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Alternative Networks, an AIM-listed UK business communications service provider, has announced that it received tender offers for 4.22m shares, meaning the offer was more than two times over-subscribed. Under the terms of the offer, shareholders could tender all or part of their shareholding for cash to be acquired by Investec Investment Banking, for up to a total aggregate consideration of £5.0m. The tender offer price of 251p was calculated as 105% of the average closing middle market price per share across the five business days prior to Friday 26th. As such, Investec Investment Banking will acquire 1.99m shares at 251p which will then be cancelled, and qualifying shareholders who tendered their ordinary shares will be scaled back by 52.8%, and therefore will have successfully tendered 47.2% of the shares they tendered.

Positive Points: Management emphasised Merck's strategy of executing on its core business, expanding geographically in high-growth markets, extending its complementary businesses and focussing at managing costs while investing for growth. The company stated that sales in emerging markets now accounted for about 20% of its pharmaceutical revenue, led by a 19% increase in China. Merck benefits from a strong balance sheet and cash-generating ability. Along with a strong pipeline and product portfolio, this enables it to offset weakness in any single product. The company said it plans to seek US regulatory approval by the end of 2013 for its insomnia drug suvorexant, its osteoporosis treatment odanacatib, and cholesterol drug tredaptive. The group adopts a focus on shareholder return and operates a share buy-back programme.

Negative Points: Merck, like its rivals, has been cutting costs as part of an effort to soften the blow from increased generic competition. The company's top-selling allergy and asthma medication Singulair lost patent exclusivity in August. Sales of Singulair dropped 55% to $602 million while Vytorin sales declined 10% to $423 million. Governments around the world continue to try and reduce health spending budgets. The pharmaceutical industry is exposed to political risk, litigation, product development risk, regulatory risk, and pricing pressures.

Financial Highlights: Merck reported a profit of $1.73 billion, up from $1.69 billion a year earlier. Revenue fell 4% to $11.49 billion, below Wall Street expectations of $11.57 billion.

Third quarter results: Merck sees profits rise as sales dip. Merck delivered a robust performance amid generic competition that began in August following the US expiration for the company's top selling asthma drug Singulair. The healthcare giant announced an improvement in profits to $1.73 billion, up from $1.69 billion a year earlier. Worldwide sales achieved $11.5 billion, which were down from $12 billion in the prior year quarter and shy of Wall Street estimates. The company said it remains on target to submit multiple new products for marketing approval between now and the end of 2013, including suvorexant for insomnia, odanacatib for osteoporosis and cholesterol drug Tredaptive. The company narrowed its full-year adjusted-earnings estimate to between $3.78 and $3.82 a share from its previous forecast of $3.75 to $3.85 a share

Company overview US drugmaker, Merck & Co, is a leading global research-driven pharmaceutical products and services company. The company discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of innovative products to improve human and animal health, directly and through its joint ventures. Its products, generally sold by prescription, include therapeutic and preventative agents for the treatment of human disorders and animal health supplies. The company's products are sold, primarily, to drug wholesalers and retailers, hospitals, clinics, government agencies and managed healthcare providers, such as health maintenance organisations and other institutions.

That makes the discount at which Songbird's shares trade - usually a sign that investors anticipate falling property values - look unwarranted. Back in March 2007 Songbird's shares traded at a 15 per cent premium. There isn't an obvious catalyst for a re-rating, but last month's solid half-year results may have marked the bottom.

Songbird's share price has traded in a tight range between 100p and 120p this year, having failed on three attempts to breakout on the upside of this range. However, the odds of a successful chart breakout are looking better this time. Trading volumes have picked up on the latest move in the share price; the RSI is not overbought, indicating scope for the advance to continue; the MACD, which studies changes relative to the moving average of the price, is positive and above its signal line; and, for good measure, Songbird’s share price is showing relative strength against the FTSE 100. Bulls will also be heartened that both the 200-day and 50-day moving averages are positioned close by at 111p and 109.5p, respectively; that offers strong support for the share price. It also means Songbird's share price is not overextended above its long-term and medium-term trendlines. Overall, the risk-reward balance favours a chart breakout on the upside, targeting a move to 140p, a previous resistance level. If breached, a further move to test the June 2011 highs around 160p would be on the cards.

So what's to like about Songbird? Most of all, the property. Canary Wharf Group owns top-quality offices let on long leases to tenants too big to fail. Moreover, the original business rationale for the venture - offices in the City are expensive and often impossible to build on the scale some companies require - is as relevant now as it was in the 1980s. When Crossrail arrives in 2018, Canary Wharf will be even more accessible. If the estate's long-term potential is substantial, it is unlikely to receive much of a valuation boost in the short term. London office values outside the ever-buoyant West End have been stagnant for about 18 months. That said, values are unlikely to be marked down. Meanwhile, the retail component of the estate is thriving, with valuations up 4.3 per cent in the first half.

To make matters more complex, Songbird only owns 69 per cent of Canary Wharf Group. The minority shareholders are, however, reassuringly reputable - Brookfield, a Canadian office company that has been rapidly expanding in the City, and US value investor Franklin Templeton. The other problem with Songbird and Canary Wharf Group is their combined debt, which, net of cash, totalled £3.27bn in June - 65 per cent of the value of the Canary Wharf estate. Such a high loan-to-value ratio amplifies movements in the value of the underlying assets and erodes profits (the 6.2 per cent cost of debt is higher than the portfolio's rental yield at 5.1 per cent). On the plus side, the average loan maturity is 13.4 years, so there are no refinancing headaches around the corner.

Songbird owns the iconic office estate at Canary Wharf, but its shares trade 42 per cent below their underlying book value. That, in simplistic terms, is why investors should buy the company's shares. There are good reasons why investors have shunned Songbird. Foremost is the messy legacy of a messy history. The Canary Wharf project has faced bankruptcy three times since it was begun in the late 1980s and three times it has been bailed out by huge investors eager to own a slice of Europe's premier banking district. Besides a reputation for risk, the company has emerged with a confused capital structure. Briefly, Songbird is the Aim-quoted vehicle through which Morgan Stanley and the Glick family rescued Canary Wharf Group, the estate's developer, in 2004. They remain major shareholders, with a third of Songbird between them. But they were joined in 2009, the latest property crash, by Chinese and Qatari sovereign wealth funds, which now own 43 per cent of Songbird's shares as well as a panoply of preference shares and warrants. Public shareholders, who own the remaining 24 per cent of Songbird, are easily forgotten in the melee. For example, until a renegotiation of some terms in August, the company was barred from paying dividends on the ordinary shares without the consent of the preference shareholders in China and Qatar.

Despite its difficulties, Hays' share price has risen 19 per cent since early September and the shares trade on 16 times JPMorgan Cazenove's forecast earnings. Admittedly, that's not pricey for a recruiter. Strip out cash and Michael Page's shares trade at around 25 times forecast earnings; although it's not so far off the rating of SThree (18 times earnings), which has become one of the best-performing recruiters. With a hefty debt pile, and its earnings forecast to slide as weak trading hits, expect the gains in Hays' share price to evaporate.

Hays isn't alone in its suffering. Michael Page, for instance, saw its third-quarter fee income drop 11.3 per cent year on year, with UK fees down 10.9 per cent. Yet some of Hays' rivals seem to be coping quite well. SThree, for example, grew its third-quarter income by 6 per cent year on year and Robert Walters saw its third-quarter fees grow 3 per cent on the same period last year. Those three rivals can also point to comforting cash piles - £50m at Michael Page, £6m at Robert Walters and £17m at SThree. Not so at Hays, which has net debt of £140m, which meant £5.7m of interest charges in 2011-12. That said, Hays has just completed a refinancing, involving the provision of a £300m five-year facility. Investors will also be unimpressed that last year management hacked back the year's total dividend by 53 per cent. The payout is forecast by JPMorgan Cazenove to remain flat in 2012-13 at 2.5p, meaning a prospective dividend yield of about 3 per cent; not dreadful, but not as good as, say, the 4.6 per cent yield on SThrees's shares.

With the UK's economy mired in recession, the eurozone not clear of crisis and growth in Asia slowing, this is no time to be looking for work. In the UK alone the unemployment rate stands at around 8 per cent compared with little more than 5 per cent before the financial crisis. Such a backdrop is bad news for recruitment agencies - and Hays (HAS) appears to be suffering more than most. Trading in the first quarter of 2012-13 looked bleak. Net fee income fell 4 per cent year on year, with especially weak performances in Asia Pacific and the UK, where fees slumped 8 per cent and 9 per cent respectively. Fee income dropped 11 per cent for permanent placements, which generated 44 per cent of the group's fees in 2011-12. True, fee income rose 2 per cent from temporary placements, but this business could soon struggle. "Corporate customers are focused more on cost control and this means that they may be looking to get more from the temps that they have hired and therefore may need fewer of them," reckon sector analysts at broker JPMorgan Cazenove. Bizarrely, the only sign of resilience was in Europe where the German business grew fee income by 25 per cent. Germany generates 20 per cent the group's fees and has been benefiting from demand in such areas as engineering, life sciences and finance. Whether that remains sustainable as eurozone-related fallout hits, however, is questionable. Earlier this month, for example, the German government cut its estimate for economic growth in 2012 from 1.6 per cent to 1 per cent, a far cry from the 4.2 per cent growth rate achieved in 2010. Hays could suffer more pain in its Asia-Pacific operation, too, with broker Numis Securities pointing to the potential impact of a slowing Australian resources market as a factor to consider.

If the mine is closed, the shares trade on a bit over five times 2013-14's forecast earnings; if it's kept open, the earnings multiple drops below 5. Given that there also seems to be huge scope for the dividend to rise, either rating seems pathetically low.

If the mine is closed, analysts from broker N+1 Brewin forecast there will be a £50m non-cash write off. The cash-flow impact will be positive, with £8m of redundancy costs offset by up to £20m inflow from the sale of equipment and assets. This would mean a reported loss for 2012-13, but, excluding the exceptional items, underlying pre-tax profit for the continuing business of £55m (giving EPS of around 133p), with pre-tax profits rising marginally in 2013-14 to £56m. The best case is for the mine staying open. In which case, N+1 Brewin thinks there is £30m-worth of coal left in the pit. So, after this year's hiccup, Maltby would generate £8m of profit in 2013-14, giving the group adjusted pre-tax profits of £64m. Either way, the shares are deep in value territory.

Shares in coal supplier Hargreaves Services (HSP) crashed after mining was halted at its Maltby deep pit in South Yorkshire. But the sharp fall is overdone and there is value in Hargreaves whatever its bosses do with Maltby. That's because Hargreaves is a lot more than just one mine. True, it's really only a glorified coal merchant, but that's driving sales and profit decently. For those who can see through the turbulence, we think the shares are a buy. Problems at Maltby arose as the mine exhausted one coal seam and started to develop a new face. The problems could be terminal for the mine. Final geological results are due next week and Hargreaves has begun redundancy talks with around 530 employees. A decision is due on 31 October. Sure, the Maltby decision, whatever it is, will have a big impact on the next two years' results. But the Hargreaves share price halved when Malty production was stopped, and that looks overdone for a mine that only had an economic life of eight years when it was bought in 2007 and for a group that generates 74 per cent of operating profit from other activities. One description of Hargreaves as 'the Glencore of coal' may be a little generous; however, there is more to it than just mining. The Energy and Commodities division buys coal globally to supply the UK power and steel industry; it generates two-thirds of the group's sales and over half its profits, both of which rose smartly in 2011-12. The Industrial Services division also reported significant contracts wins in the steel industry and £30m-worth of work helping UK power stations convert to burning biomass. The transport side reported tough but stable markets, with rising profits. So closing Maltby would not be a disaster. Indeed, take deep coal mining from the group's activities - and the related capital spending - and the shares might be less risky.

UBS has cut its target price for temporary power specialist APR Energy from 600p to 530p and retained its 'sell' rating on the stock after third-quarter revenues were a 'significant disappointment'. The broker estimates that utilisation in the third quarter of 60% was 20 percentage points below industry norms. "Combined with continued disappointing order intake, we continue to believe there is insufficient capital discipline in the business, with fleet growth prioritised over fleet utilisation." UBS said that more consensus earnings downgrades on Friday reflect the "continued execution risk in the business." Currently, the broker's forecasts at 27% below consensus.

UBS has cut its target price for temporary power specialist APR Energy from 600p to 530p and retained its 'sell' rating on the stock after third-quarter revenues were a 'significant disappointment'. The broker estimates that utilisation in the third quarter of 60% was 20 percentage points below industry norms. "Combined with continued disappointing order intake, we continue to believe there is insufficient capital discipline in the business, with fleet growth prioritised over fleet utilisation."

Nomura has reduced its target price for advertising and media giant WPP from 1,030p to 980p after cutting its forecasts for organic growth on the back of a slowing macro-economic environment. In a research report published late on Thursday, the broker said it has slashed its organic growth estimate for 2013 from 2.5% to just 1%, "demonstrating further that momentum has changed for the company and the sub-sector".