UK WINNERS & LOSERS: CRH Falls As Doubts Cast On Holcim-Lafarge Merger

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are amongst the biggest risers and fallers within the main London indices midday Monday.
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FTSE 100 LOSERS
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CRH, down 3.3%. Swiss cement giant Holcim said its board had concluded that it can no longer pursue a merger with French rival Lafarge SA on the current terms of the proposed deal, and it wants talks about changing the exchange ratio and "governance issues", throwing the deal into doubt. The news hit shares in London-listed CRH, which has a separate deal to buy up assets that the two companies are selling to get the deal past antitrust-regulators. CRH said it would press ahead with a shareholder meeting to approve the asset purchase deal.
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FTSE 250 WINNERS
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Beazley, up 3.0%. Deutsche Bank has initiated coverage of the specialty insurer at Buy with a 306.00 pence price target. The stock currently trades at 294.70p.

Balfour Beatty, up 3.0%. Jefferies has raised the construction company to Buy from Underperform, saying that with new management installed and a turnaround underway, it's expecting better things from the company in 2016 and 2017.

Informa, up 2.6%. N+1 Singer has upgraded the company to Hold from Sell.

Michael Page International, up 2.0%. Barclays has raised the recruiter to Equal Weight from Underweight.
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FTSE 250 LOSERS
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Afren, down 21%. JP Morgan has cut the oil and gas company's price target to 4.0p from 33.0p, reiterating its Underweight rating. The stock currently trades at 3.689 pence.
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AIM ALL-SHARE WINNERS
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Kefi Minerals, up 7.3%. The company said the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines has approved the Tulu Kapi gold project, bringing it a step closer to securing a mining license and said the development of the project will cost USD30 million less than originally expected. Kefi's application for the Tulu Kapi gold project will now be submitted before the Council of Ministers to secure a mining agreement, followed by a mining license and full permit to develop and operate the gold project for 20 years, Kefi said.

Smart Metering Systems, up 6.5%. The company reported strong growth in profit and revenue in 2014, as its expansion in the electricity metering market paid off. It said pretax profit rose to GBP11.0 million for 2014, from GBP7.5 million in 2013, as revenue grew by more than half to GBP42.4 million, from GBP27.9 million. It will pay a final dividend of 1.88 pence a share, bringing the total for the year to 2.82p, up from 2.31p for 2013.
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AIM ALL-SHARE LOSERS
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Premaitha Health, off 36%. The company said it has inked a deal with Esperite NV to allow Espirite's Swiss subsidiary Genoma to have a right to use Premaitha's IONA test for its non-invasive prenatal testing services, but at the same time it was accused by a US rival of allegedly infringing patents with some aspects of the test.

Regency Mines, down 25%, and Alba Mineral Resources, down 25%. Alba Mineral Resources said it has raised GBP500,000 in a share placing to back its acquisition of a further stake in Horse Hill Developments Ltd. Alba has issued 200 million shares at 0.25 pence per share. Shares in the company currently trade at 0.3 pence. Alba will use the funding to satisfy the consideration due to fellow AIM-listed company Regency Mines for the acquisition of a further stake in Horse Hill Developments Ltd, the operator of the Horse Hill prospect in Surrey.

Nyota Minerals, down 20%. The miner reported a wider loss for the first half of its financial year owing to an impairment charge taken on its Northern Blocks property in Ethiopia and said it is undertaking a strategic review of its Ethiopian business.

Sirius Petroleum, down 20%. The company said it is still working towards completing its GBP9.6 million convertible loan with Nima International Ltd and has extended the completion date for the deal. Sirius said it is continuing to work closely with Nima and its advisers to reduce the number of outstanding items relating to security documents which need to be agreed before the loan deal can be completed.

RapidCloud International, down 16%. The cloud computing company said it expects to report a revenue increase of about 60% for 2014, and expressed growing confidence for 2015 as it is trading broadly in line with market expectations. It expects to post revenue of MYR18.3 million for 2014, compared with MYR11.3 million in 2013. It expects to post net profit before exceptional costs in line with market expectations.
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By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1

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