UK WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Lockdowns Lift Just Eat Takeaway Orders

Thu, 09th Apr 2020 11:23

(Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Thursday.

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FTSE 100 - WINNERS

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Just Eat Takeaway.com, up 8.7%. Takeaway.com - the Dutch arm of the merged takeaway delivery company - reported a 50% jump in first-quarter orders. Takeaway's orders surged to 46.7 million from 31.1 million in the first quarter of 2019. The company said it saw increased demand for takeaway deliveries in light of lockdown measures imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Dutch food delivery firm Takeaway merged with UK-based Just Eat earlier this year. However, the two businesses are being run independently as the UK Competition & Markets Authority currently investigate the merger. As such, the figures released Thursday only relate to Takeaway's business and do not factor in Just Eat. They cover sales in the Netherlands, Germany and "other leading markets", the company said.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

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Mondi, down 1.7%. The paper and packaging company said it will not propose the payment of a final dividend for 2019, and has suspended all non-essential capital expenditure in order to preserve cash amid the Covid-19 pandemic. For the first quarter of 2020, Mondi said its performance was robust and in-line with expectations, even as underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation declined by 18% to EUR385 million from EUR471 million, due to lower pricing across its key paper grades. This figure, however, was up 1.0% from EUR381 million in the previous quarter.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

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William Hill, up 11%. RBC Capital raised the bookmaker to Outperform from Sector Perform.

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Redrow, up 7.3%. The housebuilder said it furloughed a vast majority of its staff and added it is eligible to receive GBP300 million support as part of the UK's Covid-19 corporate financing facility. Redrow said the financing facility, as part of UK measures to help firms during the pandemic, is currently undrawn. The company added that it is in negotiations for an extra GBP100 million of headroom under its revolving credit facility. This would see the facility boosted to GBP350 million from GBP250 million. Board members and senior directors have volunteered for a 20% pay cut.

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Trainline, up 1.3%. The online transport ticket sales platform said it will furlough staff and its board members have taken a pay cut as the company cuts costs amid a "significant fall" in rail travel over the past month. The company said passenger numbers fell as a result of UK government-imposed lockdown measures due to Covid-19. As well as pausing all marketing spend and introducing a hiring freeze, Trainline said its chief executive has taken a 50% salary cut "for the foreseeable future". The board and management team have voluntarily taken a 20% reduction in fees and pay. Trainline added that "certain teams" will be furloughed as part of the UK government's Coronavirus job retention scheme. These actions have meant Trainline's monthly operation costs have reduced to about GBP8 million and GBP9 million per month.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS

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Tiziana Life Sciences. Shares in the biotechnology firm more than doubled to 76.50p, peaking at 90.0p, after it said it has developed an investigational new Covid-19 treatment and has filed a patent application for it. The treatment involves directly delivering its anti-interleukin-6 receptor monoclonal antibody, TZLS-501, into the lungs via a handheld inhaler nebulizer. TZLS-501 was acquired from Swiss biotechnology company Novimmune in 2017. Covid-19 patients can develop an uncontrolled immune response known as a cytokine storm. This causes the body to produce excessive amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines as well as other proteins like interleukin-6 which damage lung tissue and cause respiratory failure. Tiziana explained that it believes TZLS-501 "combined with this newly introduced inhalation technology" could "rapidly inhibit inflammation in lungs".

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Circassia Pharma, up 29%. The pharmaceutical company said it will terminate its development and commercialisation agreement with AstraZeneca and instead transfer Tudorza and Duaklir US commercial rights to Astra in exchange for the settlement of debt. At present, Circassia has two businesses: one is an asthma diagnostics and management business selling its NIOX platform, and the other is a COPD business. Circassia is now seeking to end this agreement with Astra and instead sell the US commercial rights to the two COPD drugs, as well as "certain ancillary rights and assets". Circassia explained the consideration for the two drugs "shall be equal to, and shall be satisfied by way of set-off against, the entirety of the loan amount outstanding from the company to AstraZeneca, together with accrued interest owed by the company to AstraZeneca, as at the date of completion of the transaction." At present, this amount totals approximately USD149.9 million. In terms of outlook, Circassia said it cannot issue guidance for 2020 or 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, although this will be revisited later. AstraZeneca shares were down 0.6%.

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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com