Member Info for jange

"Success in the future lies in our continuing to find exceptional opportunities throughout the world. I have no doubt that the links we have forged with distinguished groups such as Rockefeller, Edmond de Rothschild and Creat in the USA, Europe and China can only help us in our endeavours in the years ahead."

Over the last year RIT exited its private investment in Agora Oil and Gas realising a profit of £73m over two years and Harbourmaster, realising £72m over seven years. It is also invested in green energy start up Tamar Energy and has completed funding for a new private equity fund in China. Commenting on the results, Lord Rothschild, Chairman of RIT Capital Partners, said: "On the public market side we are...concentrating on investments with fund managers and individual companies...that can grow despite the state of their local markets. On the private investment side, our direct investments in unquoted companies have produced considerable successes, with two profitable exits in the year."

The annual decline in NAV has been worse than RIT's benchmark comparator, the MSCI Sterling World Index, which declined 1.3% over the last 12 months. In this situation, investment trusts usually start talking about their long-term performance. Unsurprisingly then, RIT's Chairman, still Jacob Rothschild, highlighted the the company has seen a 43% gain over the last three years, 19% over five years and 158% over 10 years. All of this, however, is firmly in the past; what will interest investors more is the change in dividend policy to bring RIT in line with many of its sector peers. Last year the firm paid 4p per share, this year that figure will be 28p per share.

RIT Capital Partners, the investment trusted started by Lord Jacob Rothschild, has reported a drop in its net asset value (NAV) but is offering investors a big increase in dividends. Total NAV dropped 3% in the year ending on March 31st to £1.92bn and, amidst Eurozone headwinds, the most recent NAV (as of May 25th) had declined a further 3.4% to £1.85bn.

Nautilus says that the State must pay its share of costs incurred in the Solwara 1 development otherwise it will have to carry these costs itself. "This may lead to Nautilus needing to slow or defer the build programme for project equipment, which would have consequential impacts on the scheduled commencement of operations and overall project costs."

In a separate press release, Nautilus revealed that it is in a dispute with the Independent State of Papua New Guinea as it its obligations to complete an agreement signed last year to acquire a 30% stake in Solwara 1. The government says that Nautilus has not met certain criteria on which completion of the agreement is dependent; "Nautilus refutes these assertions," the company said.

The problem is that Nautilus's strategic partner Harren & Partner - who were both expected to form a separate joint venture company to own and operate the vessel - is no longer able to contribute the full amount of the equity as previously agreed. "The change to Harren & Partner's position, linked to a tightening of banking rules in the current European crisis and the depressed shipping market, may delay the finalisation of the terms of the third party funding and result in a consequential delay to the programme for the vessel build," Nautilus said in a statement.

Shares in Nautilus Minerals slumped on Friday afternoon after the offshore oil and gas group revealed that operations at Solwara 1 in Papua New Guinea may be delayed, and that there's a dispute over the ownership of the project. The group said that there may be a delay in the finalisation of funding for a production support vessel to be used at the project and a potential delay to the programme for the vessel build.

Wynnstay intends to integrate PSB into its existing specialist retail business immediately, developing cross-selling opportunities while retaining the PSB trading name. For the year ended April 30th 2011, PSB generated revenues of £2.9m and adjusted operating profits of £0.06m. Its net assets at completion of the sale are expected to amount to £0.05m.

Agricultural and retail group Wynnstay has whipped out its wallet and bought PSB (Country Supplies), an independent agricultural merchant, based in Gloucestershire. The expected consideration is £0.5m, of which £0.35m will be paid upfront, with the remainder being tied to the achievement of profit levels. The acquisition further extends Wynnstay's geographic trading area and farming customer base, as well as adding an additional outlet to the group's Country Store chain. It also continues the group's strategy of acting as a consolidator in the fragmented agricultural supplies sector.

In a highly fragmented and difficult market, we are confident that the group strategy of leveraging our integrated offer, market leading position and efficient operating systems will deliver market share gains in the insurance, fleet and retail sectors."

The firm was keen to emphasise that Aviva will continue to support around £5.0m per annum of group revenue and that the changes will not affect capacity across its branch network. The impact of the reduced volume is largely mitigated by the scalability of the group's operating costs and flexible working practices, the company said. Speaking in a statement, the group said: "With the continuing, and expected, downward trend in motor insurance claims frequency, we remain focused on securing new business in the retail and fleet markets, as well as in the insurance-funded market, and on ensuring that our cost base is aligned with demand.

Nationwide Accident Repair Services has said that it continues to trade in line with its expectations and maintains a strong cash position, boosted by the mobile repair and glass businesses, which continues to make an increasing contribution to the overall group performance. However, following completion of a re-tendering process by Aviva, Nationwide will see a significant reduction in the volume of vehicle accident repair work undertaken for Aviva in the second half, as the volumes were awarded on terms that are commercially unattractive to the group. This will result in a shortfall in revenue of around £10m for the current financial year, ended December 2012.

He got that last bit right, with the shares rocketing to 107.7p, up from 65.7p the night before the bid announcement. While shareholders will be very pleased, Logica's staff are likely to be apprehensive. The group previously announced in December 2011 that 1,300 jobs would go and many more departures could now follow.

"Given the very limited geographic overlap and CGI's strong reputation for successful integration, we believe this transaction will offer great opportunities for Logica's people. For our shareholders, the offer represents an opportunity to realise a substantial premium in cash to the current share price,"

Meanwhile, David Tyler, Chairman of Logica, acknowledged that competitive intensity has increased in the company's target markets, with global reach and scale becoming more important than ever. On top of that, there is considerable economic uncertainty in Logica's main European markets, which affects confidence and demand from both public and private clients, so when CGI came a-knocking, the Logica board was prepared to sit down and discuss combining the businesses, with CGI, currently valued at around £3.4bn, the senior partner.

The price tag on Logica is equivalent to 6.6 times the UK firm's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for 2011. CGI intends to effect the takeover via a scheme of arrangement, and the firm has already received irrevocable undertakings to vote in favour of the scheme from shareholders representing just over 18% of Logica's issued share capital. "In addition to operational breadth and depth, the combined business will have critical mass and key blue chip client relationships," said Michael Roach, President and Chief Executive Officer of CGI.

With its share price having fallen steadily since July of last year, when it was trading at just under 140p, Logica has often been cited as a likely bid target, especially after it issued a profit warning in December 2011. Canada's CGI Group, which describes itself as an information technology and business process services provider, is Logica's preferred partner but there may be interest from Indian firms, which are very big in the outsourcing business; Logica derives 45% of its revenue from outsourcing.

Another UK technology firm looks set to fall into the hands of foreign owners after business and technology services company Logica agreed to a takeover from Canadian peer CGI Group. Though not as big a deal as the £7.1bn purchase of Cambridge based software outfit Autonomy last year by Hewlett-Packard, the 105p per share cash offer from CGI still values Logica at a chunky £1.7bn, and tops the £1.2bn price tag on financial software provider Misys, which is being acquired by Vista Equity Partners. More pertinently, perhaps, the valuation is some £638m higher than Logica's stock market capitalisation on the day before the bid was announced.

The acquisition is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing.