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Fluormin, a producer of acid grade fluorspar, an industrial mineral widely used in the chemical and aluminium industries for the making of products such as aluminium fluoride, has said it will place the Witkop mine on care and maintenance, following further weakness in the fluorspar market. The firm said that despite an improvment in its operational performance and significant cost reductions, the prevailing price for acid grade fluorspar has fallen below current operating costs. The decision to place the mine on care followed a meeting with trade union representatives in South Africa. In the short term, the company will focus its activities on expanding its mineral resources and mine planning of higher grade deposits and in particular, the Valley deposit.

At the end of 2011, GGES had gross assets of £6.5m.

Energy Assets, the provider of gas metering services, has bought Gazprom Global Energy Solutions from Russian gas giant Gazprom. The acquisition has an enterprise value of £13.5m, which includes an initial cash consideration of £6.0m, potential cash earn-out payment of £3.0m (payable dependent upon the level of data logger installations carried out by Energy Assets) and existing Gazprom Global Energy Solutions (GGES) debt of £4.5m that is to be refinanced upon acquisition. Based in Manchestr, GGEs provides fully integrated Metering, Automated Meter Reading (AMR) and Siteworks services to gas suppliers and blue-chip clients across the industrial and commercial (I&C) sector. GGES manages a portfolio of some 27,000 data points across gas, water and electricity sectors. When combined with Energy Assets' existing portfolio of around 21,000 data loggers, the resulting logger portfolio will be one of the most significant in the UK I&C market, Energy Assets claimed. GGES generated revenues of £5.1m and profit before tax of £0.2m in 2011, after the deduction of intra-group charges. The directors believe that combining the resources of both businesses will further enhance earnings expectations for financial year 2013/14 onwards.

Despite spending £6.1m on acquisitions, the group ended the financial year with net cash of £25.3m, up from £24.8m a year earlier, which bodes well for an increase in the final dividend, which will be in line with market consensus. The group paid an interim dividend of 4.02p while market forecasts suggest the full year pay-out will be 17.25p, which implies a final dividend of around 13.23p. "RWS has achieved further record sales, demonstrating the strength of its core patent translations business and of PatBase, despite the backdrop of the Eurozone crisis and the contraction in worldwide economic growth," Andrew Brode, Executive Chairman, said. "With a healthy pipeline of new client wins and prospects, the full benefit of the acquisition of inovia still to be realised, and the improvement in our German business, the group remains well positioned to make further positive progress in the new financial year and to continue to grow its share of the worldwide patent translations market," he added.

Patents translations specialist RWS Holdings said trading at the tail end of its financial year continued in line with expectations, but exchange rate movements have not been helpful. On a constant currency basis, RWS will achieve at least a 7.7 % increase in revenues to around £70m in the year to the end of September, from £65m the year before. Currency fluctuations will reduce the full year revenue figure, however, to around £69m. RWS has hedged the bulk of its estimated net euro exposure to January 31st 2013 at an average rate of 86.3 pence per euro. Revenue growth was primarily through organic growth in the core patent translations business, strong growth in China, Japan and PatBase. The performance of the German business also improved in the second half. Profit before tax is expected to be within the range of market expectations before the negative impact of currency during the period.

These stumbling blocks included major declines in the U.S. defence budget and potential losses in an increasingly competitive international defence market, he said. .....................

But Germany was not alone in its scepticism over the terms of the merger. UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond had said France and Germany must reduce their stakes in EADS if the UK was to allow the merger to go ahead. Invesco, the largest shareholder in BAE, had also voiced "significant reservations" over the tie up and the impact it could have on shareholders. In today's announcement both companies continued to fight their corner, saying the deal had made sense. King said the firm was "obviously disappointed that we were unable to reach an acceptable agreement with our various government stakeholders". "We believe the merger presented a unique opportunity for BAE Systems and EADS to combine two world class and complementary businesses to create a world leading aerospace, defence and security group," he said. Tom Enders, Chief Executive of EADS, said he was "glad" they had attempted the deal, adding "I'm sure there will be other challenges we'll tackle together in the future". The two firms had until 5pm (4pm GMT) on Wednesday to announce the terms of the merger or ask for more time to finalise their plans, under rules set down by the UK's City Takeover Panel. "While BAE's long-term prospects could still be quite excellent, the failed merger will leave the firm much more exposed to uncertain factors beyond its control," said David Reeths, Director of Consulting at defence analyst IHS Jane's.

Defence giant BAE Systems has officially announced the merger between it and aerospace firm EADS is off. The finger of blame for the failed £28bn deal is now being pointed at Germany, despite neither EADS or BAE seeming to know why the country opposed the merger. "Discussions with the relevant governments had not reached a point where both companies could fully disclose the benefits and detailed business case for this merger," BAE said in a statement. It went on to say it had "become clear that the interests of the parties' government stakeholders cannot be adequately reconciled with each other or with the objectives that BAE Systems and EADS established for the merger". After the announcement, BAE's Chief Executive Ian King was asked whether the German government had proved more of an obstacle than the French. "That would be an accurate representation," he replied. A spokesman for EADS told Reuters news agency that "no firm reason has been given for the German opposition". There were reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel was against the deal and that her government had demanded the joint firm be headquartered in Munich.

The portfolio has not had any defaults since inception. "It will come as no surprise that our investment focus over the final quarter will remain in the US primary market. The current pipeline of deals is very healthy at just over $35bn. Most importantly, we believe US companies remain fundamentally strong and continue to report decent earnings. The fact that the European new issue market is effectively closed for the remainder of the year compounds our view," NB Global said. "Whilst secondary opportunities remain, these are more limited at present given the market rally we have seen, but we continue to monitor the situation and will still continue reducing the more volatile segments of our portfolio and taking profits on some lower yielding assets that we bought at a discount. Although our focus is on the primary market we are well aware that market conditions can change quickly, and cognisant of the fact that if we do see a period of volatility in the run up to year end, that this is likely to present significant secondary buying opportunities," the statement concluded. The fund currently produces an annualised net yield per share in the region of 5% on the issue price, plus some capital appreciation.

Corporate loan investment company NB Global Floating Rate Income Fund said its investment focus for the rest of the year will be on the US primary market, as the European new issue market is effectively closed for the remainder of the year. The group revealed that at the end of September, just 2.39% of its investment portfolio was denominated in euros, while 2.66% was denominated in sterling; the rest was all in dollars. NB Global is invested primarily in investments rated B and Ba by debt rating agencies, with B rated investments accounting for the lion's share at the portfolio at 54.55%; Ba investments comprise 39.20% of the portfolio. Company rules allow for up to 20% of the portfolio to be invested in bonds, but the firm reduced its bond position to 6.7% at the end of September from 11.6% at the end of June, due to narrowing spreads between loans and bonds. The group has also reduced its non-US exposure, with European assets down from 7.4% at the beginning of the third quarter to 5.1% at the end, largely because the firm has cashed in on some investments and has not replaced them with new issues, most of which have had the portfolio manager reaching for the barge-pole. "Our view on default rates for 2012 is sustained, with the US below 2.0% and Europe at 7.0%, with current trailing 12 month default rates of 1.00% and 6.2% respectively," the firm revealed.

AMEC, the international engineering and project management company, has switched to a geographic operational structure. Simon Naylor, John Pearson and Hisham Mahmoud have been promoted to be Group Presidents of Americas, Europe and Growth Regions respectively. All will report directly to the Chief Executive, Samir Brikho. "We see incremental benefits from providing all our services not only across our four markets of oil & gas, mining, clean energy and environment & infrastructure but also in each of our geographies," Brikho said. "I am confident this new structure will allow us to achieve this and so provide access to previously untapped growth opportunities," he added

Building materials supplier Travis Perkins saw like-for-like sales fall back in the group's second quarter (to end-September), as the group struggled with the poor weather and the competing attraction of the Olympics. Total sales in the quarter were down 2.4% year-on-year, although the group noted that the quarter this year had one less trading day. Like-for-like sales per trading day were down 3.5% on the corresponding period of last year. "Trading improved in September after the uneven and fragile trading conditions experienced so far this year, and our continuing tight management of costs and efficiency gains from self help projects mean we remain on target to meet market expectations," said Geoff Cooper, the group's Chief Executive. Group Financial Director, Paul Hampden Smith, has announced his intention to retire from the board early next year.

John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF) has completed its acquisition of the Forth Valley Royal Hospital, valued at 30m pounds. This follows this FTSE 250 constituent's recent successful capital raise of £60.4m. Andrew Charlesworth from John Laing Capital Management, the fund manager to JLIF, said: "We are delighted to announce the acquisition of the remaining stake in Forth Valley Royal Hospital. "100% ownership of this high quality asset offers an exciting development for the fund, and represents the second completed acquisition following the recent capital raise. We anticipate the acquisition of the remaining asset in this portfolio from John Laing, Pembury Hospital, to complete in the near future."

Corporate Vantage scheme member numbers doubled in the quarter to more than 9,400. Operating revenue rose 20% to £68.7m from £57.2m in the same quarter of 2011. The percentage of recurring revenue increased to a record 82%. The key driver of revenue growth was the higher level of Vantage AuA compared to the same period in the previous year. The proportion of assets held as cash at September 30th was 11% compared to 12% at June 30th. The group described the first quarter of its financial year as a "pleasing start" given challenging economic and market conditions for retail investors, and added that it has made an excellent start to October. "The beginning of the second quarter has seen considerably improved activity in the way of new investment opportunities. We have been encouraged to see potential investors seeking information and increased volumes of them converting into new clients, helped by the announcement of our new SIPP [Self-Invested Pension Plan] Loyalty bonus incentive and new share and fund launches," the firm said. "Future stock market levels and investor confidence will have a significant part to play during the remainder of our financial year," the statement continued. "In the coming months we will be launching our iPad app and a number of other major new initiatives. We remain confident of growing the business further to the benefit of our clients and shareholders," the firm said.

Financial services provider Hargreaves Lansdown said revenue, assets under administration (AuA) and client numbers all hit record levels in the July-September quarter, the firm's quietest period of the financial year. Assets under administration increased to £28.5bn at the end of September from from £26.3bn at the end of June. Net new business for the first quarter of the company's financial year came in at £0.55bn, which was 19% lower than the £0.68bn inflow seen in the corresponding period of 2011. Net new business in August was markedly lower year-on-year but the firm pointed out that not only was August 2011 a particularly volatile month but it also marked the launch of Hargreaves Lansdown's upgraded stockbroking service. Net new business in July and September this year were only marginally lower than last year. Share dealing volumes totalled 357,000, representing a 6% decrease on the previous year. Once again, lower year-on-year levels in August were to blame; volumes in September and July combined were actually 20% higher this year. The number of active clients on the firm's Vantage service increased by 7,000 from 425,000 at the end of June to 432,000 at the end of September. Last year, Vantage added 8,000 new clients during the quarter. The number of active accounts held by Vantage clients increased from 625,000 to 635,000.

Industrial materials provider Morgan Crucible has delivered a profits warning as trading conditions have deteriorated across most geographies, particularly in Europe and China. Mark Robertshaw, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "With a weaker market environment group performance for the full year is likely to be materially below the board's previous expectations. We are taking firm action to reduce our cost base to protect profitability and are reviewing further structural actions. In line with our strategy the group continues to invest for the future both in new product development and capital expenditure in higher margin business areas." The slowdown in demand has been most pronounced in the Advanced Materials and Technology business, the group said, in an interim management statement covering trading since the beginninf of July. The Ceramics division and Molten Metal Systems, which comprise over 70% of the company, have been more resilient, with margins remaining in its target mid-teen range. The FTSE-250 constituent maintained that "cash generation is robust and the expected net debt to EBITDA [earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation] ratio for 2012 year remains low at 1.2 to 1.3 times.

Like a jilted lover, BAE Systems now has to look ahead to life on its own. Among those most keenly affected by the repercussions of the failure of the EADS deal are BAE's 35,000 UK employees - many of whom face an uncertain future. The main reason for this is the planned rundown in big UK defence programmes, together with a more difficult environment for export orders as military spending worldwide comes under pressure. Many of those in the UK who backed a BAE-EADS marriage did so because they believed an expanded business - with a stronger position in civil aerospace - would have put the British company in a better position to maintain its home workforce at something approaching the current level, The Financial Times explains.

BAE Systems is examining a series of potential acquisitions to bolster its position in the United States in the wake of its failed merger with EADS. While British investors are demanding to see BAE's top brass on strategy, following the aborted 28bn pound merger, The Times has been told the defence group is considering "doubling down" on its American growth strategy. According to BAE advisers, it will look at buying suppliers in the electronic warfare, services and cyber security sectors to increase its exposure to the growing areas of US defence. Speculation that BAE will become a target for one of the big American defence contractors is doubted by industry experts in Washington because the US Defence Department has an informal ban on consolidation between its prime contractors or main suppliers.

Cash and outlook At the end of the third quarter, net cash excluding customer specific financing was in the region of £86m, compared to £97m at the end of the third quarter of 2011. "While the costs being incurred remediating our new contracts in Germany are likely to be higher than we previously expected, these costs are expected to be largely offset by a stronger performance in other parts of the business, particularly in the UK," the group statement revealed. "Much remains to be done and whilst the Supply Chain business performance in the fourth quarter is not as critical as it once was to Computacenter's overall performance, it still remains an important factor. As a consequence, the group's trading result is expected to be broadly in line with the board's revised expectations for 2012," the statement concluded.

In France, overall revenue performance was flat in the third quarter and 7% in constant currency. This brings the year-to date revenue growth position to 1% (CC: 8%).