Member Info for mulledwine

Jefferies has raised its target price for Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza owner InterContinental Hotels from 1,350p to 1,500p, but has retained its 'hold' recommendation for the shares due to the lack of perceived potential upside to the stock. The shares are now trading close to an all-time high, the broker said, having jumped 75% from the lows of last summer. The stock is trading at 17.6 times next year's earnings, above its long-term average. "Given the relatively rich valuation, we are struggling to see any further medium-term catalysts that could justify us being more positive on the shares," Jefferies said on Thursday.

Pumps and steam processes firm Spirax Sarco gets rather short shrift from Tempus. Costs are rising and sales in Europe are, unsurprisingly, weak. Trading at 16 times earnings, the column believes the stock lacks upside. Avoid.

Questor in the Telegraph goes in to bat, big time, for BHP Billiton. Yesterday the world’s biggest mining firm raised eyebrows after reporting a 26 per cent decline in pre-tax profits and cancelling a huge copper and uranium project, known as the Olympic Dam. Questor believes any pessimism is overdone, with the company still hugely profitable (operating margin at 39%) and the general trend in global urbanisation likely to drive profits for the foreseeable future. Trading at just 9.5 time 2013 earnings and yielding 4%, BHP is a buy.

I like 'lively'

Chief Executive, James Menzies, commented: "We are pleased to report that the construction of the Bualuang Bravo Platform has been completed on schedule and within budget. With the important milestone of the necessary environmental approval now received, we are able to schedule the installation of the Platform and firm up our work programme with the Atwood Mako rig, which we confirm will be delivered on schedule in order to begin the next phase of our Thai drilling campaign. "Elsewhere operations are progressing to plan. The remainder of 2012 is shaping up to be a lively operational period for the Company."

Greater Kerendan, onshore Kalimantan Indonesia (Salamander 80%, operator) The DrillCo-1 land rig has finished rigging up and the first development well, Kerendan-4, on the Kerendan gas field was spudded on August 22nd. Four development wells are planned on the Kerendan field and on successful completion of the development drilling the Group will seek to commercialise 161.9 Bcf of contingent resource certified on the Kerendan field, in addition to the 122.6 Bcf of reserves already commercialised in the Gas Sales Agreement. Development drilling is expected to continue through the rest of the year and the rig will then move to drill the West Kerendan prospect comprising the Oligocene-age Berai Carbonate and underlying Eocene Tanjung ("Sungai Lahei") clastic targets at the start of 2013. North Kutei, offshore East Kalimantan, Indonesia Modifications and equipment installation on the Ocean General semi-submersible rig are complete and the rig is now under charter by the consortium of four companies, put together under a rig sharing agreement in order to reduce costs. The rig will mobilize by the end of August for use by the first member of the consortium. Salamander expects to spud the South Kecapi prospect, the first of at least four exploration wells in its North Kutei exploration programme, in 4Q 2012.

Operational Update Salamander Energy plc provides an operational update on current activity across its three core areas. Greater Bualuang, Offshore Thailand (Salamander 100%, operator) Bualuang Bravo Platform The Group is pleased to report that construction of the Bualuang Bravo Platform is due to complete on schedule and on budget by the end of August 2012. In addition, the Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") for the Bravo platform was approved on 17th August. With EIA approval granted and construction completed, the Group is now in a position to commit to a heavy lift vessel ("HLV") for the installation and commissioning of the Bravo Platform and has contracted Thai-Nippon Steel's K1 HLV for the operation. The K1 HLV will begin load out and installation of the Bravo Platform by mid-October. The platform will then be ready for development drilling from end-October, approximately six weeks later than originally envisaged. As a result the Group is revising its 2012 average daily production forecast to 10,500-11,500 boepd from 12,000-13,000 boepd. Atwood Mako Jack Up Rig Construction of the Atwood Mako rig has been completed on schedule. The rig is due for load out before the end of August and is expected to be on location in the first week of September. The initial programme will see the Atwood Mako complete a short development drilling programme from the Bualuang Alpha Platform in September. It will then, during October, drill two exploration wells in the Group's Greater Bualuang acreage, including the Bualuang Northwest Terrace prospect. The rig will then move to the newly installed Bravo platform for an extended programme of development drilling on the Bualuang field and the East Terrace.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201208230700076032K

jackabite - you may well be correct - i have this on my ,green, watchlist - no funds at present but I intend to purchase soon. GL.

Panmure Gordon initiated coverage of Johnston Press (JPR) with a "buy" rating and target price of 12p. The newspaper publisher has demonstrated tight cost control and the broker noted that it its making good progress towards de-leveraging. Panmure added that the firm is undertaking a title re-launch programme, with a focus on developing its digital capabilities. The broker's earnings forecasts put the shares on a prospective multiple of just 2.4 times for 2012, falling to 2.2 times in 2013.

Canaccord Genuity maintained its "buy" rating for Quarto Group* (QRT) with a target price of 165p. The illustrated books publisher's first half results were slightly ahead of the broker's forecasts, with profits rising by 13% year-on-year. Canaccord believes the firm's core illustrated, special interest titles will be relatively unaffected by the rise of E-Books, while the broker added that the company is actively looking to reduce costs.

Peel Hunt reiterated its "sell" recommendation for Rightmove (RMV) with a 1,180p target price. While the broker admits that the real estate search engine deserves a premium rating, it believes that there is considerable opportunity for strong competition to emerge. Peel Hunt added that investors have overreacted to one-off contributions in the first half of 2012, while the company's medium-term outlook has not changed. On the broker's forecasts, the shares trade on a prospective multiple of 31.1 times for 2012, falling to 27.4 times in 2013

Mood Media Corp. (DI) Buy 15-Aug-12 £79,902.05 Harvey Solursh 50,000 @ 159.80p

Matteo Perruccio, an Independent Non-executive Director of Jupiter Fund Management has sold two lots of 15,000 shares in the asset management firm. The first batch of shares were sold at 226.04p and the second for 225.00p, for a total of £67,656, taking his holding to 83,333 shares. At the beginning of the month the firm presented a pleasing set of results, with pre-tax profits coming in ahead of analyst expectations.

bilbo - apologies - you are very correct !

CONT To permit Elster shareholders who have not yet tendered their ordinary shares or ADSs prior to the expiration of the initial tender offer a final opportunity to do so, Bidder will provide a subsequent offering period for 4 business days commencing immediately for all remaining ordinary shares and ADSs of Elster. This subsequent offering period will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on August 28, 2012. The same USD 82.00 per ordinary share and USD 20.50 per ADS in each casein cash offered during the initial offering period will be paid to Elster shareholders who tender their ordinary shares or ADSs during the subsequent offering period. During the subsequent offering period, tendering shareholders will not have withdrawal rights. Having acquired over 95% of the total share capital of Elster in the initial tender offer, following the subsequent offering period, Melrose intends to implement a "squeeze-out" of the remaining Elster shareholders. Such squeeze-out process will be subject to German law and is expected to take a number of months to complete once initiated. Melrose also expects that the ADSs of Elster will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in due course.

MELROSECOMPLETES ACQUISITION OF OVER 99% OF ELSTER IN TENDER OFFER; COMMENCES SUBSEQUENT OFFERING PERIOD Melrose PLC ("Melrose") announces today the results of the initial tender offer by Mintford AG ("Bidder"), an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Melrose, to acquire all outstanding ordinary shares and American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") of Elster Group SE ("Elster") for USD 82.00 per ordinary share and USD 20.50 per ADS, in each case in cash, without interest and less any required withholding taxes. The initial tender offer expired at 12:00 midnight, New York City time, on August 22, 2012. The tender agent for the tender offer has advised Melrose that, as of such time, approximately 99.35% of the total share capital of Elster was tendered, which includes 17,412,069 ordinary shares of Elster and 41,338,334 ADSs of Elster that had been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn pursuant to the tender offer and an additional 1,162,322 ADSstendered subject to guaranteed delivery procedures. Bidder has accepted for payment, and expects to promptly pay for, all ordinary shares and ADSs of Elster validly tendered and not validly withdrawn on or prior to the expiration of the initial tender offer.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201208230700126275K

Commenting on the Carat forecasts, Jerry Buhlmann, Chief Executive of Aegis Group said: "Carat's latest ad spend forecasts show the continuation of two fundamental trends which have changed the advertising industry. Firstly, Digital Media continues to grow materially ahead of all the other media and has overtaken newspapers - a year earlier than expected - to become the second largest medium in terms of advertising spend, behind TV. The trend of audiences moving online shows no sign of slowing down, as demand for online content and the proliferation of internet and mobile access increases. In parallel to this, the trend of the two-speed world continues, with the rates of growth in the emerging economies remaining well ahead of the US and Western Europe. "With these two themes - globalisation and convergence - the media landscape is becoming increasingly complex. In addition, it is creating exciting new growth opportunities for the global advertisers and changing the demands they place on the advertising groups. In these changing times, for those that have the most focused and specialist offerings, along with the global reach and scale to provide innovative integrated solutions that deliver real results, there are exciting times ahead."

Carat forecasts growth of 5.0% for 2012 and 5.3% in 2013 with digital advertising overtaking newspapers sooner than expected Carat, the world's leading independent media communications agency, today publishes its updated forecasts for worldwide advertising expenditure in 2012 and 2013. Carat's data shows global advertising expenditure will continue to grow in 2012 and 2013. Carat predicts global advertising expenditure will grow by + 5.0%, reduced from +6.0% predicted in March 2012, and global advertising spend forecast for 2013 will grow by +5.3%, down from the previously forecast +5.8% in March 2012. These latest forecasts are consistent with our view of the two-speed world whereby we continue to see significant growth from the faster-growing regions of the world versus the lower levels of growth in the developed economies of the US and Western Europe, with Western Europe being impacted by low or negative growth, particularly in Southern Europe. The data also shows that global investment in Digital Advertising will overtake investment in Newspapers sooner than expected, in 2012 rather than 2013, as audiences continue to move online. By media, Digital remains the driving force in the market in terms of growth, continuing to outstrip growth in other verticals, followed by Out-of-Home and Television.