Member Info for jange

Group sales rose by 16% to £3.46 billion or 8% when excluding acquisitions. Profit before tax increased by 19% to £266 million. Earnings per share rose by 22% to 14.4 pence per share. GKN recently agreed to buy the aerospace division from Swedish based Volvo Group for £633 million. Negative Points:

Half year results: Coming shortly after its agreement to buy Volvo's aerospace business, the results proved to be broadly in line with expectations. Sales increases and profit margin progression for each of its four Divisions was achieved, with new acquisitions, Stromag and Getrag Driveline Products, both performing well. Furthermore, with the benefit of a good first half and the group's broad exposure to global markets, management expectations for 2012 remained unchanged. As such and as a result of the strong performance and confidence in the future, GKN announced a 20% increase in the half year dividend. Management looked forward to welcoming its new acquisition, Volvo Aero, into GKN when the transaction completes in the next few months. In all, and weighing the uncertain global economic outlook against broad exposure to global markets and increased exposure to expected long term growth in the aerospace market

GKN plc is a multinational engineering company headquartered in Redditch, United Kingdom. The company was formerly known as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds and can trace its origins back to 1759, the birth of the industrial revolution. GKN is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

China-focused gold and zinc miner Griffin Mining said it had successfully upped its interest in Hebei Hua Ao Mining Industry Company, the owner of the Caijiaying Zinc-Gold Mine and surrounding tenements, to 88%. It has also extended the term of its Hua Ao joint venture to 2037. Chairman, Mladen Ninkov, said: "As Griffin now progresses towards increasing production at Caijiaying, and with the hope of continuing favourable metals prices, the returns to Griffin and its shareholders should not only justify the price paid by the company in this transaction, but exceed all expectations". The firm's shares rose 6% on the news.

Another riser was Jupiter Energy - up almost 6% after it said testing of new areas of its J-51 well in Kazakhstan was producing oil at a rate of 600 - 650 barrels per day. The firm also said its J-52 well had resumed production after upgrades following changes to health and safety rules. Upgrades were ongoing at a third well, J-50, the company said, but current oil sales commitments were being met from J-51 and J-52 production.

Toledo Mining rose 4% on Monday after it updated investors on production at its Berong nickel mine. Production in the three months to the end of June was 179,178 wmt at an average grade of 1.63% nickel, the firm said. Direct ore shipping operations, which resumed with two shipments in March this year, continued throughout the second quarter of 2012. This resulted in a further six completed shipments to China by the end of the quarter.

FTSE 250 firm Gem Diamonds said it expected diamond prices to fall in the short term as the market continued to be volatile. In its first half update the company said May and June saw the first negative movements in its rough diamond market price indices, as prices dropped across the sector. Chief Executive Clifford Elphick said the global macroeconomic climate and the ongoing financial crisis in the Eurozone in particular, continued to weigh on rough and polished diamond prices. "This, together with the comparatively lower quality production from Letšeng [mine] in the period when compared to the first half of 2011, which saw six exceptional diamonds recovered, is reflected in the company's revenue generated during the period," he said. The firm added that the market had become more cautious and together with the traditional slowing of the market in July and August (American and European holidays) diamond prices across the board were expected to weaken slightly. However, Gem said its longer term outlook remained positive as the growth in demand for diamonds continued to exceed the growth in supply.

The strong profits and combined ratio have allowed the board to announce an interim dividend of 6p per share, up 17.6% on the prior year. Hiscox himself is also standing down as Chairman, to be replaced by the group's current Chief Underwriting Officer Robert Childs. This may raise city eyebrows as good practice is for new Chairmen to come in from outside, reinforcing their independence. Nevertheless, with the net asset value per share rising from 296.3p last year to 339.3p this year, investors may cut Hiscox some slack.

Hiscox, the FTSE 250 speciality insurer, is thanking its lucky stars for a first six months of the year that saw no major catastrophes, allowing it to turn a loss in 2011 to an impressive profit in 2012. The company, which is headquartered in Bermuda, wrote gross premiums totalling £906.4m in the six months to the end of June, the figure at the same point last year was £847.5m. Hiscox certainly has some interesting "lines", its Guernsey division focuses on high net worth individuals and insures against kidnap and ransom. It is expanding coverage in the Middle and Far East. Income from people frightened of getting a rather nasty knock on the door helped push profits before tax for the six months to £125.8m against a loss of £85.4m in the prior year. That loss was exceptional as the world was buffeted by several catastrophes in 2011, including the Japan tsunami and the extreme flooding in Thailand. Nevertheless the outgoing Chairman Robert Hiscox is clearly relieved after the "battering" his firm received from mother nature last year.

Since March, Diploma has invested a further £6.6m on acquisitions, taking the total spend on acquisitions to £22.1m for the year to date. The group's net debt position at 31 March 2012 was £3m and the group has bank facilities of £20m and an option to extend these facilities to £40m. Looking ahead Diploma said it remains confident that it will report further good progress in the second half of the year.

Specialised technical products and services provider Diploma said revenues increased 13 per cent from the previous year and quarter following contributions from acquisitions and after strong demand at its North American Seal businesses. The group, which supplies specialised technical products and services to the life sciences, seals and controls industries, said after adjusting for currency effects and acquisitions, underlying revenues from 1 April 2012 to date increased by 7%. The underlying increase in third quarter revenues was up 5% from the year before, it added. The FTSE 250 firm which operates in the UK, Germany, US and Canada, said revenues at its seals business climbed 28% from the prior period, following contributions its J Royal acquisition in December 2011. Life Sciences revenue grew 4% for the year to date, as strong growth in consumable revenues in the Canadian Healthcare businesses outweighed pressure from the phasing of capital sales. In Controls, revenue increased 6% during the period, helped by recent acquisitions and improved trading in Germany. UK markets softened during the period.

Defence-focused technology firm Ultra Electronics said sales to UK and US nuclear submarine programmes helped boost profits in the first half. Underlying pre-tax profit rose 5% to £54.5m, pushing earnings per share up 6% to 58.1p. Revenue was up 8% to £370.2m and the company declared an interim dividend of 12.2p, a 4% increase on the year before. Ultra was boosted by revenues of £155.2m - a 35% jump - at its Information & Power Systems division. This was underpinned by sales of electrical power management and specialist control equipment for both UK and US nuclear submarine programmes, the company said. This offset an 11% drop in revenues at its Aircraft & Vehicle Systems arm and a poor performance from the Tactical & Sonar Systems division, which it put down to reduced US demand for tactical radios. Chief Executive Rakesh Sharma said the results reflected a steady performance in difficult conditions within Ultra's core defence markets. "In the US, the forthcoming presidential election and the threat of sequestration combine to fuel funding uncertainties that will probably continue into 2013," he said. "In the UK, the prolonged effort to balance the defence budget has led to uncertainty in the procurement process, with contract officers unwilling to commit funds and delaying programmes."

Investment manager Brewin Dolphin is seeing a decline non-recurring income as it moves to a 'transparent' fee based charging system. Total income for the three months to the end of June was £66.8m, up 4.4% on the same period of 2011, but so called "non-recurring" income fell back 17.9% to just £20.6m. The group says this is partly to do with its new fee structure but also reflects "a significant fall in the volume of trades in line with the market as a whole". Funds under management grew 4.2% to £25.0bn of which £7.8bn are advisory funds and £17.2bn are discretionary. Outflows for the period totalled £1.2bn versus inflows of £1.1bn. About half of the outflows were related to the new fees structure.

Chief Executive Chris Aspinwall said: "Fidessa has maintained its track record of growth in the first half of 2012 despite the persistence of the difficult conditions seen within the markets over the last few years. The on-going issues in the Eurozone, coupled with the wider problems in the global economy, have continued to create adverse conditions for our customers making it more challenging for us to achieve growth." While the tough market conditions have persisted longer than first though, Aspinwall said that he expects to see "stability and opportunity returning to the markets" and reduced headwinds will enable the group to return to historic growth levels. Analysts at Jefferies said: "[The results] feature a continuation of the end-market pressures on organic growth that Fidessa has been facing for some time [...] Pressures remain most acute in Europe and at the smaller end." The broker has reduced its full-year forecasts for Fidessa this morning to reflect the lower-than-expected revenue growth in the first half and cautious outlook statement. For the full year, Jefferies is now looking for 2.3% headline revenue growth.

Top line growth at trading systems developer Fidessa was below forecasts in the first half, as falling sales in Europe dampened revenues at the group level. Revenues rose 3% during the six months to June 30th from £137m to £141.3m, short of Peel Hunt's £144m estimate. At constant currency, growth would have been 2%. "The rate of consolidation, restructuring and closures across the customer base has continued to be significant and the direct impact of these events on the growth rate for the period was seven percentage points," the firm said. Asian revenues jumped by 18% and accounted for 17% of total revenue, whilst the Americas grew by 10% (37% of group revenue) and Europe decreased by 6% (46% of group revenue). Pre-tax profits increased by 4% from £20.9m to £21.7m. The group raised its interim dividend by 4% from 12p per share to 12.5p per share. Meanwhile, the cash balance stood at £50.7m by the end of the period, down 7% on the £54.5m recorded the year before. The company had no debt.

Budget airline Ryanair said high fuel prices had hit profits hard, but it remained on track for the year. First quarter profits dropped 29% to €99m, the airline said, with earnings per share dropping 27% to 6.86c. This fall offset increased revenues, which rose 11% to €1.28bn, as traffic grew 6% and average fares rose 4%. The firm suffered from high fuel prices - which made up 47% of operating costs during the period - as well as economic problems in the eurozone and heavily discounted fares on new routes. Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said the airline's outlook remained cautious for the year, with expectations full year traffic would grow 4%. "Currently, we have no visibility of next winter's yields but expect that continuing austerity, EU recession, and lower yields at new bases will to restrain fare growth," he said. "Until we get some second half yield visibility our guidance for full year 2013 remains unchanged, in the range of €400m to €440m as previously guided"

Shares of commercial flooring manufacturer and distributor James Halstead rose sharply after it reported a solid first half with record revenue and profit. In an update ahead of its results for the year to 30 June 2012, chairman Geoffrey Halstead said the group was confident its performance would continue in a similar vein for the rest of the financial year. "Overall, this confidence was well founded and the company has continued to trade solidly in very difficult global conditions," he said in a company statement. The Radcliffe-based firm said it is confident of reporting another year of record revenue and record profits for the year ended 30 June 2012, in line with market expectations.

Keller Group, the engineering group which specialises in ground projects like putting foundation piles in for bridges, had a strong morning after upgrading its full year profit forecasts. The group says there has been a recovery in most of its main markets, including Australia and the USA. The recovery has pushed revenues up 13% compared to the same period of last year, coming in at £613.8m for the six months to the end of June. The US revenue contribution has risen 27% in constant currency terms since the start of the year. Profits before tax rose from £3.4m in the prior year to £11m this year and the order book is 27% ahead of 2011. Justin Atkinson, Keller Chief Executive said: "These results show a strong improvement overall, with three out of four of the group's regions performing significantly better than at this time last year." He added: "Accordingly, the group's results for the full year are expected to be slightly ahead of the top end of the range of market expectations." The median forecast among five brokers covering the stock is for profit before tax of £42.55m.

Ladbrokes will issue its interim results on Thursday, August 2nd, at which point it will provide additional information on any management changes.

Anyone who bet that Richard Ames would soon be out on his ear at Ladbrokes is set for a bumper pay-out as the bookmaker confirmed that its Product Director has been relieved of his executive duties. Ames, who was responsible for the firm's information technology strategy, appears to have paid the price for things going badly wrong on the digital side of the business; Ladbrokes issued a profits warning last Thursday, saying Digital revenues in the first six months of this year will be 50% down on the prior year. Ames, who remains a director of the company (at least for the time being) was appointed to the Ladbrokes board at the beginning of 2009. A business school graduate, he joined Ladbrokes in 2005 as Retail Commercial Director. He was appointed Managing Director UK Retail in 2006 and assumed responsibility for Ireland in September 2008. In July 2011 Ames became Product Director under the new organisation structure. Ladbrokes opted to develop its own in-house digital technology instead of putting its badge on a "white label" product produced by gaming industry specialists. Ladbrokes' perennial rival, William Hill, got into bed with business-to-business gaming software specialist Playtech, and while relations between the two have not always been harmonious, the liaison has proved a commercial success.