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full year results: Specialist emerging markets fund manager Ashmore Group saw pre-tax profits fall slightly from a year earlier, after it produced a 21% rise in management fees that offset a poorer performance in its fund products. The negative investment performance was primarily driven by the weakness in equities and foreign exchange markets, however, this was partially offset by positive investment performance in the group's external, corporate and blended debt themes. Net revenue for the year to 30 June was £333.3 million, in line with market expectations and marginally lower than the prior year figure of £333.8 million. The fall in performance fees to £25.4 million from £85.4 million the year before was anticipated by management as this was determined by levels of absolute investment performance, which reduce at this point in the cycle after peaking in 2009/10 following the credit crisis.

Company overview Established in 1992 and headquartered in London, Ashmore Group PLC is a leading investment manager dedicated to emerging markets. The group focuses on a number of investment themes including external debt, local currency, special situations (incorporating distressed debt and private equity) corporate debt, real estate and equity. It manages US$63.7 billion (June2012) in pooled funds, segregated accounts and structured products. The company joined the FTSE 100 index in September 2011.

Greene King: Citigroup downgrades to neutral.

Fenner: Jefferies cuts target from 565p to 490p, buy rating kept; Panmure Gordon cuts target from 500p to 465p, buy rating kept.

Nevertheless, investors in covered loan obligations (CLOs) may be keen to invest in M&S as the end of their reinvestment periods draw closer. As well, there is thought to be a lot of potential liquidity in the US 'looking for a home'. Furthermore, the high-yield bond market re-opened last week after a long lull, and is expected to remain open until the end of the year; so it would be a good time for M&S to issue notes. Lastly, however, note must be made of how "inconsistent" Marks&Spencer has been over the years. Herein lies part of both the opportunity and the risk of a buy-out, comment analysts at Digital Look. If the acquirer is able to grow the company then the numbers may indeed "add-up", but if not ... In particular, the changes in consumption patterns seen in the last few years as the crisis has progressively become worse may prove hard to manage. At the time of writing Marks&Spencer has a market capitalization of £5.991bn and trades at just 0.5926 times its sales and a price-to-book ratio of 2.14, versus 0.58 sales and a price-to-book ratio of 1.799 for a peer such as Debenhams. Clothing Retailer Next, on the other hand, trades at 1.736 times its sales. As of 12:21 shares of Mark&Spencer are rising by 3.3% to 373p. The first report on this speculation by a newswire came on August 24, from Bloomber

Shares of the iconic retailer Marks and Spencer are one of the top risers today on the top share index on reports that a buy-out of the firm is in the works. Thus, banks are said to be exploring different possible means to structure a leveraged buy-out of the company, according to a report published by Reuters last Friday, after the close of markets. Ideally a "leveraged buy-out" transaction sees a company acquired mainly using its own free cash-flow to pay back the debt assigned to the operation, which in turn requires that the target company have high and stable margins. For some time now the economic situation has meant that such potential targets are far fewer and far between than used to be the case in the halcyon days before the current financial crisis. As well, the desire or need of lenders to deleverage and de-risk their own balance sheets means that finding relatively "cheap" financing is considerably more difficult. The sources cited by Reuters believe that approximately £4bn of leverage would be needed to undertake a buy-out, evenly split between loans and bonds.

Wolfhart Hauser, Intertek's Chief Financial Officer, commented on Monday morning: ""NDT has a strong reputation and market position and we are pleased to welcome the company to Intertek. "Building on our Moody acquisition, this acquisition enhances our existing services to our energy, petrochemical, power and aerospace clients and reflects our strategy of continually expanding our capabilities to meet the full quality needs of clients in each industry".

Quality control services group Intertek has acquired NDT Services, a provider of non-destructive testing services to the energy, petrochemical, power and aerospace industries. The group was purchased through the acquisition of its parent company, Materials Testing & Inspection Services, from its management shareholders for £17m in cash. NDT's services are used by companies to assess the integrity and reliability of a range of industrial components being manufactured or on installations. It employs 130 staff and is headquartered in Derby, UK. Intertek said: "NDT helps clients to identify flaws or defects in aircraft, pipeline, power station, refinery and oil platform components to assess their projected lifespan in order to reduce the risk of failure and disruption to operations." The firm said that the increasing regulation and standardisation of components, infrastructure and industrial products, as well as increased investment in quality assurance by companies to reduce risks, is driving the demand of NDT's services.

Alistair Darby, Chief Operating Officer of Pedigree bitter brewer Marston's, is off on a pub crawl of sorts, moving to rival pubs group Mitchells and Butlers to become Chief Executive. Peter Dalzell, Managing Director of Marston's Inns and Taverns, and Stephen Oliver, Managing Director of Marston's Beer and Pub Company, will now report directly to Ralph Findlay, Marston's Chief Executive Officer. Since rejoining Marston's in 1997, Darby held a number of senior operational and strategic roles, including leadership of its branded and suburban managed pubs, its beer division and its tenanted and leased pub company. He was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2011. Darby will take up his role as Chief Executive on 8th October 2012. Following a short period of induction and handover, Bob Ivell will revert to the role of Non-Executive Chairman.

Two other rewards relate to Galliford Try's Partnerships business being named preferred bidder by the Festival Housing Association. The first of these is to build a new £11.8m retirement village in Malvern, Worcestershire, which will comprise 101 flats. The other contract is for a £12m contract to build 165 homes for Northumberland County Council across two sites at Blyth and South Newsham. Finally, the Homes and Communities Agency has confirmed Galliford Try as the successful bidder for the regeneration of Blackberry Hill Hospital in Bristol

galliford Try, the housebuilding and construction group, has secured a parcel of contacts in the affordable housing sector, two of which are in the East End of London, near the Olympic stadium. The contracts are worth around £100m in total. The first is for Gallions Quarter development in East London, and follows on from Galliford Try's selection as preferred bidder for this development back in July of last year. The £23m contract will see Galliford Try construct 170 homes in the second phase of the 700-home development, which also includes commercial and retail premises as part of a major regeneration programme of the area commissioned by the London Development Agency. Elsewhere in the East End of London, mayor approval has been granted for the £52m redevelopment of the old St Clement's hospital site in Mile End. The plan here is to build 223 homes, including 54 so-called affordable homes.

Reinforced polymer technology firm Fenner said current trading remains in line with company expectations, despite continuing macro-economic uncertainty, with results for the year ended 31st August 2012 expected to show substantial growth in revenues and profit. Fenner said the fundamentals of its core markets remain strong and the Southern Hemisphere and European operations of the Engineered Conveyor Solutions division performed strongly. As previously stated, ECS experienced some slowing of order rates from the US coal market in the wake of an exceptionally mild winter and uneconomic shale gas pricing. "As anticipated this has been reflected in our activity levels, although US coal stockpiles have now been decreasing from historic highs for several months. Our order book for the division remains satisfactory," the group explained. Meanwhile its Advanced Engineered Products division performed well, generating seasonally higher margins in the second half. Fenner added: "We continue to deploy our strategy to exploit growth opportunities through investment in additional capacity in selected markets across both of our operating divisions." "Since the year end we have completed three small bolt-on acquisitions; Mandals, Norwegian Seals and American Industrial Plastics, which support our growth strategy in AEP's oil & gas and medical activities." Strong cash flows through its final quarter have resulted in year end net borrowings of less than £100m.

Industrial property specialist, Hansteen Holdings, has been busy buying up assets in both the UK and Germany. The group has spent £26.2m on the 26 acre Horndon Industrial Park in Essex and notarised three other industrial properties in Germany. The Horndon acquisition, which has come via the administrators of defunct outfit Easter Investments Three, is currently let to 43 tenants and has a vacancy rate of 32.94%. The German properties in Uhingen, Grevenbroich and Henstedt-Ulzburg, totalling over 271,000 square feet, are fully occupied and are being sold by Cambridge Place Investments. The combined rent roll of the purchases will be £2.7m. The group has also sold two properties in Germany for a total of €9.4m. Commenting on the Horndon acquisition Morgan Jones of Hansteen, said: "The high yield and vacancy rate, combined with its excellent location provides plenty of opportunity to build value through active asset management."

Outsourcing titan Serco has renewed its business process outsourcing contract with Australian tax man. The five-year contract is worth $A140m ... before tax, which is around £90m in sterling. The contract has two one-year extension options and is worth about the same as the contract it replaces. Under the terms of the contract, Serco, in partnership with the Australian Taxation Office and other suppliers, will be responsible for providing advice and responding to enquiries relating to tax numbers, refunds, business activity statements, debt management, return submissions and tax information packs. Serco is hopeful that there will be opportunities to expand these activities to support additional communication channels.

Mediterranean Oil and Gas (MOG) has released a statement saying it continues to refute the suggestion by Leni Gas and Oil (LGO) that MOG "may have misrepresented to LGO the factual position prior to the sale by LGO to MOG of its 10% working interest in Malta Area 4. MOG's legal advisers have written to LGO's legal advisers to set out, in detail, why any suggestion of misrepresentation is unfounded, and why the sale of LGO's working interest in Malta Area 4 to MOG is unaffected. Last week LGO announced that its lawyers had started preparing to assess its grounds for rescission of the sale on the grounds of misrepresentation.

coastal Energy Company, an oil and gas firm, has cheered its investors with news of an 'outstanding' result at the Songkhla A-10 well in Thailand. The well was drilled to a depth of 7,400 feet and encountered 213 feet of net pay in the Lower Oligocene with 20% porosity. The gross oil column in the well was approximately 550 feet thick. Randy Bartley, President & Chief Executive Officer, said: "The A-10 well result is outstanding. This well encountered a record amount of net pay for the Songkhla basin with some of the best reservoir characteristics we've seen in the Lower Oligocene interval. "We estimate that this doubles the volumetric estimates for this particular fault block. Production will be tied in from this well shortly. The next well will test the fault block immediately to the north and, if successful, could warrant an additional production facility in this location to develop these two fault blocks

Expectations for fund manager Ashmore's full-year results were lowered after its interim management statement in July. The market is now expecting revenue of £333.83m and profit before tax of £229.40m. "A key focus will be on the outlook for asset gathering, with concerns that recent under-performance and increased competition will moderate the outlook for allocation to Ashmore's expanding product range," Peel Hunt suggests. Interims from Hilton Food Group will probably reflect the "challenging market conditions and constrained consumer demand" the meat-packing company spoke of in its trading statement back in July. Performance in the Nordic markets is likely to be a bright feature for Hilton. Peel Hunt forecasts a 3% year-on-year increase in profit before tax to £13.0m as currency movements and tough markets restrict growth. "Having Tesco as a key customer has not helped," the broker notes.

An Executive Director of natural gas giant BG Group has sold 56,034 shares in the company to cover tax and social security liabilities (and associated dealing costs) following the vesting of 103,890 shares earlier this month. Martin Houston sold the shares for 1,269.07p each for a total of £711,111 leaving him with 906,444 shares. The sale was announced on Monday, the same day the company revealed that its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Fabio Barbosa, is to take a leave of absence after he was diagnosed with a medical condition. BG Group Financial Controller Den Jones will assume of all of Barbosa's responsibilities, acting as interim CFO for what it expected to be the rest of the year. Sir Frank Chapman, BG's Chief Executive Officer, will take over as interim Chairman of the group's Investment Committee. Over the past six months the company's share price has dropped from around the 1,500p mark to its current level of 1,278p, but is up 0.7% in the past year.

Positive Points: Although previously indicated, both adjusted operating profit and adjusted earnings per share for the full year will be substantially ahead of last year. Profit for its Sugar business will be considerably higher than last year with the benefit of European and African revenue increases and a strong operational performance. A strong performance for its Agricultural business was noted by management. Revenues were ahead of last year, with profit expected to be in line. Sales at its Retail business (Primark) are now expected to be 17% ahead of last year. Trading this summer in the UK were particularly strong and sales in continental Europe remained buoyant. Profit margins in the second half increased, following a fall in cotton prices. Management now expects margin for the full year to be close to last year's levels. At Primark, the pace of store and retail selling space expansion increased during the year. By the financial year end management expects to have opened 19 new stores and added 0.9 million square feet of selling space bringing the total to 242 stores and 8.2 million square feet. Group net debt at the year end is expected to be below £1.2 billion compared with £1.3 billion last year. A progressive dividend policy is in evidence with the interim dividend payment rising 8% on last year's level.

Negative Points: For the group's Sugar business, prices in China have continued to fall since the half year. Both revenues and profit will be lower as a result. A non-cash charge of some £100 million for the impairment of property, plant and equipment at the meat factory in Australia is to be taken. At its Grocery business, adjusted operating profit will show a decline reflecting restructuring costs at George Weston Foods in Australia and Allied Bakeries in the UK, margin declines at Allied Bakeries and the difficult retail and competitor environment in Australia. The market remained intensely competitive for Allied Bakeries with promotional activity reducing margins. At its Ingredients business, revenues will be similar to last year but operating profit will be sharply lower. This reflects restructuring charges and the continuing operational challenges faced by AB Mauri, its yeast and bakery ingredients business. The European yeast market has continued to be extremely competitive, whilst sales volumes in China proved disappointing and key raw material costs, primarily molasses, remained high. Management previously warned that the ending of sugar quotas in 2015, as proposed by the European Commission, would jeopardise further investment in the European sugar industry. The company said it was working with policymakers in the EU to explore alternative options for sugar reform. Volatility in commodity prices remains in the background. The group is exposed to foreign exchange risk.