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The transformation of Wolseley from a company in danger of collapsing under the weight of its own debt to one on a sustainable growth path looks complete after the company announced its intention to pay a special dividend. The plumbers' merchant has paid a full year dividend of 60p, which is already a third higher than the 45p it paid last year, but on top of that it will pay a one-off special dividend. The financial year to the end of July saw the group wipe out its £523m debt to end cash positive with net cash of £45m, paving the way for the special divi, which, along with a share consolidation, will cost the company £350m. Broker Jefferies Hoare Govett says the proposed shareholder return of £350m is within the expected range of £250m-£500m. Cash on tap

Sweett Group, an international property and infrastructure consultancy, has been trumpeting its involvement in the completion of an urgent care centre and emergency department for Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust. "This particular project presented a number of challenges, including carrying out extensive construction activities in a live medical environment," said Mahesh Doshi, Executive Director of Cost Consultancy at Sweett Group. The new department, designed to meet the clinical requirements of 120,000 patients per year in one building, includes a dedicated children's emergency department, emergency x-ray facilities and an urgent care centre. The facilities have been built to meet the 'Very Good' criteria for BREEAM standards and bring the latest in emergency clinical care, meeting current healthcare standards, to local communities in Lewisham and surrounding districts.

The group has a £34m banking facility, of which £8.7m is still to be tapped. Bad debt levels on the group's lending book remain at what the group terms its "traditional lows" of 1%. "Markets continue to be demanding but there are signs of improving confidence in the SME [small-to-medium-enterprises] sector within the UK. There is also an improving competitive landscape and less prevalence of our competitors buying market share by offering uncommercial terms," revealed Jeremy Coombes, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ultimate Finance. "While the high street banks are restricting financing for small business loans and overdrafts, the services we provide will continue to fill this cash flow need and expand or replace the banks role with small businesses. Due to these factors, and our healthy pipeline, we believe that Ultimate Finance is well placed to continue to grow," Coombes added. The stock is a long-time favourite of canny investor David Newton, whose Helium Special Situations Fund holds 23.55% of the equity. The final dividend has been hiked 14% to 0.40p from 0.35p last year, making a full-year pay-out of 0.8p.

While politicians grumble about the apparent reluctance of high street banks to lend to small businesses, Ultimate Finance Group seems to be doing very nicely addressing this market. The company, which provides finance services to small and medium sized businesses, has found demand for its services growing as high street banks restrict lending. Profit before tax in the year to June 30th was up to £1.19m from £0.72m the year before, while turnover was up 16% to £11.25m from £9.71m the previous year. Adjusted profit before tax, which excludes one-off items, increased by 58% to £1,91m from the previous year's £1.21m. Basic earnings per share (EPS) amounted to 1.36p, up from 1.20p a year earlier. Adjusted EPS, which excludes amortisation costs, group restructuring costs and one off income, amounted to 2.38p (2011: 2.10p).

DQ Entertainment, the AIM-listed entertainment, production and distribution group, has announced a positive quarterly operations update. The media minnow, with a market cap of £13.5m, states that it is "continuing to deliver new productions and has signed several new licensing and merchandising deals during the quarter ended September 30th 2012". The group delivered five new TV productions in the third quarter of the calendar year, while three new projects were commissioned. DQ is best-known for making animated 3D television programmes for children and appears to be making progress selling them to subsidiaries of the Walt Disney Corporation among others. Consensus estimates are that it will make a pre-tax profit of £6.55m for the year ending March 31st 2013, putting it on a forward PE of 3.3.

O2, the German subsidiary of Spanish telecom Telefonica, may become listed on the stock market as early as mid-October, according to Financial Times Deutschland. According to the German daily, sources say that investors are interested in the flotation of O2 but that it would only work if the Spanish group is not too greedy with the pricing. On Tuesday, Espirito Santo downgraded Telefonica to 'sell' from 'neutral'. Last week, brokerage firm Berenberg also downgraded it to 'sell'. TECHNICAL ANALYSIS "In early September, shares of Telefonica were able to move above the 200-day moving average, a move that suggested the start of a bullish trend," according to technical analysts at Digital Look. "We were expecting a correction back to €11 but it fell lower to €9.76. It is important for the stock to return above the 200-day moving average if we want to see signs of a longer term recovery. The breakout of resistance at €11.78, last month's high, would confirm the much anticipated change of trend. "Although the correction was steeper than expected, it was a normal move in proportion to the rally that took place since July. The positive accumulation levels adds credibility to the rally and makes a change of long-term trend more likely."

Bumi is up 10.7p on reports that the Jakarta-based miner, PT Bumi Resources, in which it owns 29 per cent is to raise cash by selling non-core assets, to quickly pay down debt. Bumi, founded by Nathaniel Rothschild, revealed on September 24th that it had begun investigating "potential financial and other irregularities" in the Indonesian miner. The FTSE 250 company was brought to the UK market by means of a so-called 'cash shell', then called Vallar, in 2011 by Nat Rothschild. Following a falling out with his Indonesian partners and majority stakeholders, the powerful Bakrie family, Nat Rothschild's concerns over the company's corporate governance have been widely reported. These corporate governance concerns have seen the shares plummet from a high of 934p. They now stand at 160p.

Shares in British Airways owner International Consolidated Airline Group (IAG) were flying high on Tuesday morning on reports that Qatar Airways is joining the oneworld Alliance of global airlines. Though the reports were dismissed by Qatar Airways' Chief Executive Officer, Akbar Al Baker, on Monday as "all rumours", speculation still persists that an announcement about the tie-up will be made next Monday. Industry web site Travel Daily reports Al Baker as saying the airline would not join Oneworld. Tweets from the airline itself from Al Baker's speech in Qatar on Monday added "We are not, at the moment, considering joining an alliance," the travel web site reports.

Paper and packaging group Mondi has, alongside Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget, divested their 100 per cent interest in Kent-based Aylesford Newsprint to an independent private equity firm. The shares were sold for a nominal consideration, which was satisfied in cash at completion. Immediately prior to completion, the firm was recapitalised, with the proceeds used to repay in full its interest bearing debt and leave net cash of £23m. Mondi will make a loss on the disposal of around €71m, which will be accounted for as a non-operating special item, with the estimated negative cash flow effect of the transaction totalling about €17m. Aylesford Newsprint had pro forma gross assets of around £99m, immediately prior to completion. Mondi's Chief Executive David Hathorn said: "This disposal allows us to continue to focus on our core businesses, while creating an opportunity for Aylesford to continue supplying newsprint to the major national newspaper groups in the UK."

Negative Points: Accompanying management comments remained cautious in tone, noting that "Demand across our markets remains mixed and the economic outlook continues to be uncertain." Like-for-like sales in both the UK (-0.8%) and France (-1.4%) declined. For the UK business management noted that "There is no evidence yet of improving market conditions and therefore growth will only come from market share gains in the short term." At its French business, the board highlighted that "government incentives put in place in the last two years are ending and demand is expected to continue to decline in the current year." Competition across the group’s markets remains intense. Group's pension obligations as of 31 July 2012 were £358 million (31 July 2011: £360 million). All of the Group's companies are now reviewing their pension arrangements and this may lead to further cash contributions in the year ahead in the range of £100 million to £150 million.

Full year results: Wolseley proposes a special dividend. The figures proved to be broadly in line with analyst expectations. Aided by some stabilization in the US housing market, progress at the group's biggest division – the US currently generates 48% of group sales – helped lead the way. Like-for-like sales in the US grew by 8.4% over the year, more than offsetting falls in both the UK (-0.8%) and France (-1.4%). The sale or proposed sale of businesses provided for some write-down of business values - a factor which impacted pre-tax profit – although funds raised from the sales have allowed for a proposed £350 million special dividend. Accompanying management comments noted that "Demand across our markets remains mixed and the economic outlook continues to be uncertain. Revenue growth rates in the new financial year have been similar to the fourth quarter of last year." In all, with both a strong share performance over the last year (the share price has outperformed the FTSE-100 index by over 50% as of 02Oct2012) and concerns for the economic outlook counterbalancing hopes for further recovery in the US housing marke

Company overview Wolseley plc is a major international specialist trade distributor of plumbing and heating products to professional contractors and a leading supplier of building materials in North America, the UK and Continental Europe. The group has around 41,000 employees and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index.

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Analysts at Brewin Dolphin said the IOMT tie-up is a positive development. "Financially it is clearly accretive and strategically a further step in diversifying Pinewoods revenue stream, " said Brewin's Sahill Shan. "Commentary on current trading is equally encouraging too. We maintain a Hold with a SOTP driven share price target of 262p." As part of the deal, Goodweather Investment Management - a member of the Peel Group - has agreed to sell 4.9m shares in the capital of Pinewood to IOMT at a price of 250p / share. This reduces Peel Holdings' equity stake in Pinewood by 9.9% to around 0.58%.

Pinewood Shepperton, which owns the famous British film studio, has finalised a deal with the Isle of Man Treasury (IOMT) to manage a 25 million pound media development fund. The firm will advise on film investment opportunities for IOMT and undertake UK distribution activities for an initial period of five years. Pinewood will make money from the deal primarily through charging an annual management fee and earning a commission on films introduced by Pinewood in which the IOMT subsequently invests. The deal is subject to the thumbs up from the Financial Services Authority, which Pinewood expects to receive within the next few weeks. "This agreement is a further example of extending the reach of the Pinewood brand and builds on the company's successful Pinewood Films initiative to play a bigger role in UK independent film and television production," said Chief Executive Ivan Dunleavy.

The company's cash reserves stood at around £20m at August 31 2012.

Impax Asset Management said assets under management fell 4 per cent for the full year but expects operating earnings to be in line with market forecasts. The aim listed investment manager said assets under management (AUM) fell to £1.819bn at August 31st 2012 from £1.896bn at September 30 2011. Positive investment returns, net of currency movements, of £55m have been offset by net outflows of £132m. Overall Impax expects operating earnings to be broadly in line with market expectations. The group said it has recently completed the expansion of its stock coverage to include the agriculture and food sector, and expects to launch a product in this area in the near future. It also continues to invest in its distribution capability in the US. Chief Executive Ian Simm commented: "The Impax team has continued to focus on delivering strong investment performance for clients while carefully extending our research coverage and distribution channels." In a separate statement the group confirmed that it has bought back 3.5m shares under the group's programme to reduce the requirement to issue new shares to satisfy the exercise of options awarded under its Employee Share Option Plan.

The products together generated revenues of €9.1m (around £7.3m) in the year ended December 31st 2011. Annualised EBITDA contribution after investment in selling and promotional costs is expected to exceed £2m. The transaction will be funded through a placing to raise £9m through the issue of 32,142,858 new ordinary shares of 1p each in the Company at 28p per share. This price marks a 4% premium to the closing price on September 28th. The proceeds of the placing will be used to fund the up-front payment, as well as working capital and transaction costs, the firm said. Analysts at Brewin Dolphin said the company's strategic aspiration to build a significant specialty pharmaceutical business had taken a further positive step. "The move further strengthens Sinclair's aesthetic dermatology franchise," they said.

Sinclair IS Pharma said it had secured a long term distribution agreement for three dermatology products. The 100 year deal with Valeant Pharmaceuticals will the see Sinclair making an upfront payment of €9.0m for the rights. The company will make additional sales-based payments over the life of the distribution agreement. Sinclair will be responsible for sales, marketing and distribution of the products in Western Europe with distribution expected to begin at the beginning of December 2012. Chief Executive Chris Spooner said the deal extended Sinclair's dermatology portfolio and enabled it to further leverage the firm's existing sales and marketing infrastructure in the region.

Shares in Jubilant Energy rose almost 10 per cent after it announced a multi-million rupee loan for its Indian subsidiary. Jubilant Offshore Drilling signed up for a term loan facility worth around $254m with a consortium of banks, led by State Bank of India. The firm said the facility would fund capital expenditure for the appraisal and development of its KG Block, as well as the development of Deen Dayal West. It will also be used to repay an existing term loan facility worth around $123m. The loan lasts for 12 years, with repayment in quarterly instalments beginning December 31st 2015.