Member Info for mulledwine

http://www.edisoninvestmentresearch.co.uk/researchreports/Consort11122012update.pdf

Costa · Costa continued to perform strongly growing total system sales in the 39 weeks by 21.9% to £733.9 million, within which franchise sales were up 18.7% to £295.7 million. · UK Retail system sales grew by 20.1% to £399.2 million, with equity stores delivering like for like sales growth of 6.9%. · Costa Enterprises grew system sales to £175.2 million, up 27.3%. · System sales grew by 10.8% to £125.8 million within EMEI. During the quarter, the Middle East continued to deliver a solid performance while trading in Central and Southern Europe remained difficult. · Costa Asia system sales grew by 80.2% to £33.8 million, with like for like sales growth in China softer over the third quarter. We opened 24 net new stores in the period and we continue to invest in infrastructure to support our rollout strategy. · We plan to open 330 net new stores worldwide and around 1,300 Costa Express units in the full year. Group · The strong financial position of the group remains unchanged.

Trading highlights for the 39 weeks: Hotels and Restaurants *5 · Premier Inn increased total room nights sold by 9.6% to 10.5 million. · Year to date, Premier Inn like for like revpar grew by 1.8%. Occupancy was up 0.2ppts to 80.4% and rate was up by 1.5%. · In the UK Regions, over the third quarter, Premier Inn total revpar declined by 0.2%. This compared with a decline of 0.7% for the total market and the Mid-scale and Economy sector down by 4.3%. · In the London market, for the third quarter, Premier Inn total revpar declined by 0.9%. This compared with a decline of 1.9% for the total market and the Mid-scale and Economy sector down by 11.4%. During the year, Premier Inn has increased capacity by 22% in London*6. · Restaurants delivered total covers growth of 6.8% year to date, of which like for like growth was 4.3%. · Restaurants like for like growth of 1.9%, in the quarter, was predominantly driven by growth in spend per head. · We have opened our 50,000th room in the UK. For the full year we plan to have opened around 4,500 new rooms and eight joint site restaurants in the UK.

Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of Whitbread comments: "Whitbread continued its strong growth momentum with total sales up 14.4% together with good like for like sales growth of 3.3%. This once again demonstrates the strength of our brands. During the third quarter, Premier Inn continued to outperform its competitive set with total sales growth of 12.6% and like for like sales growth of 2.5%. Over the same period, Premier Inn delivered total revpar*2 growth of 0.7% compared with a decline of 0.6% for the total UK hotel market*3 and a decline of 5.4% for the Mid-scale and Economy sector*3. Restaurants continued to outperform the market*4 with like for like sales growth of 1.9%, against tougher comparatives. Costa continued its strong sales momentum with UK like for like equity stores up 7.1% and total sales up 25.5%. The economic environment remains challenging with no change in our background consumer market. We are on track to deliver full year results in line with expectations."

http://www.investegate.co.uk/whitbread-plc-(wtb)/rns/whitbread-interim-management-statement/201212110700061981T/

Costa and Premier Inn owner Whitbread's third-quarter trading statement received a warm welcome from the market on Tuesday morning, but analysts have decided to stay cautious about the stock despite the in-line results.

Outlook I am increasingly confident that the combination of the strength of our development business and our skill at dealing with non-core assets will continue to drive further growth in shareholder value. As a result I would hope to see a narrowing of our share price discount to our EPRA NAV over the coming months. Finally I would like to take this opportunity to thank the group's directors and staff for their continued hard work which is very much reflected in these results.

Nomura has labelled BHP Billiton as its preferred name in the global metals and mining industry, reiterating its 'buy' recommendation and 2,350p target price for the shares. "We believe it is time for a change of mindset in terms of how many in the market view the sector. Although we think trading short-term beta rallies will still be a way to achieve returns, these will tend to be short-term directional trades. Looking through these, we believe those stocks that can reliably generate alpha will be the winners over the longer term."

Panmure Gordon has reiterated its "sell" recommendation on Domino's Pizza (DOM) with an unchanged target price of 360p. This comes after the group's largest competitor, Pizza Hut Delivery, announced plans to open at least 100 stores by the end of 2014. The broker perceives this to be a substantial threat to Domino's own expansion plans and believes the threat from third party websites such as Just Eat and Hungry House could prove to be a significant obstacle for the firm to navigate. Moreover, the broker is of the persuasion that Domino's will not be able to keep up with this year's performance which, according to the broker, has been artificially enhanced by Euro 2012, the London Olympics and the wettest summer for 100 years.

Seymour Pierce stuck with its "buy" recommendation on Faroe Petroleum (FPM) with a target price of 286p. The broker notes that the firm has commenced drilling its first exploration well at its Rodriguez prospect, located on the Halten Terrace in the Norwegian Sea. Seymour Pierce believes the current share price is a "clear entry point", with four significant exploration wells scheduled to be drilled in Norwegian waters next year. The well currently being drilled is expected to take 75 days to complete and is being undertaken by the operator of the licence, Wintershall.

Shares of Greggs fell almost 3% as the exit of Ken McMeikan – announced on Monday - is not good news. As well, Greggs is facing a challenging time. Yesterday the company said that there had been no significant change since its last trading update, in which it said that like-for-like sales had fallen by 2.6% in the 14-week period to October 6. This can be read in a positive manner. Although there has been no improvement, there was no news that would result in analysts having to take their red pens to current year earnings forecasts. Downside should be limited by the shares’ 4.5% prospective yield in 2013, rising to 4.75% in 2014. This means investors with the shares should continue to hold. Questor would not recommend a purchase until we have some clarity on Mr McMeikan’s successor. Until then, the rating is therefore avoid.

BAE Systems was, understandably, making much of the Ministry of Defence’s decision to award it the £1.2bn contract to build the nuclear attack submarine HMS Audacious. But in reality there was never any prospect that the contract would not materialise. More positively, the company is renegotiating a fighter-jet contract with Saudi Arabia. RBC believes that confirmation of a successful renegotiation could prompt another round of share repurchases worth perhaps £500m and possibly a re-rating for the shares. Nevertheless, neither will there be much growth in sales this year. Thus, while the shares sell on less than nine times this year’s earnings this does not look like the time to buy, writes the Times’s Tempus column.

Executive Chairman, Finian O'Sullivan, commented: "Bayfield is delivering on the key performance metrics of reserve growth and increasing both production and operating cash flow. The demonstrated support of the Trinidad Ministry and Petrotrin for our merger plans with Trinity is evidence of their confidence in the ability of the enlarged group to continue on its path of achievement."

Merger update Significant progress has been made towards securing required approvals and consents and satisfying other conditions precedent in relation to Bayfield's previously announced proposed merger with Trinity. In particular, sought after confirmations and consents in respect of the proposed transaction have been secured from the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs in Trinidad and from the Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited ("Petrotrin"), the state-owned oil company of Trinidad and Bayfield's partner in the Galeota Licence Area. The Directors expect the Admission Document to be published and posted to shareholders by February 2013 with the General Meeting to approve the merger to be held 14 clear days after publication. As previously reported, it is the intention of the enlarged Group to raise additional debt and/or equity capital in conjunction with the merger In order to accelerate delivery of the significant upside that exists in the combined portfolios. Pending such fund raising exercise, the Boards of Bayfield and Trinity have approved, in principle, for a US$10 million secured loan to be made available by Trinity to Bayfield and to be available to be used for general working capital purposes. It is anticipated that loan documentation will be finalised to allow the funding to be drawn by Bayfield before the end of December.

Rowan Gorilla III The Rowan Gorilla III rig was released by Niko Resources (Trinidad and Tobago) Limited ("Niko") in mid-November and the contract assigned by Bayfield and Niko to a third party operator in Trinidad for a period of at least six months. As a consequence, Bayfield will have no further liability under the rig contract except in relation to any future wells to be drilled at its option. Reserves update Bayfield is pleased to announce an updated evaluation of its reserves prepared by Gaffney, Cline & Associates as at June 30, 2012 which demonstrates an increase in net 2P reserves of 25% from 19.32 mmbbl at December 31, 2010 to 24.12 mmbbl at June 30, 2012, without deduction for production in the period

Update on Operations, Reserves and Proposed Merger Bayfield Energy Holdings plc ("Bayfield", the "Company" or the "Group"), (AIM Ticker Symbol: BEH), an upstream oil and gas exploration and production company with interests in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago ("Trinidad") and South Africa, is pleased to provide updates on its operations in the Trintes field (65% working interest) offshore Trinidad, estimated reserves of oil and gas and on its proposed merger with Trinity Exploration & Production Limited ("Trinity"), announced on October 15, 2012. Operations update Production Average gross oil production from Trintes for October and November was, respectively, 2,106 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and 2,164 bopd each of these figures successively representing records for average monthly production from the field during the period of Bayfield's operatorship. The most recent development side-track, well B1X, was completed in November and oil production from this well has stabilised at a rate of approximately 330 bopd. The field is currently producing at rates of approximately 2,450 bopd (gross). The Directors consider that continuing workover operations will result in an increase in gross production to approximately 2,600 bopd (gross) by the end of 2012.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/bayfield-energy-(beh)/rns/update-on-operations-reserves-and-proposed-merger/201212110700031736T/

Outlook The fundamental growth drivers for our business continue to be strong across all of our end markets. Sales volume in our VPS business is showing good growth relative to the comparative period last year, albeit at a lower run rate than the record second half of last financial year. Our Invibio business has had a steady start to the year despite the continuing challenges in the US medical device market. Whilst it is early in the financial year, and a number of macro uncertainties remain, we are encouraged by the potential for growth in both VPS, driven by new application development, and Invibio, through innovation in the spine market and further progress in our developing markets. We remain committed to invest in application development, technical leadership, talent and capacity to ensure that we are the partner of choice for our customers and end users.

We remain committed to working with customers and end users to understand their current needs and future opportunities. This directs our investment in resources which are targeted to drive new application development, the key growth programmes for the future and the quality of our products and services. Innovation is key for growing the market for our products and is a critical differentiator for our business. We continue to invest in a broad range of activities including product and process improvements, pro-active customer technical support and joint development programs with customers and end users as we explore new applications and markets for our products. To this end we have invested in new technical facilities in the UK and Japan and research and development expenditure in the year has increased to £13.1m (2011: £10.5m) representing 6% of revenue (2011: 5%). This continued investment in the business has, however, been more than offset by lower costs associated with elements of staff remuneration which are linked to underlying business performance. Resulting total sales, marketing and administrative expenses reduced by 2% to £51.7m (2011: £52.6m). Group profit before tax of £94.5m (2011: £94.2m) and basic earnings per share of 85.7p (2011: 85.3p) were both marginally ahead of the record results achieved last year. Earnings also benefitted from an improvement in the effective tax rate to 23.9% (2011: 24.5%) predominantly reflecting the reduction in the UK corporation tax rate.

Final results statement for the year ended 30 September 2012 On behalf of the Board, I am pleased to report that we have delivered another year of record performance in Victrex, despite the challenging global economic environment. Strong new business commercialisation in our Victrex Polymer Solutions ('VPS') business and growth in the developing markets of our Invibio Biomaterial Solution ('Invibio') business have driven this year's success. Group financial results Group sales volume for the year increased by 2% to 2,904 tonnes (2011: 2,860 tonnes) reflecting strong new business commercialisation in VPS. Second half volume of 1,527 tonnes was 7% ahead of the same period last year (H2 2011: 1,426 tonnes) and 11% ahead of the first half (H1 2012: 1,377 tonnes) which reflected the de-stocking we reported in the first quarter of our financial year. Full year revenue in Invibio increased to £50.5m (2011: £49.7m) largely driven by growth in developing markets, and in particular, arthroscopy. Spine revenues were broadly in line with the prior year with continued growth and innovation in the market being offset by inventory rationalisation at a select number of customers during the second half, reflecting the continuing challenges in the medical device industry. Resulting Group revenue for the year was up 2% to £219.8m (2011: £215.8m). Full year gross margin remained strong and in line with expectations at 66.3% (2011: 67.8%). The anticipated reduction year on year reflects further investment in resources to increase available production capacity, underpinning security of supply for our customers, as well as increased raw material input costs.