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The world's largest alcoholics drinks maker, Diageo, is in advanced talks to buy a stake in Indian outfit United Spirits, four people with knowledge of the matter have told Bloomberg. Such a transaction would fit in well with Diageo's strategy of increasing its portfolio of emerging market assets; in fact, the company already has operations in the South Asian country. Diageo, valued at £43bn, tried to acquire a stake in United Spirits, valued at £1.5bn, back in 2009 but failed after it was told that its offer was not at fair value. So, what may have changed this time around? According to the news agency one of United Spirits' main shareholders, Vijay Mallya, needs to plug a large financing gap - of around £370m - in another one of his holdings, airline Kingfisher. Significantly, as part of the deal, which is yet to be finalised, Diageo may get the right to appoint a majority of United Spirits' board members, including the Chairman, one person said.

Arthur Davidson, the Divisional Chairman of Specialist Merchanting at builders' merchant Travis Perkins, sold two lots of 5,000 shares on Friday. In the first tranche, the director sold the shares at 1,085.23p for a total of £54,262, and in the second the other 5,000 at 1,089p for £54,450. Following the sale Davidson holds 36,558 shares in the company, equal to less than 0.1% of the total share capital. The stock has performed well over the past four months, up from around 900p at the start of June. Over the past year shares have risen almost 43%, equal to 326p. In the six months ended June 30th pre-tax profit after exceptional items rose from £129.2m to £162m. The company said at the half year point that it is confident of meeting full year expectations for the 2012 financial performance

Sure, another round of quantitative easing from the US Federal Reserve means a welcome boost for GKN. But it's the drive towards less cyclical aerospace work which is more significant, and the shares - which are cheap compared to aerospace peers - have further to run before fully reflecting that shift........but as always dyor and good luck..

In the meantime - and despite the rerating since the Volvo deal - GKN's shares trade on under nine times JP Morgan Cazenove's 2012 estimate of adjusted earnings of 26.6p, and that falls to under eight times based on 2013's adjusted forecast earnings. That, however, is near the bottom end of the historic valuation range and represents a substantial discount to the share price rating of aerospace peers such as Senior and Meggitt - their shares trade on 13 times forecast end-2012 earnings. The broker also estimates that the shares are worth 280p after applying conservative mid-cycle share price multiples, and 290p on a sum-of-the parts basis. Meanwhile, a prospective yield of over 3 per cent looks good - the average yield in the aerospace sector is just above 2 per cent.

Still, a sharp slowdown in car production among European volume manufacturers has caused concern and the highly cyclical automotive industry generated 59 per cent of sales last year. But GKN has a well-established habit of outperforming global car production. In fact, first-half organic sales at the core Driveline division rose 9 per cent and trading profit jumped even more to £121m. GKN beat the market in North America and China, and in Europe, too, where more resilient premium brands such as BMW and Audi account for 40 per cent of sales. Increasing demand for sintered components also delivered significant gains for the Powder Metallurgy (PM) unit. Industry forecasts point to further declines in global light vehicle production, so PM sales will probably slow. There could also be some read across from BAE's planned tie-up with EADS. That move may pave the way for "value creation across unloved, deep value stocks weighted down by pension liabilities," believes Oliver Wynn-James, analyst at broker Panmure Gordon - he sees GKN in that category. "This opens up a multitude of possibilities for companies like GKN, which could combine large operating businesses with strategic peers, and then service the pension issues at a removed level." Ideas for unleashing value in this way include flipping the aerospace business into another venture, or even selling it and settling the £926m pension deficit, which currently absorbs cash flow. All brave stuff - although possibly a distant prospect.

Keen readers of the financial pages will know that GKN has the automobiles & parts sector largely to itself. Yet GKN's purchase of Volvo's aerospace division in July is a game-changer that increases its already substantial footprint within the resilient aerospace sector - indeed, making lightweight composite wing parts for Airbus and Boeing generated sales of £770m in the six months to end-June. In fact, the shares have jumped about 30 per cent since the deal was announced yet, when compared to aerospace peers, they remain undemandingly rated. Bought for much less than expected - £633m - Volvo gives GKN a complementary lightweight engine components business. It also means that civil aerospace - which grew sales 16 per cent at the first-half stage - will contribute more than two-thirds of divisional sales next year. Overall, higher-margin aerospace work should generate around 40 per cent of group trading profit, too - about £270m - and, with both Airbus and Boeing scrambling to fill a record backlog of orders, that should hit £295m in 2014. Last year it was just £166m. That easily offsets the decline in demand for US military aircraft like the C-17 transporter and F-15 and F-18 fighter jets. Volvo also adds much more work on propulsion systems used on every one of Airbus' and Boeing's civil aircraft programmes and on almost every engine choice. That inevitably increases the amount of revenue generated per plane, which could increase further as new jets like Boeing's 787 and fuel-efficient narrow body planes ramp up production. It should also generate lucrative high margin aftermarket work. True, Volvo's operating profit margin - 5.2 per cent in 2011 - falls short of GKN's high standards, yet integration should be rapid and management believes cost savings and operational improvements will get that up to its divisional target of 11-13 per cent next year. That sounds plausible - in February, chief executive Nigel Stein introduced tougher margin targets, just a month after taking the wheel, and is making good progress.

Admittedly, bonds remain fairly exotic instruments for many UK investors and it's best to think of them as actively traded assets, rather than comparing them directly with returns on deposit accounts. But the trading opportunity in this instance looks compelling - buying so close to par leaves realistic room for capital appreciation before the bond slides down the yield curve as maturity approaches, and also offers the prospect of as a decent income stream....but as always dyor and good luck...

The closeness to par also means the income yield sits well ahead of inflation, with a further boost if the bond is held within a tax-free wrapper. It's also yielding something similar to the dividend yield on the company's shares - but without the corresponding price volatility. What's more, the attractions of the coupon on the group's earlier bond hasn't gone unnoticed and demand there has pushed its price out to 104p - which bodes well for the group's latest bond. True, coupons generally have been more keenly priced in recent months. That's because yields in the gilt market, which remains the reference index for corporate bonds, have been depressed as investors scrambled out of the eurozone. Inevitably, increased investor interest has also played a role as companies, and their advisors, have become more savvy about what coupons will attract retail buyers. Despite that, if the choice comes down to negative real returns or a decent coupon, income investors should choose the latter. Operationally, the group looks sound enough, too. Pre-tax profit, for instance, grew 31 per cent last year to £244m, with mezzanine finance seeing robust demand as traditional lenders retire to repair their balance sheets. However, the group is in an intrinsically risky line of business and bond investors would be directly exposed to any default, albeit with some security from being higher up the creditor ladder. That's reflected in the sub-investment grade rating - from both Standard & Poor's and Fitch - although Fitch does have a stable outlook for the company's debt.

Asset manager and mezzanine investment specialist Intermediate Capital (ICG) is another beneficiary of retail investors' hunt for yield after it launched a fully subscribed £80m bond issue this month. Its new senior unsecured bond represents the group's second big capital raising in a year and follows on from its well-received 7 per cent 2018 issue - although, at 6.25 per cent, the coupon is lower than on that earlier bond. Some investors may have missed the initial subscription but, with the price still trading near par, it remains a good opportunity. However a key consideration will be whether the London Stock Exchange's trading platform (ORB) proves liquid enough to allow holders to cash out when necessary. Progress so far, however, looks good with roughly £4m - or about 5 per cent of the total issue - having been traded on the market since launch. That's positive and means the average retail order of £10,000 should have little trouble finding a matching buyer. The performance of the earlier 7 per cent issue is also a good guide to liquidity. The average monthly trading value there, which has been trading on ORB for nine months, is close to £2m - allowing for big variations during Isa season and the traditional summer lull.

Young's premium rating reflects the high-quality nature of its operation, but the reliable long-term growth prospects more than justifies a forward PE ratio of 18. The company - which is being valued on a small discount to net asset value - is also backed by over £500m of property assets and land. So, with a pre-results rally looking very possible.....but as always dyor and good luck.........

Targeting a trading situation like this comes with the risk that history will not repeat itself. Therefore you need to weigh up whether the shares are worth buying on merit alone and, on this score, they easily rate a 'buy' in their own right. For instance, the company has been benefiting from its canny acquisition of the Geronimo estate of large London managed pubs in late 2010 from which it has extracted significant value. Young has also honed its focus by selling off a 40 per cent stake in a brewing joint venture with Wells in a £15.1m deal a year ago. Reassuringly, trading so far this year has been good, with sales from Young's 121 managed pubs rising 10.1 per cent in the first 13 weeks of the current financial year, and by 4 per cent on a like-for-like basis. True, it's hard to predict how well the business has performed over the Olympics, but there are reasons for optimism as a recent Coffer Peach tracker survey for August, which monitors aggregated like-for-like sales data from 25 leading pub and restaurant operators including Young, reported a stellar 5 per cent like-for-like rise in sales for establishments inside the M25. It's worth noting, too, that sales growth from London pubs was "approaching 7 per cent".

Young & Co's business is not difficult to understand. It runs and owns an estate of 242 high-quality pubs in London and the prosperous south east, which are generally regarded as some of the best in the business due to their location and the higher-end clientele they attract. Their financial performance certainly attests to this. However, when a business is as easy to understand and delivers as reliably as Young's does, it's easy for investors to simply forget about it between its six-monthly results announcements. This has created an opportunity for investors over the last three years to profit from buying shares ahead of the group's results and, with Young's interims scheduled for 22 November, there could be a very profitable trading opportunity here. Indeed, over the last three years, as our table shows, the shares have on average outperformed the FTSE All-Share by 7.7 per cent in the month leading up to a results announcement.

Putting aside the one-off capital return, and a dividend yield of not much more than 2 per cent is nothing to get excited about, either - the average yield for the sector is over 3 per cent. And having soared 45 per cent since mid-June, Dunelm's shares now trade on 17 times broker Peel Hunt's forecast earnings for 2013 - compared to a current rating of under 12 times for the retail sector. With the economy in recession, even Dunelm could struggle to continue to side-step today's grim consumer conditions - leaving that premium rating looking precarious......but as always dyor and good luck

And, even though online sales usually represent the fastest-growing segment for most retailers, it could be quite a while before Dunelm can significantly supplement its growth profile from the web. That's because the group generated just 2.5 per cent of its sales in the last financial year from the so-called multi-channel sources - essentially, using the web to reserve, collect in-store or arrange home delivery. In contrast, catalogue retailer Argos generates nearly half of its sales from such multi-channel sources. Then there's the pace of the group's expansion plans to worry about. Dunelm opened 14 new superstores in the year to end-June with a further four new openings since the period ended - bringing the total estate to 118 stores. Management is actually targeting a 200-strong store estate which, assuming a similar opening rate to that seen last year, suggests a five- or six-year timescale. The trouble is that such a relatively heady pace of store expansion comes with a big price tag and total operating costs jumped 12.3 per cent year-on-year to £197m. While, with consumer confidence looking so uncertain, the overall wisdom of such a fairly aggressive expansion strategy must be in doubt. Although the group's hefty cash pile does offer a good deal of comfort.

With the British Retail Consortium (BRC) revealing that August's like-for-like UK retail sales had slipped 0.4 per cent year-on-year, it's clearly a tough time to be a retailer. Admittedly, some of that weakness was down to consumers diverting their attention to the Olympics. But, with the UK economy shrinking by 0.5 per cent in the second quarter, consumer sentiment isn't set to recover anytime soon - bad news for all consumer-facing businesses, including homeware retailer Dunelm. Not that Dunelm has been a poor performer - far from it. When the group released full-year results last week, the business appeared to buck the weakening trend within the retail sector by revealing like-for-like sales growth of 3.1 per cent for the year to end-June. Dunelm experienced an especially robust final quarter with like-for-like sales for the 13 weeks to end-June surging over 10 per cent. Accordingly, Dunelm grew operating profit by 14.3 per cent in the financial year to £95.2m and, buoyed by a cash-rich balance sheet, management plans to return £65.8m of excess capital in November, worth 32.5p a share, through a B/C share scheme. Indeed, Dunelm's quality isn't in doubt - the uncertainty arises over whether it can maintain such a quality performance. The UK's exceptionally wet summer, for instance, meant a big one-off boost for retailers such as Dunelm, as rain-weary consumers made their way to the shelter of its superstores instead of spending their cash on outdoor pursuits. Management estimates that at least half of the growth seen in the last quarter was weather-related - so, with more typical weather conditions having apparently returned, the weak consumer backdrop looks like much more of a threat. It's a threat that Dunelm acknowledges. "Looking ahead, we remain cautious of the UK consumer environment and its impact on our trading in the near term," said chief executive Nick Wharton

Problem is will end up with very few shares after consolidation........and if theres a lull with news it will drop in sp for sure.....did that with water int consolidated with sp 70p now sp 35p......i would have to look at the fundermentals of gas more carefully before desiding what to do imho.

Advertising agency M&C Saatchi revealed a 13 per cent increase in half year pre-tax profit, driven by a string of new contract wins. M&C Saatchi, whose clients include O2, Intercontinental Hotels, Twitter and Virgin Holidays, said profit rose to £8.7m for the six months to end of June 2012 while revenue increased 15% to £82.8m. Operating profit rose to £8.6m from £7.6m and earnings per share rose to 7.95p from 7.15p. Progress was made across all regions with UK revenues up 16%, after a strong performance from CRM and mobile services. Europe like-for-like (LFL) revenues rose by a quarter despite macro-economic challenges. In Asia and Australasia LFL revenues climbed 12% while in the Middle East and Africa they soared 146% to £2.8m as it positions itself for a fast growing African market. Revenues in the Americas gained 12% with its New York agency set for opening in the final quarter. "Looking ahead, we are confident that we will continue to make progress in 2012 and beyond. The strategy is working," the group said in company statement. M&C Saatchi has offered an increased dividend payment of 1.10p from 1p before.

Resources investment firm Creon Resources has appointed 48-year-old Ghanim Al Saad, who founded one of Qatar's 'most successful' private sector business groups, as its new Non-Executive Chairman. Until earlier this year, Al Saad was Managing Director of Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company. The firm's Chief Executive Officer, Glen Lau, said: "We look forward to working closely with him on our investment projects and to his contribution to the continued growth and development of the company."

Shaft Sinkers Holdings an international shaft sinking and underground construction group, has been selected by Randgold Resources to initiate mobilisation activities for the Kibali gold mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kibali is a joint venture between mine operator, Randgold Resources (45%), AngloGold Ashanti (45%) and Congolese parastatal, Sokimo (10%). The project is situated near Doko, in the north eastern Orientale province. The initial phase, which will begin immediately, is the start of shaft sinking activities and equipping the main underground shaft. The vertical shaft contract remains subject to negotiation, but talks are advanced with both parties working to reach a final agreement as soon as is reasonably practicable, Shaft said.

Dragon Oil, an international oil and gas exploration, development and production company, said the Dzheitune C/175 well tested at an initial production rate of 1,420 barrels of oil per day (bopd) from the deep layers. The firm made the decision to perforate gas and water formations around shallower levels at a later stage. The rig has now been moved to the Dzheitune A/176 well. The Dzheitune 13/171 well did not yield commercial oil rates, and so is being considered for conversion into a water injector-type well in the Dzheitune 13 area.