Norish bid talks end

Shares in cold storage firm Norish have fallen by 14% following its announcement that bid talks have ended. Norish announced that it had received a bid approach last November. The Ireland-based company described it as a "very preliminary approach".Just before the talks were revealed, Irish mining entrepreneur John Teeling increased his stake in Norish by 100,000 shares taking it to 11.7%. He subsequently bought 50,000 more shares at 40p each, taking his stake in Norish to 12.3%.Norish has also published its 2010 results. Turnover edged up from £10.5m to £10.7m, while pre-tax profit improved from £472,000 to £552,000. This represents a much stronger second half to the financial year with pre-tax profit jumping from £216,000 to £344,000. However, the figures are not as good as they look. They include an unrealised accounting profit of £410,000 on recycled R22 refrigeration gas, which Norish has an option to acquire at below market value. The interims included £208,000 of that unrealised gain so there was still an underlying improvement in profit in the second half. Gross profit declined and admin expenses were higher than the previous year. Net debt was £6.9m at the end of 2010, while the NAV was £7.5m. That is more than double the market value of Norish. The final dividend is maintained at 1.25 eurocents a share.