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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 - LOSERS
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Aviva, down 3.6%. The insurer has agreed to exit its Indonesia business by selling its entire stake in the joint venture to its partner PT Astra International. Aviva said the sale of PT Astra Aviva Life will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020, and will be subject to regulatory approval in Indonesia. Aviva also noted the deal is conditional on Bangkok Bank Public Co's acquisition of PT Bank Permata from Standard Chartered, which was approved by Bangkok Bank shareholders on Thursday. Bank Permata is Aviva's bancassurance partner in the country. Standard Chartered and Indonesia's PT Astra International jointly control Permata, each holding just under a 45% stake, giving them a combined holding of just over 89%. Back in November, when Aviva unveiled its new "simplification" strategy, the insurer noted it was in discussions to sell its Indonesian and Vietnamese businesses.
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Glencore, down 3.5%. The miner & commodity broker has found potentially "relevant" facts to current investigations, the Financial Times reported Thursday. Glencore is currently facing corruption and bribery probes from the US Department of Justice, the UK Serious Fraud Office, as well as from authorities in Brazil. Glencore's auditor Deloitte, the FT said, said the company has found facts "which may be relevant" to the investigations, and they have now been shared with regulators.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Cineworld, down 6.4%. Citigroup chopped the cinema chain operator to Neutral from Buy. Cineworld said it has not seen any material impact so far on theatre admissions from the spread of coronavirus, as it reported key financial numbers for 2019. Following an increase in admissions in the first two months of the year, against the same period in the previous year, Cineworld said it continues to see "good" levels of admissions in all of its territories, despite the reported spread of COVID-19. For 2019, the cinema chain operator said it anticipates reporting revenue of USD4.37 billion, up 6.1% from USD4.12 billion recorded in 2018. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation is penned at USD1.03 billion, up 12% from USD925.4 million. Net debt, excluding lease liabilities, is predicted at USD3.48 billion versus USD3.73 billion. Although the latest James Bond movie release has been delayed to November due to closure of cinemas in Asian markets, movie studios have advised Cineworld that they currently remain committed to their release schedule for the coming months and remainder of 2020.
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Jupiter Fund Management, down 5.9%. Berenberg cut the investment company to Sell from Hold.
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Victrex, down 4.8%. Barclays reduced the polymer supplier to Underweight from Equal Weight.
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Hammerson, down 4.3%. Goldman Sachs cut the property development and investment company to Neutral from Buy.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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easyHotel, up 19% at 83 pence. The budget hotel said it has raised GBP11 million to fund the company's hotel roll-out strategy. easyHotel has raised the new capital via subscription and issue of 11.6 million new shares at 95.0 pence each by major shareholder Citrus Holdco, a company owned by a consortium comprising real estate developer Cadim Fonds and ICAMAP Investments. Citrus Holdco in October 2019 acquired around 69% stake in easyHotel. The investment vehicle initially announced its intention to acquire the entire hotel chain in August, however, easyHotel founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou insisted that he would block any acquisition offer for the hotel chain with his stake in the company. The share subscription price represents a 36% premium to the 70 pence per share price of easyHotel stock on Thursday.
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Hurricane Energy, up 3.4%. The oil exploration and production company said it has agreed on a new cost allocation deal within the Greater Warwick Area joint venture due to the delay in implementing phase two in the phased work programme for the area. As part of the farm-in contract secured in September 2018, Hurricane and Spirit Energy agreed to a phased work programme, which included the tie-back of a GWA well to the Aoka Mizu floating production storage and offloading unit, and a gas export tie-in to the West of Shetland pipeline system. The work was split into two phases, with the second phase to start after a final investment decision on a GWA tie-back to the Aoka Mizu. As phase two has not started due to the lack of an FID, Hurricane and Spirit have signed a cost allocation agreement for the farm-in deal. Under its terms, the joint venture will build out the equipment and materials needed to tie back a single well from the area to the Aoka Mizu on a 50:50 basis, with a net cost to Hurricane of USD20.5 million. Hurricane will reserve the right to continue building-out long lead items related to the gas export tie-in on a sole basis, at a cost of USD28.0 million.
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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Rurelec, down 25%. The power producer said it has received a further USD1.4 million by way of partial repayment by Patagonia Energy of the loan note. The balance outstanding on the loan notes is USD21.3 million with the first USD5 million of repayment shared 80/20 between Rurelec and Basic Energy, the shareholders of Patagonia. However, Rurelec noted that the timing of future payments is not certain as it depends on the potential future cash generation ability of Energia del Sur, its ability to transmit funds to Patagonia, and delays being experienced by electricity generators in Argentina in receiving payments of revenue from local regulator. Thus, Rurelec said there can be no guarantee as to when any further loan repayments will be made.
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Echo Energy, down 15%. The fuel producer said it has agreed a two-year extension of the loan, which was previously due for repayment on Monday next week. In connection with this extension, Echo said it issued the lender - Spartan Class O - with 3.6 million warrants to subscribe for new shares in the firm at a price of 1.4p each, and with an expiry date of March 9, 2022. Echo said it intends to put in place an additional unsecured standby credit facility, initially of GBP400,000 and up to GBP1.0 million amid the recent movements in oil prices and the potential for ongoing volatility in the short term. Turning to the company's recent acquisition of a 70% non-operated working interest in the Santa Cruz Sur assets, onshore Argentina, Echo said average daily production in February was 2,410 barrels of oil equivalent a day. Production over the period from the beginning of November 2019 to the end of February reached an aggregate of 298,140 barrels of oil equivalent net to Echo.
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By Evelina Grecenko; eveilnagrecenko@alliancenews.com
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