Shizuoka, central Japan, after he was swamped by high waves, broadcast NHK reported. At least 52 people were injured as Vongfong, the second typhoon in a week, brought heavy rain and strong winds. About half a million residents were advised to evacuate their homes in western and southern Japan as the Meteorological Agency warned of flooding, mudslides, swollen rivers and high waves. Airlines to ground hundreds of flights Monday and dozens of train services were suspended.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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