WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: Imperial Rises On BAT Takeover Speculation

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers within the main London indices on Friday.
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FTSE 100 - WINNERS
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Imperial Tobacco Group, up 2.1%. Rival British American Tobacco is understood to have put together a syndicate of investment banks to support a potential takeover of Imperial, the Financial Times reported. The FT Alphaville blog, citing people claiming to have direct knowledge of the process, said no approach had been made and no certainty one will, but BAT is understood to have corralled a syndicate of banks willing to back a possible offer. FT Alphaville said the source claimed, however, that given Imperial is currently trading near record highs, BAT may decide to walk away rather than risk overpaying. BAT shares were down 0.1%.
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FTSE 100 - LOSERS
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G4S, down 2.3%. The outsourcing company was hit after Credit Suisse downgraded its rating on stock to Neutral from Outperform and cut its target price to 250 pence from 320p. G4S shares were trading at 220.8p. JPMorgan Cazenove also cut its target price on G4S to 298p from 309p, though kept an Overweight recommendation in place.
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FTSE 250 - WINNERS
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Poundland Group, up 3.6%. The single-price discount retailer was gaining back some ground after it shares fell 15% on Thursday following its interim results. Poundland warned its current trading outlook was volatile and fell further as analysts raised concerns that the financial state of 99p Stores, the marginally keener-priced rival it bought recently, was worse than expected.
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FTSE 250 - LOSERS
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Spire Healthcare Group, down 2.3%. Barclays cut its target price on the private healthcare company to 364 pence from 426p, though kept an Overweight rating intact. Spire shares were trading at 277.9p. Last week, Spire shares dropped heavily after it cut its guidance for 2015 for the second time due to a continued slowdown in its Local Contract National Health Service work exacerbated problems elsewhere in the business.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS
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88 Energy, up 7.7%. The oil and gas explorer said it has raised USD3.0 million from a placing to back the acquisition of new acreage at its Icewine oil and gas project in Alaska. 88 said it has issued 300.0 million shares at USD0.01 per share to raise the funds. In addition to the placement, the company has offered eligible shareholders the opportunity to take part in a share purchase plan to raise another USD2.0 million. The funds from the placing will be used to back the acquisition of additional acreage for its Alaska project, payments on the seismic data acquisition at Icewine and to cover ongoing exploration costs.
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MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS
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HaloSource, down 34%. The clean water technology company warned it will post a net loss for 2015 higher than market expectations as a result of delays in some customer rollouts and some operational challenges. It said operational challenges had arisen as it increased manufacturing capacity at its drinking water facility in China, which has temporarily hit its ability to fulfil customer orders and subsequently will reduce its revenue in this segment in the second half of 2015. HaloSource said that as a result its total revenue for 2015 will be "materially lower" than market expectations. However, it said it is confident that production delays "will in no way impact" marketplace demand for its HaloPure disinfection technology in 2016 and beyond.
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By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance

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