WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: FirstGroup Up 9% As Rival Go-Ahead Drops 15%

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Tuesday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Ashtead Group, up 0.6%. The equipment rental company said it will return GBP200.0 million to shareholders via a share buyback in the current financial year as it reported surging profit and revenue and a higher dividend for the year just ended. The company said pretax profit for the financial year to April 30 was GBP616.7 million, up 24% from the GBP473.8 million made a year earlier ,as Ashtead benefited from a rise in revenue to GBP2.55 billion from GBP2.04 billion. Ashtead said it will start a GBP200.0 million share buyback in the 2017 financial year. This comes in addition to a final dividend of 18.5 pence, which means its total dividend payout for the year rises 48% to 22.5p from 15.25p the year before.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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FirstGroup, up 9.3%. The transport company said pretax profit pushed higher in the year to the end of March, despite changes to its rail portfolio knocking revenue. The bus and rail services provider said its pretax profit grew to GBP113.5 million in the year to the end of March, though revenue was down 14% to GBP5.22 billion from GBP6.05 billion, reflecting the end of the First Capital Connect and First ScotRail franchises. Stripping out the impact of the end of those two franchises, underlying revenue declined 0.3% to GBP5.22 billion from GBP5.23 billion.

Ted Baker, up 3.5%. The luxury fashion retailer reported growth in revenue in the 19 weeks to June 11 and said it is on track to meet the board's expectations for its full financial year to January 2017. The fashion brand said group revenue in the recent 19 weeks rose by 11% year-on-year, with 13% growth in retail sales, 7.3% in wholesale sales and 32% in e-commerce sales. In the retail division, Ted Baker said it expanded average square footage by 9.7% while opening new stores in Beijing, Ottawa and Seattle, as well as further concession openings in department stores in China, France, Germany, Japan and Spain.

Indivior, up 3.0%. The specialty pharmaceutical company was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight by Morgan Stanley.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Go-Ahead Group, down 15%. The transport operator affirmed its expectations for its full financial year, despite more difficult conditions for its bus operations in the fourth quarter and a hit to margins on its GTR rail contract. The group said its rail business has continued to perform well and it anticipates revenue growth of 5.1% for the Southeastern franchise, 11% for the London Midland franchise, and 3.1% for the GTR arm. However, Go-Ahead said additional resources which have been invested in the GTR franchise to improve the service have depressed margins for the current financial year and will continue to have that effect in the next financial year. Though Go-Ahead expects margins on the GTR franchise to improve in the longer term, margins on the contract are now expected to be around 1.5% over the life of the contract, compared to the 3.0% previously expected.

Telecom Plus, down 5.0%. The multi-utility provider said it expects modest growth in profit, revenue and dividend in the year ahead, as it reported a small decline in profit for its most recently ended financial year amid "challenging market conditions". The company reported a pretax profit of GBP40.7 million for the year to end-March, down from GBP42.1 million the year before, as a rise in revenue to GBP744.7 million from GBP729.2 million was offset by higher administrative costs. On an adjusted basis, which cuts out charges related to the company's share incentive scheme and amortisation, pretax profit increased to GBP54.4 million from GBP52.2 million.

Crest Nicholson Holdings, down 4.1%. The housebuilder posted strong growth in profit and revenue for its first half, and hiked its interim dividend by 42%, noting that purchaser demand remains strong despite the disruption caused by the lead-up to next week's UK vote on European Union membership. The group posted pretax profit of GBP72.6 million for the six months ended April 30, up 25% from the GBP58.3 million reported for the same period a year earlier, after revenue rose 22% to GBP408.1 million from GBP333.2 million. Crest Nicholson said it will pay an interim dividend of 9.1 pence per share, up from the 6.40p offered a year earlier.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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Premier Farnell, up 50% at 163.98 pence. The technology products distributor said Tuesday it agreed to a takeover offer from Swiss manufacturing company Datwyler Holding, in an all-cash deal that values the London-listed company at GBP615 million. Datwyler has agreed to buy the technology products distributor for 165 pence in cash per share, which represents an around 51% premium to Premier Farnell's closing share price of 109.3 pence on Monday. The directors of Premier Farnell have said they intend to unanimously recommend shareholders vote in favour of the deal. Datwyler has acceptances for its offer already representing 18.4% of Premier Farnell shares.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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Metminco, down 33%. The miner said it has executed a binding term sheet with CD Capital Natural Resources Fund III for an equity investment of USD45.0 million to back work on the Los Calatos copper-molybdenum project in Peru. Metminco said prior to the investment being made, it will restructure all its subsidiaries involved in the Los Calatos project into a single entity, Los Calatos Mining. CD Capital Fund III will then subscribe for USD16.0 million in shares of Los Calatos Mining, equivalent to a 51% stake in the new company. It will then have the option to subscribe for additional shares in the Los Calatos Mining business in two additional tranches of USD14.5 million each. If both are exercised in full, CD Capital Fund III will increase its stake in the business to 70%.

Cyan Holdings, down 12% at 0.186p. The flexible wireless products maker said it agreed to buy Connode Holding for GBP6.8 million, to be partly funded through a share placing and subscription. Connode Holding is a Sweden-based supplier of wireless technology for smart metering and Internet of Things applications, with customers in the UK, Europe and Asia. Cyan said the consideration for Connode is GBP6.8 million, consisting of GBP4.3 million in cash and GBP2.5 million in new Cyan shares totalling 14.03 billion. Cyan said it will fund the acquisition through a share placing and subscription, placing 4.34 billion shares and offering a further 1.28 billion shares for subscription, at a price of 0.18 pence per share. If completed, this will raise GBP10.1 million, before the deduction of fees and expenses, Cyan said.

Dillistone Group, down 7.0%. The recruitment software and services provider said while it has performed well so far in 2016, it has seen a deterioration in economic conditions which is hitting its core recruitment sector end market. Dillistone, which provides software and services to recruiters, said the economic environment had softened in recent months and, while the group has continued to win new contracts, it is apparent that many recruiters are not currently hiring new staff. This has resulted in a reduction in the normal flow of incoming licence orders from the company's existing clients.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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