Member Info for jange

Global Energy Development (GED) Director name: Mr Stephen C Voss Amount purchased: 50,000 @ 106.00p Value: £53,000

F&C Asset Management (FCAM) Director name: Mr Edward Bramson Amount purchased: 75,000 @ 99.08p Value: £74,310

makes you wonder...i might do abit of research and see were is money comes from.........

Four directors of Breedon Aggregates, the AIM-listed building materials group, topped up their stakes on Thursday, a few days after the company said that full-year results would be in line with market expectations. Collectively, the directors invested a total of half a million pounds in the business after it reported on Monday that sales revenue in the second half of the year (ending December 31st) has been "slightly stronger" than the first half. While the outlook for 2013 "remains uncertain" and the UK building market remains tough - the Construction Products Association is forecasting no return to growth before 2014 - Breedon said that it remains confident that it will make further progress next year. Executive Chairman Peter Tompurchased 750,000 ordinary shares at 20p a pop for £150,000, taking his total interest in the firm to 5.4%. David Williams, non-executive director, bought 500,000 shares at 20p each for £100,000, pushing his stake up to 2.12%. Susie Farnon, non-executive director, purchased 250,000 shares at 20p each for £50,000, increasing her stake to 0.25%. However, David Warr, non-executive director, made the largest transaction, snapping up 1,000,000 shares at 20p each for £200,000.

Latin America-focused oil and gas group GeoPark Holdings announced on Friday that it has put into production a new oil well in the Konawentru oil field in Chile, following successful drilling and testing. The well, situated on the Fell Block in Chile, is 100% owned and operated by GeoPark. GeoPark drilled and completed the Konawentru 4 well to a total depth of 3,102 metres. The firm said that a production test in the Tobifera formation flowed at a rate of approximately 730 barrels of oil per day (bopd) through a choke of 10 millimetres, with a well head pressure of 462 pounds per square inch. The initial production rate is around 700bopd but the company said that further production history will be need to work out stabilised flow rates. "The results from this new Konawentru well in Chile are significant from production, operational, field and regional perspectives. The new well will immediately add to our growing production base," said Chief Executive Officer James F Park. "The successful well confirms the opportunity for further development and production drilling of the Konawentru field. In addition, the result expands the overall prospectivity of the Tobifera geological formation on a regional perspective. It represents a new dimension in GeoPark's continuing success in exploring and developing for oil and gas in the Magallanes Basin in Southern Chile."

Real estate investment group British Land has let 24,392 square foot of office space at its new West End development at 10 Portman Square, the company announced on Friday. Aramco Overseas Company UK Ltd, the UK affiliate of the Saudi Arabian oil company, has leased the fifth and part fourth floors at a headline rent of £92 per sq ft on the fifth floor and an overall average rent of £90.76 per sq ft, on new 15-year leases, without break, and with 24 months rent free. The news means that British Land's Central London committed development programme is now 57% pre-let. "We are delighted that Aramco Overseas Company and Aspect Capital have chosen 10 Portman Square as their new London home, and we look forward to welcoming them to the building next Spring," said British Land's Director of London Leasing, James Danby. "British Land has long had a reputation for providing high quality buildings and we pleased to be attracting such world leading firms to 10 Portman Square."

"The shares are trading on a prospective price-to-earnings multiple of 21.3 times 2012 fiscal year estimates and at a premium to the peer group average of 16.6 times. The yield is attractive at 5.2%. We reiterate our HOLD recommendation and 275p target price," Seymour Pierce adds.

Group sales headcount on November 25th was down 6% year-on-year. UK sales headcount was down 18%, while in Continental Europe headcount was down 5%, but in Rest of World headcount was up 18%. Average sales headcount for the year was up 10% year-on-year, but down 7% for the fourth quarter when compared to last year. Similarly, the permanent deal pipeline at the period end was 4% down year on year, with weakness in UK&Ireland, France and Benelux offsetting strong performance in Rest of World and Germany. On this point, analysts at Seymour Pierce comment that: "we remain cautious over the outlook: the permanent deal pipeline, a good forward indicator, was 4% down year on year at period end (perm accounts for 50% of the business). This said contract runners (i.e: period end number of contractors on site with clients and being billed) were up 9% at the year end." During the most recent period the Group opened new offices in Oslo, San Diego, Rio de Janeiro and Brisbane during the year. Lastly, SThree indicated that a number of key tasks related to the succession of its Chief Executive were completed ahead of schedule. In light of this excellent progress, Gary Elden will succeed Russell as CEO with effect from the next January 1st 2013 (that is earlier than the date of April 2013 which had previously been set out), at which point Russell will retire from the Board.

International specialist staffing business SThree on Wednesday morning emphasised the company's growing geographical diversification and that its succession plan for top management is running ahead of schedule. However, the group's Chief Executive, Russell Clements, commented: "The Group has traded satisfactorily during the year, against a macro economic backdrop that became increasingly difficult across the period (...)." Even so, full year profit before tax is expected to be £25m, in line with market consensus, according to the the firm. The Group's gross profit was up 8% year-on-year with contract gross profit up 11% and permanent gross profit up by another 6%. Rusell added that its Energy & Engineering and Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology segments, which between them make up about one third of gross profits, continued to experience strong demand. These businesses are making an increasingly significant contribution both to Group performance and to our ongoing geographic diversification. Nearly two thirds of fee income now being generated outside the UK&Ireland, the company explained.

The group, which provides financial advice to professionals, is confident that the quality of future earning will be improved by the introduction of adviser fees and discretionary portfolio management, having already attracted £40m of assets under management since September 1st. Its third-party administration business, City Pensions Limited, has enjoyed strong profit growth following its relocation to Leicester, improved by its appointment to operate The Pilgrim SIPP (Pilgrim). Its appointment to operate Pilgrim benefitted its property business, Custodian Capital Limited (CCL), which now administers 11 property syndicates on behalf of Pilgrim members. CCL also saw £11m of new investment into six new syndicates during the period. Mattioli Woods will announce its interim results for the six months ending November 30th on Tuesday January 29th 2013

Mattioli Woods has issued a solid trading update for the first half, led by good results from its recent acquisitions, saying it expects full-year results to meet expectations. It has also hinted that is on the lookout for further acquisitions. Discussing trading for the six months ending November 30th, Bob Woods, Executive Chairman of the pension and wealth management consultancy, said: "Increased activity since the summer months and strong results from recent acquisitions have delivered further profitable growth. "The first half of this financial year has been dominated by the launch of our discretionary portfolio management service and preparing for the implementation of the Financial Services Authority's (FSA's) retail distribution review (RDR). Woods expressed confidence that this would "deliver results in line with management's expectations for the year." Consensus estimates for the full year ending May 31st 2013 are for pre-tax profits of £5.22m on turnover of £21.63m. Mattioli Woods also expects that FSA proposals to increase the regulatory capital requirements for self-invested pension (SIPP) providers will, by driving industry consolidation, present it with opportunities to make acquisitions.

A 23-year-old worker has died at New World Resources' CSM Mine in the Czech Republic, the Central European hard coal and coke producer announced on Friday morning. The employee, who worked for New World's Czech subsidiary OKD, was fatally injured at the preparatory plant on Thursday. "NWR expresses its deepest condolences to the family, relatives and friends of the deceased employee," the company said. New World said that an investigative committee is now looking into the incident. This committee is made of members of the District Mining Authority in Ostrava, CSM Mine management, OKD management, the OKD Trade Unions representatives and the police. The company said that the incident had no impact on production. New World shares are down 38% in the year to date, after seeing a big drop in revenues and profits over the first nine months of the year as it was hit by floundering demand in steel markets. Revenues dropped 18% to €1.01bn with pre-tax profits coming in at €67.5m, down 59% on the previous year's figure.

Revenue and gross profit for the quarter ended October 31st increased by 10% and 5%, respectively, when compared to the same period in 2011. Operating profit increased by 7% before higher interest costs in relation to increased working capital requirements resulted in profit before tax being 3% ahead of the previous year. Analysis of the geographic split for the third quarter showed that in the US, gross profit was up 14%. In mainland Europe, gross profit was down 5% but the company stated that "the result for the year is likely to be better than our previous expectations." In the UK and Ireland, gross profit was up 10% on the same period last year driven by increased turnover in managed services and offshoring. Although permanent recruitment was slightly subdued at 4% below the same period last year, outsourcing was up 40% and contractor numbers increased 19%. Harvey Nash also reported that despite the seasonally stronger trading levels since the half year, cash generation has been robust and actions taken to reduce debtor days have resulted in net borrowings falling to £11.6m as at October 31st (July 31st: £14.1m).

Recruitment firm Harvey Nash expects to beat full-year forecasts by 10 per cent driven by strong third-quarter trading in temporary and contract placements, although permanent recruitment remains challenging. The company said that with relatively good visibility from its contract recruitment businesses and a robust forward order book in the offshoring business, it was "confident that the out turn for the full year's profit before tax (adjusted for exceptional and non-recurring items), is now likely to be in the region of 10% higher than its expectations." Although it did warn that "the final quarter will continue to be challenging for permanent recruitment, particularly in Europe, and it is premature to comment on the following year, which ends on January 31st 2014." Consensus estimates for the full year ending January 31st 2013 are for pre-tax profits of £7.71m on turnover of £445.98m, rising in 2014 to £8.88m and £467.83m, respectively. The statements were delivered as part of a trading update covering August 1st to November 29th.

Electronics company Acal has delivered weak interims although it does expect sales growth in the second half and has maintained its interim dividend of 2.5p per share. For the six months ended September 30th, revenues fell by 17.9% to £109.8m (September 30th 2011: £133.7m) with pre-tax profits plummeting 63% to £0.7m (2011: £1.9m). The company attempted to put a brave face on the revenue figures, saying that the European market declined by 15% and pointing out that at constant exchange rates its fall in revenues was 8%. Reduced profits were affected by 'exceptionals' for the period that totalled £1.6m, of which £0.9m was from its cost reduction programme and £0.7m from the development of a new electronics web platform. Further exceptional costs expected in the second half are £1.2m, being £0.4m for the remainder of the cost reduction programme, £0.6m for the completion of the web platform development and £0.2m for the integration of Compotron into Acal BFI. Chief Executive Nick Jefferies, commented: "The business has outperformed its core electronics market with growth in orders throughout the first half. The half-year results are in line with our expectations and reflect the growing market share which has minimised sales decline in difficult market conditions. This in turn has been partially offset by a further increase in gross margin as well as a 10% cost reduction programme implemented last year." The interim dividend of 2.5p is being maintained and will be paid on January 18th to shareholders on the register at December 28th.

Goldman Sachs has upgraded its rating for French luxury firm LVMH to 'buy' from 'neutral', explaining that the stock has underperformed the rest of the sector by 20 per cent, thus creating a good entry opportunity. Analysts at the US bank also raised the stock's price target to €197 from €184.90. They believe that organic margin opportunities and positive cash flow for top LVMH brands should produce long-last results and a better performance in the stock market. Higher margins are particularly expected in the Wine & Liquors and Watches & Jewelry businesses. On the other hand, LVMH faces the risk of moderation in the dynamics of the Louis Vuitton brand and a slowdown in global demand for luxury products, Goldman Sachs explains.

The October downgrade of plumbing materials group Wolseley (WOS) by Irish broker Davy seemed a little brave at the time given the special dividend and the nascent recovery in the U.S. housing market. The broker countered this by acknowledging the stock had been an outstanding recovery story over the past three years (especially in the run up to the latest special dividend of around 120p a share), but nearly two months on from the note the shares continue to climb higher still. Even with the P/E at 15, the Wolseley bull run shows few signs of slowing down.

Ahead of interim results from bus & rail group Stagecoach (SGC), broker Nomura seemed happy to take a leap of faith on the near future performance. Indeed, it highlighted that ‘just £260m of the £1.6bn rail value at Stagecoach is reflected by the market. During the last refranchising round, in the mid-2000s, the sector outperformed the wider market by 40%.’ Expect an update from Nomura shortly after the announcement.

It is probably just as well that the share price of accountancy software group Sage (SGE) hasn’t moved in line with broker opinion regarding fundamentals. UBS downgraded Sage at the end of July from 'buy' to 'neutral' on valuation grounds even though the target price was raised from 295p to 305p to reflect the impact of recent buy-back activity. The reason the stock has been able to fly over the fundamental clouds is down to continuing speculation that the group could be a bid target for German software group SAP. This should continue to underpin any wobbles over the economic headwinds affecting Sage’s business.

Shares in Pennon are backed by solid assets in pumping stations and reservoirs and the yield on the dividend is attractive as the share price drifts down to 606p. But the shares still trade at 15 times earnings - a rating that will face growing threats as regulatory pressures add to Viridor's problems......as always dyor gl all