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(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Ocado, up 12%. Ocado has signed an agreement with Aeon to develop the Japanese grocer's online business using the Ocado Smart Platform. Aeon has about 100 million customers and operates over 21,000 stores across various businesses, with operations in 14 countries. Aeon will be launching its new online business with the help of Ocado's platform. The agreement plans for the development of a national fulfilment network to serve the whole of the Japanese market, with expected sales capacity of around JPY600 billion by 2030, growing to approximately JPY1 trillion by 2035, the company said. Initial fulfilment centres will serve the Kanto region in Japan, with the first planned centre to go live in 2023. By 2025, Aeon expects to have a sales capacity in this region in excess of JPY200 billion. Aeon will pay Ocado upfront fees upon signing and during the development phase, then ongoing fees linked to both sales achieved and installed capacity within each customer fulfilment centres and service criteria, the company noted.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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St James's Place, down 4.0%. Goldman Sachs cut the wealth manager to Sell from Neutral.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Big Yellow Group, down 1.9%. Morgan Stanley cut the self-storage firm to Underweight from Equal-Weight.
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Royal Mail, down 1.7%. Bernstein cut the delivery service to Market-Perform from Outperform.
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Dixons Carphone, down 1.2%. The electrical goods retailer was down following news its unit is facing legal troubles. ThinkSmart subsidiary RentSmart has issued formal legal proceeds against mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse, which is part of Dixons Carphone. ThinkSmart was down 23%. In ThinkSmart's core leasing business, volumes from RentSmart's Flexible Leasing contract with Carphone Warehouse remain significantly below the numbers targeted. For the year ended June 30, less than 10% of ThinkSmart's revenue were generated from Flexible Leasing. Under RentSmart's contract with Carphone Warehouse, Carphone was under obligations for the marketing and promotion of the relevant product. RentSmart said it has held discussions with Carphone Warehouse over the low volumes generated, and the retailer's "failure to comply with its obligations", which have been unsuccessful. RentSmart is seeking damages totalling GBP20 million, consisting of GBP14.5 million for flexible leasing and GBP5.5 million for Upgrade Everytime.
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Investec, down 1.1%. The banking group said its shareholders will benefit from the demerger of its asset management unit, as it has long-term growth prospects. The company said back in September 2018 that it was pursuing the demerger of Investec Asset Management following a strategic review. Investec said its asset management business will be rebranded when its demerger from its banking parent is concluded on March 13 next year. The unit will be named Ninety One, with Ninety One PLC incorporated in England and Wales, and listed on the London Stock Exchancge, while Ninety One Ltd incorporated in South Africa and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Investec explained that the demerger brings greater focus and simplicity to the Investec Specialist Banking and Wealth & Investment businesses, which should enhance the returns for shareholders and enable the businesses to grow with discipline. The transaction is expected to have a positive impact on the CET1 ratio of Investec PLC, it said, improving by 1.3% to 12.0%, while the CET1 ratio of Investec Ltd, is expected to advance by 0.6% to 12.3%. The banking group is expecting to incur a GBP56 million cost for the demerger but Investec "strongly" believes the move will simplify its business and improve its long term prospects.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Countrywide, up 14%. The real estate agent will sell its commercial real estate consultancy and transactional business Lambert Smith Hampton Ltd for GBP38 million in cash. Countrywide also announced a share consolidation on the basis of 1 new share for every 50 existing shares. The reduction in the number of overall issued shares is expected to improve market liquidity by reducing the volatility and spread. The company currently has 1.64 billion shares in issue. Countrywide will sell Lambert Smith Hampton to John Bengt Moeller, who is chair of Great Global Holdings, a holding company for several UK and international companies. Both the sale and the share consolidation is subject to shareholder approval at an upcoming general meeting. If approved, the transaction is expected to be completed on December 31. The sale itself is expected to improve Countrywide's capital structure, and proceeds from the sale will allow the group to materially reduce its net debt. In addition, Countrywide on Thursday agreed to an amended credit facility with its lenders, which includes provisions for a minimum facility of GBP95 million until September 2022.
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Reach, up 12%. The digital and magazine publisher said its trading had been "steady" over the last five months and in line with expectations, as sales declines slowed on the year prior on strong digital growth. For the five months ended Sunday, like-for-like revenue fell 4.4% on the year prior after Print revenues fell 7.3% and Digital revenues grew 14%. The London-based newspaper and magazine company said the results were an improvement on like-for-like figures for the same period in 2018, when revenue fell by 6.6%. This had included a steeper 8.2% fall in Print revenue and less buoyant Digital growth of 9.3%. The publisher said it remains confident it will meet its expectations for the year ending December 29.
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Aggregated Micro Power, up 32%. The company was up after it agreed a GBP63 million takeover by a subsidiary of Asterion Industrial Infra Fund I. Asterion - through its wholly-owned unit Fossa Holdco - will pay 90 pence per share in cash for Aggregated Micro Power, which trades under the name AMP Clean Energy. "This transaction not only represents an attractive offer price for AMP Clean Energy, but it ensures AMP Clean Energy has the right partner to help fund its next phase of growth to help UK businesses unlock the potential of decentralised, low carbon energy which supports the UK's transition to a low carbon economy," AMP Chief Executive Officer Richard Burrell said.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Bowleven, down 25%. The oil & gas exploration firm made a huge impairment to the value of its Cameroon offshore project. For the year ended June, pretax loss deepened to USDP66.6 million from USD7.0 million the year prior. This was after it booked a USD62.0 million impairment of its share in the offshore Etinde project in Cameroon, reducing its value to a range with a mid-point of USD150 million. Bowleven did not generate revenue in either year. "Our focus in 2020 will be to work with all of our stakeholders to ensure [a pre-financial investment decision] is underpinned by a compelling development plan, which is suitably robust to secure future capex funding during the financial year," Chief Executive Officer Eli Chahin said.
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Edenville Energy, down 23%. The miner said production at its Rukwa coal project in Tanzania has been "significantly lower" than capacity. Edenville estimates the project has a capacity of 12,000 tonnes of washed coal per month, but produced 820 tonnes from September 21 to Friday. The company said it was able to satisfy customer demand during this period, selling 1,021 tonnes of washed coal, but this included some from its own stockpiles. "During this period the company has continued to identify new potential customers who, combined with existing customers, cumulatively have demand in excess of the current capacity, but in order to meet this demand and expand operations the company will require additional working capital," Edenville added.
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Cap-XX, down 14%. The supercapacitor maker agreed to buy the equipment from Japanese firm Murata Manufacturing to increase its production capacity by three times. To help fund the deal and other working capital needs, Cap-XX proposed to raise up to GBP3.5 million through a discounted equity raise. Cap-XX said it agreed to buy the equipment currently being used in the supercapacitor production lines of Murata. This was after a change in strategy of Murata - which is a licensee for Cap-XX technology - resulted in the assets being put up for sale. To fund the deal, Cap-XX has conditionally raised GBP2.6 million through a placing of 87.0 million at 3.0 pence per share. In addition, the AIM-listed company conditionally raised another GBP140,000 through a 4.7 million share subscription at the same price as the placing.
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Benchmark Holdings, down 7.1%. The company, which develops genetics and nutrition offerings for the acquaculture industry, said challenging market conditions led to disappointing performance and restructuring of the group. In a trading update for the fourth quarter and year ended September 30, the firm said annual revenue, including continuing and discontinued operations, is expected to be GBP148 million, down 2.3% from GBP151.5 million in comparative period a year ago. Meanwhile revenue from continuing operations is guided down 3.5% to GBP127 million from GBP131.6 million. Executive Chair Peter George said: "It is disappointing to report a performance which is below that expected at the beginning of the financial year largely due to market conditions in Advanced Nutrition."
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By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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