WINNERS & LOSERS SUMMARY: SSE Rises After Selling Retail Business

(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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Pearson, up 1.9%. The education publisher was raised to Buy from Neutral by UBS.

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SSE, up 1.6%. The energy provider agreed a sale of its Energy Services business after a long-drawn-out process to find a future for the unit. Ovo Group is the buyer, at an enterprise value of GBP500 million, made up of GBP400 million in cash for SSE and GBP100 million worth of loan notes. Ovo had been named by SSE as a potential buyer in August. Ovo's purchase will make it one of the largest energy suppliers in the UK, just a decade after its founding. SSE expects the deal to complete either towards the end of 2019 or early in 2020, subject to necessary regulatory approvals. It will use the proceeds to reduce debt. "SSE has now guided that the dividend for the current financial year won't be affected by the OVO deal. This will be a relief to shareholders, so too news that it is still expecting to increase the dividend by the rate of RPI inflation for the subsequent three years," said AJ Bell's Russ Mould.

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FTSE 100 - LOSERS

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British American Tobacco, down 2.7%, Imperial Brands, down 1.8%. US President Donald Trump's administration plans to ban flavoured e-cigarettes following a sixth reported death from a lung illness related to vaping in the US. The move represents a massive blow to the industry, with major players investing heavily in next generation tobacco products. Trump, whose youngest son Barron is 13 years old, said vaping has become such a problem that he wants parents to become more aware. The US Food & Drug Administration will now develop guidelines to remove from the market all e-cigarette flavours except tobacco. Trump's first public comments on vaping come as health authorities investigate hundreds of breathing illnesses reported in people who have used e-cigarettes and other vaping devices.

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FTSE 250 - WINNERS

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Britvic, up 3.0%. Jefferies raised the softy drinks maker to Buy from Hold.

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FTSE 250 - LOSERS

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Centamin, down 7.2%, Acacia Mining, down 3.6%, Polymetal International, down 1.9%. The gold miners were tracking spot gold prices lower, quoted at USD1,505.20, down from USD1,512.20 late Thursday.

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IMI, down 2.3%. Berenberg started coverage on the engineer with a Sell rating.

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - WINNERS

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GAN, up 25%. The gambling software firm said the company is no longer up for sale, and also swung to a first half profit on a sharp revenue rise. In March, the group put itself up for sale as part of a strategic review. GAN said it received multiple bids but they "did not represent fair value for shareholders". In turn, it has closed its formal sales process and said it will now attempt to attain a US listing. Turning to interim figures, in the six months to June 30, GAN's revenue more than doubled to GBP11.3 million from GBP4.6 million. It made a pretax profit of GBP777,000, improving year-on-year from a loss of GBP3.4 million. The firm reported revenue rises in all its geographic divisions. The US, the greatest contributor to revenue, achieved a revenue jump to GBP8.9 million from GBP2.8 million. Looking ahead, the company is projecting a "record year" for revenue in 2019. Trading in the eight months to the end of August has been "significantly ahead of board expectations".

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OTHER MAIN MARKET AND AIM - LOSERS

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Character Group, down 7.5%. The toys and games maker said the demise of Nordic client Top Toy combined with weakening of sterling due to Brexit uncertainty will result in annual pretax profit slightly below the lower end of current market expectations. The company now expects pretax profit for the year ended August 31 to be in the the range of GBP11.0 million to GBP11.5 million. In financial 2018, the company recorded pretax profit of GBP11.6 million. Character said the liquidation of Scandinavian toy retailer Top Toy resulted in a sales vacuum which was not fully absorbed and, as result, negatively affected second half performance and annual results. The company via its 75%-owned unit OVG-Proxy supplied products to Top Toy. Domestically in the UK market, the company's margins and performance was negatively affected by weakening of the sterling, given that a significant amount of the company's purchases for UK business is made in dollars. Character warned the drop in the value of sterling against other currencies is likely to hamper performance in the current financial 2020.

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