LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.----------
FTSE 100 - WINNERS----------
Shire, up 4.1%. The Irish drugmaker said it has agreed a takeover deal with Japanese peer Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. The Japanese drugmaker is to pay USD30.33 in cash per Shire share, plus either 0.839 new Takeda shares or 1.678 Takeda American depository shares. The deal, Shire said, is worth GBP49.01 based on Takeda's closing price on Tokyo on April 23, the last date before which Shire said it would be willing to recommend a deal. This puts the value of the offer at around GBP46.00 billion, though approximately GBP44.00 billion based on Takeda's closing price on Monday in Tokyo. Shire shareholders will own approximately 50% of the combined group.
Unilever, up 2.8%. The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods firm said it has started its EUR6.00 billion share buyback programme with an initial EUR3.00 billion tranche ending no later than mid-July. Unilever announced the buyback at its first quarter results, released in mid-April. The company had said it will buyback up to EUR6.00 billion from May onward which will see it return the proceeds of its disposal of its spreads business. The initial EUR3.00 billion tranche will start on Tuesday and complete no later than July 19. Of this EUR3.00 billion, EUR1.5 billion each will be used to repurchase its London-based Unilever PLC shares and its Amsterdam-based Unilever NV shares.----------
FTSE 250 - WINNERS----------
Virgin Money, up 7.5% at 335.90 pence and CYBG, up 1.8%. Midcap lender CYBG said that it had made a preliminary offer for a potential deal with peer Virgin Money in a bid to create "UK's leading challenger bank". Under the terms of the deal, CYBG, which owns Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank, will buy all Virgin Money's issued share capital at an exchange ratio of 1.1297 new CYBG shares per Virgin Money share. CYBG's offer for Virgin Money is worth GBP1.60 billion based on CYBG's closing share price of 318.00 pence on Friday. Virgin Money shareholders would own 36.5% of the newly-formed group. Virgin Money confirmed receiving the offer and said its board was in the process of reviewing it. The bank advised shareholders not to take any action as "there can be no certainty that an offer will be made". Virgin Money ended at 313.00p on Friday. Peers OneSavings Bank and Metro Bank were also up 3.6% and 3.0% respectively.
RHI Magnesita, up 5.6%. The refractory products firm said it expects a "very positive" 2018 following a strong first quarter. For the three months to March, RHI's revenue came in at EUR745.0 million, 23% up on the same period a year earlier on a constant currency basis and 14% reported. The company's operating earnings before interest, tax, and amortisation has increased by almost 70% year-on-year for the first quarter to EUR113.0 million. RHI said it expects further development of the business through 2018, and the company said it is well financed with "high" liquidity and a "robust" balance sheet. RHI is "very" confident on meeting its synergy targets of EUR70.0 million a year by 2019 and EUR40.0 million in 2018.----------
FTSE 250 - LOSERS----------
Greencoat Wind UK, down 1.6% at 119.80p. The renewable infrastructure fund announced plans to raise up to GBP118.8 million through a placing of new shares in order to increase its stake in the Clyde wind farms to 28.2%. The company has decided to place up to 101,576,695 new shares at 117.00 pence per share, a discount of 2.6% over Friday's closing price. Greencoat will use the proceeds from the placing to fund the GBP114.2 million required to raise Clyde wind farms' stake, which it is doing after exercising an option. ----------
OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS----------
Faron Pharmaceuticals, down 83%. The pharmaceuticals company reported "extremely disappointing" results from its flagship Traumakine candidate. In its phase III INTEREST trial for Traumakine, the treatment did not lead to an increase in the number of ventilator free days nor in a reduced mortality rate compared to a placebo. The drug was being tested as a possible treatment for moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome. ARDS, Faron said, has a mortality rate of between 30% and 45%. Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Markku Jalkanen said: "We are incredibly disappointed and surprised by these results. We need to further analyse the data in order to understand how this study differs from our previous positive results with ARDS patients, both in terms of Traumakine's efficacy, and in the unusually low mortality rate observed in the placebo arm." Faron also reported financial results for 2017, posting a pretax loss of EUR21.1 million for the year compared to EUR10.1 million, due to higher research & development spend. ----------
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