Sports Direct Share News (SPD)

(Alliance News) - The FTSE 100 stormed ahead of its European counterparts on Monday as merger & acquisition activity took the attention of traders, leaving shares in Just Eat and the London Stock Exchange Group surging.The large-cap FTSE 100 index was a sharp 95.00 points higher, or up 1.3%, at 7,644.06 Monday midday. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index was 63.27 points higher at 19,921.21, while the AIM All-Share was 0.1% higher at 928.79.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 1.2% at 12,955.50. The Cboe UK 250 was up 0.2% at 17,765.51, while the Cboe UK Small Companies was up 0.4% at 11,119.02.In Paris, the CAC 40 was down 0.2% while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt was flat in afternoon trade."The FTSE is powering ahead this morning on merger and takeover news, shrugging off a weak session in Asia where the start of the Sino-US trade talks in Shanghai dominated trading sentiment," said Fiona Cincotta at City Index.The two big takeover stories of the day involved Just Eat and the London Stock Exchange Group, up 26% and 15% respectively.Just Eat shares surged to 798.80 pence as Dutch Rival Takeaway.com confirmed a preliminary agreement for a possible all-share merger between the two.Under the possible deal, Just Eat shareholders would get 0.09744 Takeaway.com shares for each Just Eat share held, which values Just Eat at 731 pence per share. This is a 15% premium to FTSE 100 Just Eat's closing price on Friday last week in London of 635.60p.Just Eat shareholders would own 52.2% of the combined business, with the shareholders of Takeaway.com owning the rest. It would be led by Takeaway.com Chief Executive Jitse Groen, with Just Eat Chief Financial Officer Paul Harrison and Just Eat Chair Mike Evans taking up the same roles.The deal, the two said, would create one of the world's largest online food delivery programmes, with a combined 360 million orders worth EUR7.3 billion in 2018. The combined group would be domiciled in Amsterdam but would retain its premium listing in London. AJ Bell said Just Eat activist investor Cat Rock Capital - which has been pushing for Just Eat To tie up with a rival - "will be smiling like a Cheshire cat this morning"."Takeaway.com has previously signalled that it wanted to consolidate the market and that it considered the UK to be one of the most attractive markets in Europe. It may be no surprise that Cat Rock also has a stake in Takeaway.com so may have played cupid and set up the pair on a blind date," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.Meanwhile, the London Stock Exchange Group was higher after confirming it is in talks to buy Refinitiv, the financial market data group that was last year hived off from Thomson Reuters to a joint venture led by private equity group Blackstone.If the deal with London Stock Exchange Group goes through, Thomson Reuters expects to own 15% stake in the stock market operator. London Stock Exchange Group on Saturday said that, combined with Refinitiv, it would become the largest listed global financial markets infrastructure provider by revenue, with combined annual revenue of over GBP6 billion in 2018. Turning to the US, Wall Street is called for a flat open, with the S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones all seen unchanged.A slow start to the week in the US for corporate earnings picks up in the coming days, with earnings from iPhone maker Apple, consumer goods firm Procter & Gamble, and oil giants Exxon and Chevron. And, while the US economic calendar is light on Monday, focus lies on the latest monetary policy decision from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday. The CME's FedWatch tool has a 25 basis point cut 78% priced in for this week.Despite an imminent rate cut from the Fed anticipated by markets, the pound was struggling at the start of the week. "Sterling-dollar is under tremendous pressure today because of two main reasons: firstly, it is the strength in the dollar index which has pushed the pair below the critical level of USD1.24...Secondly, Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister has increased chances for a no deal Brexit scenario which no one likes-especially not the investment community," said Naeem Aslam at ThinkMarkets.On Sunday, Johnson set up a network of top-level committees to try to ensure Brexit takes place by the deadline of October 31.The Daily Operations Committee, chaired by Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove, will meet every weekday in the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms and will be responsible for overseeing all of the government's preparations for leaving the EU, and a possible no-deal exit.Downing Street has also announced an Exit, Economy & Trade Committee will be chaired by the prime minister and meet regularly. The Exit Strategy committee, known as XS, will meet twice a week and be chaired by the PM.Sterling was quoted at USD1.2320 at midday, down from USD1.2377 late Friday.Back in London, insurer Hiscox slipped 1.1% despite interim profit rising. In the half-year ended June 30, the FTSE 100 specialist insurer made a pretax profit of USD168.0 million, up 3.3% year-on-year from USD162.7 million, as gross premiums written increased by 5% to USD2.34 billion from USD2.23 billion.Hiscox's retail business, again its biggest segment, increased gross premiums written by 3.6% to USD1.15 billion from USD1.11 billion with a combined ratio of 95%. Pretax profit for the company's retail department was USD137.7 million, up from USD100.0 million. Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 was higher despite hefty losses for Sanne Group and Sports Direct International. Sanne shares slumped a third - the firm shedding over GBP360 million in value - after the fund administrator warned on full-year margins.For the six months to June, Sanne sees an underlying operating margin of around 26%, below previous guidance. This has been hit by a "disappointing" lack of delivery of operating efficiencies, and some extra overhead spend. These are unlikely to be compensated for in the second half of the year, Sanne continued.As a result, the underlying operating margin for 2019 is set to be between 28% to 30%, below previous expectations, and underlying earnings per share will be below expectations. In 2018, underlying earnings per share was 24.1 pence, up 8.6% year-on-year, and the underlying operating profit margin was 31.1%, from 34.3%. Sports Direct slumped 9.1% after revealing a fall in earnings in its delayed annual results. Sports Direct was due to release results for the 52 weeks to April 28 at 0715 BST on Friday, but these did not materialise. On Monday last week, Sports Direct had delayed them after difficulties surrounding the recently acquired House of Fraser, with results originally due Thursday that week.Underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation fell 6.0% to GBP287.8 million. Excluding House of Fraser, it rose 11% to GBP339.4 million.However, annual revenue rose 10% to GBP3.70 billion, with pretax profit almost tripling to GBP179.2 million. On an underlying basis, pretax profit rose 5.0% to GBP143.3 million.Profit, Sports Direct said, was boosted by better foreign exchange financial instruments, and the non-recurrence of a GBP85 million write-down on retailer Debenhams. Helping the mid-cap index higher, however, was sausage maker Cranswick as the food firm got a boost from African swine fever.The highly contagious and deadly fever has devastated livestock herd, sending meat prices rocketing in China. In the first half of 2019, the size of China's pig herd shrank by 15%. Pork prices in June surged 21% on the year before. This helped Cranswick's Asian export revenue come in "strongly" ahead year-on-year for the three months to June, the company reported, helping to lift group revenue for the quarter by 1.5% despite a strong comparative.Cranswick shares were up 10% at midday.London Midday is available to subscribers as an email newsletter. Contact info@alliancenews.com