LONDON MARKET OPEN: Dairy Crest Climbs 13% As Agrees To Saputo Offer

LONDON (Alliance News) - Stock prices in London were lacking in direction early Friday, hovering around the neutral mark overall, as individual stocks moved on company announcement, most dramatically Dairy Crest after receiving an agreed takeover bid from Canada's Saputo. The FTSE 100 was just 1.35 points lower at 7,166.04. The mid-cap FTSE 250 was up just 4.23 points at 19,241.11, and the AIM All-Share index was flat at 908.85.The Cboe UK 100 index was up 0.3% at 12,194.54, while the Cboe UK 250 was 0.2% higher at 17,156.22 and the Cboe UK Small Companies marginally lower at 11,177.92. In mainland Europe, the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt were both 0.1% higher early on. On the London Stock Exchange, Dairy Crest, which owns Cathedral City cheddar and Country Life butter, surged 13% to 625p as it agreed a takeover by Canadian dairy firm Saputo.Saputo will pay 620 pence in cash for each Dairy Crest share, valuing Dairy Crest at approximately GBP975 million.The price is a 12% premium to Dairy Crest's closing price of 555p on Thursday, which had gave a market capitalisation of around GBP863 million.Sub-prime lender Non-Standard Finance has made a firm offer for peer Provident Financial, valuing Provident around GBP1.3 billion.Provident was 0.7% higher in early trade, and Non-Standard Finance up 5.6%. The all-share merger will see Non-Standard Finance give 8.88 of its own shares per Provident share, valuing Providence's shares at around 511 pence each. Provident closed at 511.40p on Thursday, so there is no premium to the takeover proposal.So far, shareholders worth over 50% of Provident have indicated they will accept the deal, including Woodford, Invesco, and Marathon.FTSE 100 publisher Pearson was 1.2% higher as the firm increased its final dividend by 8% to 13 pence per share, taking 2018's total to 18.5p from 17p in 2017.Revenue for 2018 fell 1% in underlying terms to GBP4.13 billion due to declines in its US Higher Education Courseware and US K12 Courseware businesses, the latter of which has now been sold.On a statutory basis, revenue declined 9% to GBP384 million mainly due to portfolio changes and currency headwinds.Pearson's adjusted operating profit on an underlying basis rose 8% to GBP546 million, though fell 5% on a headline basis, coming in at the upper end of Pearson's guided range.Pearson reported pretax profit of GBP498 million from continuing operations, up from GBP421 million a year prior.Looking ahead, Pearson guided for adjusted operating profit of between GBP590 million and GBP640 million in 2019. It will book a net interest charge of around GBP30 million.However, using new IFRS 16 accounting standards, adjusted operating profit is set to be between GBP610 million and GBP660 million, with a net interest charge of GBP60 million.Cost savings are ahead of plan, Pearson added, and it now expects annualised savings over GBP330 million by the end of 2019, ahead of the original GBP300 million plan.Centrica was 0.7% lower, as Goldman Sachs cut its rating on the utility stock to Neutral from Buy.Centrica said Friday it has renewed its GBP4.2 billion revolving credit facilities with a group of 21 banks, lasting for five years with an option for another year.Miners were making gains early on. Fresnillo was 2.1% higher, Glencore up 1.8%, Anglo American up 1.3%, BHP up 1.2%, and Rio Tinto up 1.1%. In the FTSE 250, Metro Bank rose 5.1% as it won GBP120 million funding from BCR, which was set up to implement the alternative remedies package agreed between the UK and the European Commission in connection with the taxpayer bailout of Royal Bank of Scotland. By contract, CYBG was 6.7% lower after failing to get a grant from the same body. The cash will go towards helping small and medium-sized businesses, Metro Bank said.Serco was 3.5% higher, despite CFRA cutting its rating to Hold from Sell. Elsewhere, Irish insulation firm Kingspan was 1.5% lower as it reported a 19% rise in revenue to EUR4.37 billion in 2018, with pretax profit rising to EUR404.9 million from EUR346.5 million.Kingspan will pay a final dividend of 30 euro cents, taking 2018's total to 42 cents, up 14% on the year before.The company said performance was good in "most" markets, with revenue increasing in all divisions and trading profit in all but one.Looking ahead, Kingspan said 2019 has begun well, with like-for-like sales, volumes, and its order book all ahead year-on-year.Flybe slumped 38%. It has completed the sale of operating subsidiaries Flybe Ltd and Flybe.com to Connect Airways, a consortium including Stobart Group.Flybe Group, now a non-trading entity, itself still needs shareholder approval to be sold, and the board has warned without a sale it will be wound up. Stobart Group, as part of the deal, has sold its Stobart Air and Propius businesses to Connect Airways, and this now also has completed. Stobart was up 0.5%.Germany's economy stagnated in the final three months of the year, thus narrowly avoiding a technical recession, latest data from the Federal Statistical Office confirmed on Friday.Gross domestic product was unchanged from the third quarter, when the economy shrunk 0.2%. That was in line with the preliminary estimate released on February 14.Two consecutive quarters of contraction would have meant the biggest euro area economy entered recession."Headlines such as "Germany at the brink of a recession" remain the same but the just released details of fourth quarter GDP growth show not all is gloom and doom in the Eurozone's largest economy," said Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING Germany.With no "traditional" growth components in the negative, Brzeski continued, cars are still blocking the road to a rebound."In our view, there are two main takeaways from this morning's German GDP data: the temporary problems in the car industry mask solid fundamentals across the entire economy; and the sharp inventory reduction suggests it will still take some time but eventually the car-related problems should disappear," Brzeski said."It is often said many Germans can get sidetracked by fast cars. This time around, cars have sidetracked the entire economy. However, in a couple of months, the German economy should be able again to show its true colours."Germany also has the IFO business climate survey at 0900 GMT.In the US on Thursday, Wall Street ended in the red, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite all ending 0.4% lower.In Asia on Friday, shares were mixed. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index ended 0.2% lower. The Shanghai Composite in China closed up 1.9%, while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong closed 0.6% higher.US and Chinese trade negotiators met Thursday at the White House to begin two days of meetings to resolve their trade dispute ahead of a March 1 deadline.The high-level talks come after the latest round of negotiations in Beijing last week ended inconclusively and after a series of meetings between deputies earlier this week in Washington.The White House said Monday the negotiators would discuss "China's pledge to purchase a substantial amount of goods and services from the US".In the UK, fresh Brexit talks have been scheduled for early next week as UK Prime Minister Theresa May heads towards another Commons showdown on her EU withdrawal stance.The move comes amid reports May is facing a major challenge from Tory MPs opposed to a no-deal exit from the EU.Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay and Attorney General Geoffrey Cox announced they will hold talks again with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier in the coming days on the Northern Ireland backstop.The UK will not be able to roll over the EU's trade deal with Japan in time for the scheduled date of Brexit on March 29, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has confirmed.The pound was quoted at USD1.3026 Friday, soft from USD1.3054 at the close on Thursday.Later in the calendar eurozone inflation is due at 1000 GMT, followed by a speech by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi at 1530 GMT.The euro stood at USD1.1344 Friday, slightly higher compared to USD1.1335 Thursday.There are also a series of speeches later on from members of the US Federal Reserve's rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, including Vice Chair John Williams, Richard Clarida, Randal Quarles, and James Bullard.