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http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201112200700122865U

Investec has maintained its buy recommendation on British Polythene Industries (BPI) after the manufacturing firm revealed this morning that full-year results would come in at the top end of expectations. The broker notes that trading has remained consistent with that described in the group's November trading update. "The group has benefited from structural changes effected in the UK in recent years and a strong European performance," said analyst John Lawson.

Nomura has reiterated its buy rating on drinks giant SABMiller, saying that that it expects the Foster's business to get off to a strong start following the completion of the acquisition last Friday. "We believe the company could look ‘smart’ in a year’s time, entering the Australia beer market at the bottom of the cycle during a period of market volatility," the broker said. "SABMiller should also pick up the summer trade plus easy comps in early calendar 2012 owing to poor weather, ensuring a good start for the acquisition." A 2,500p target price is given.

Mustang President Steve Knowles commented, "We are enthused about participating in this world-class project. We have previously designed topsides for four Anadarko deepwater spars: Boomvang, Nansen, Gunnison and Constitution. Combining our knowledge of Anadarko's objectives gained from those projects with our extensive expertise in deepwater topsides will help to ensure technical excellence for this deepwater production facility."

Mustang engineering topsides for Anadarko Lucius Mustang awarded topsides engineering for Anadarko's Lucius deepwater spar production facility HOUSTON, December 20, 2011 - Mustang, a Wood Group company, has been awarded the topsides detailed engineering, procurement support and equipment inspection for a truss spar floating production facility in the Lucius field development to be operated by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC). The facility will be located in the Keathley Canyon area of the Gulf of Mexico, in approximately 7,100 feet of water, and will have a capacity of 80,000 BPD oil and 450MMSCFD gas.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=20111220070000P14D2

PRE CLOSE PERIOD TRADING UPDATE 20 December 2011 Prior to entering the close period ahead of the preliminary results for the year to 31 December 2011, British Polythene Industries PLC has issued an update on current trading. "Trading remains consistent with that described in our Interim Management Statement of 11 November. There is subdued demand from many industrial customers and, at best, overall flat volumes from the retail sector. We currently expect total volumes for 2011 to be marginally below 2010. Raw material costs continue to slowly soften, no doubt assisted by poor demand and an increase in the volumes of imported polymer from new sources in the Middle East. Despite this difficult trading environment, we expect our results for 2011 to be at the top end of market expectations, as we benefit from the structural changes effected in recent years in the UK, and an excellent performance from our European business. The preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2011 will be announced on 5 March 2012."

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201112200700082643U

Arbuthnot Securities maintained its "strong buy" recommendation for Northbridge Industrial Services (NBI) with a 300p target price. The industrial equipment seller competed the acquisition of Belgian transformer and switchgears rental business DSG Rental for 2.9 million pounds, and the broker expects this to be earnings enhancing from the 2012 financial year. Arbuthnot notes that this is the second acquisition in a small space of time, following the takeover of oilfield instrumentation supplier Loadcell on 13th December

Babcock (BAB) retained its "buy" rating from Panmure Gordon, with a 780p target price. The broker notes press speculation over the engineering support services firm planning to dispose of its US business and views it as a logical step following the decision not to expand its business in the country. Panmure believes that it would sell for around 150 million dollars (96 million pounds), considerably lower than its valuation of 120 million pounds last year, but admits that the macro economic environment has deteriorated since then. The broker adds that if the sale does go through it would leave Babcock in a strong position to pursue acquisition activity.

Evolution Securities reiterated its "buy" recommendation for Carnival (CCL) with a target price of 2,850p, ahead of tomorrow's fourth quarter update. The broker forecasts the cruise company's cash flows to rise from lows of 2.4 billion dollars (1.5 billion pounds) in 2008 to 4.7 billion dollars (3.0 billion pounds) by 2014, as new ships enter service. Additionally, Evolution expects surplus cash to jump to over 1 billion dollars (0.6 billion pounds) per annum, from 135 million dollars (87.1 million pounds) in 2011 and believes the firm will return much of this to shareholders via dividends or share buy-backs.

The Times’s Tempus column takes a look at the property investment company Segro. Segro is actually a real estate investment trust or REIT, the kind of company which looks to return lots of money to shareholders in dividends instead of focusing on capital growth. Yesterday it announced a joint venture with the Moorfield Real Estate Fund to buy the UK Logistics Fund for £130m plus £184.7m in debt. The deal is interesting because of the business idea behind it. Segro’s Chief Executive David Sleath likes the warehousing assets that the Moorfield fund owns in Corby and Sheffield. As big supermarket chains look to become more efficient in their distribution they will need more warehousing space and, Tempus belives, Segro is now large enough to offer customers benefits of scale. With the shares now at a 50% discount to assets and a yield of 7.6%, Tempus says buy.

Andrew Whalley, Chief Executive Officer of REG, said: "We are delighted to be able to continue our relationship with The Co-operative Bank, which also provided financing for five older REG wind farms earlier this year. "The equity released will be reinvested in new projects and REG remains firmly on track to meet its stated three-year goal of committing £100m to new UK renewable energy projects by the end of 2012." James Sutcliffe, Senior Manager at The Co-operative Bank's Renewable Energy team, said: "We are extremely pleased to be able to support REG on its latest financing and look forward to working with the company again as it continues to develop its portfolio of renewable energy projects."

Renewable Energy Generation Ltd REG completes project financing of three UK wind farms Renewable Energy Generation Limited ("REG") (AIM: WIND), the UK renewable energy group, today announces that it has completed the project financing of three operational wind farms. The projects are Goonhilly Downs (12MW), High Haswell (4MW) and Loscar (4.5MW), all constructed in 2010. The project financing is for £25m repayable in full over 15 years at an all in rate of 5.9% and is provided by The Co-operative Bank.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201112200700112834U

As a result of the partnership and integration with Planet Payment's iPAY Gateway, VendorShop customers now have access to Planet Payment's PCI compliant, end-to-end processing solutions for eCommerce, call center, mail-order and telephone order merchants. The VendorShop solution has also been enhanced to include support for Planet Payment's Multi-Currency Pricing functionality, providing Facebook merchants with the ability to more effectively target international markets by allowing their customers to ship, view pricing and pay in the in their home currencies, while continuing to receive payments and reporting in their own native currency. Aviesta.com, an online private sale community serving members in the US and Latin America recently launched their social commerce site (http://www.facebook.com/VivaAviesta) on Facebook utilizing Planet Payment's solution. "We wanted to tap into the Facebook phenomenon to help grow sales," said Brett Posten, Chief Creative Officer of Aviesta.com. "With more than 800 million users, over 50 percent of whom log-on at least once per day, Facebook social commerce was a top priority for us. In addition, we needed a solution that would provide us with multi-currency options and one that would be easy to setup and maintain - Planet Payment's solution fit the bill." "Planet Payment provides value-added products/services to help merchants sell more and expand their business globally," stated Scott Goldthwaite, senior vice president of product management and marketing at Planet Payment. "Social media enables businesses to make a deeper connection with their customers and Facebook has the potential to become the biggest marketplace in the world, representing a significant opportunity for businesses to create a new revenue stream by enabling their fans to buy products directly from their Facebook page. VendorShop's expertise in Social Commerce and shared commitment to helping businesses sell on Facebook has made this an ideal partnership."

Planet Payment Launches Free Social Commerce Shopping Cart for Facebook Merchants Partners with VendorShop to Deliver Shopping and Payment Solution Planet Payment, Inc. (UK: LSE: AIM: PPT and PPTR; USA: OTCQX: PLPM), a leading provider of international and multi-currency payment processing services, and VendorShop, a leading provider of shopping cart applications for Facebook merchants, today announced the integration of VendorShop's Facebook shopping cart application with Planet Payment's iPAY multi-currency eCommerce gateway. This innovative Social Commerce solution (www.facebook.com/PlanetPayment) empowers merchants to sell to a global market of over 800 million Facebook subscribers, enabling retailers to convert their "static" Facebook presence into a new sales channel for their business. With this solution, Facebook merchants can now accept credit cards through any participating acquirer integrated into Planet Payment's international transaction platform. VendorShop provides a solution for businesses to drive direct revenue from their Facebook presence - enabling anyone with a Facebook page to add a free shop and to sell their products and services without customers having to leave the Facebook environment. "Most companies already have Facebook pages, but if a customer wants to buy an item they get referred back to the company website," stated Chris Small, CEO and Founder of VendorShop. "Facebook users already spend a huge amount of time on Facebook with more than 50% 'liking' a business page to find out about sales and promotions. So if I'm going to tell you about a product on my Facebook page, it makes sense to make it easy to buy right there. Redirecting customers off Facebook adds additional steps to the process and potentially increases the likelihood a merchant will lose the sale - so keeping the shopping experience contained solely within Facebook is very important." For the merchant, VendorShop is simple to set-up and configure products and pricing and there are a number of tools to integrate with existing systems. There are also a number of social features such as 'fan pricing' and 'incentivized sharing' to enable businesses to enhance the Facebook experience, grow fans and drive sales. "Creating a unique shopping experience and rewarding your fans for being fans gives a real reason to buy, but also turns them into even more powerful advocates for your business. As a result you not only create a new Facebook sales channel, but you can enhance sales via a new viral consumer channel too" stated Small.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201112200700152875U

The Group reported an exceptional provision of £5.1 million in its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2011 against its asset exposure and reorganisation costs incurred in Libya. Whilst recent developments in Libya are encouraging it remains too early to determine what recoveries the Group may make against this provision. Additionally the Group expects to report a further exceptional charge of around £4 million in its 2011 accounts in respect of a partial write-off of the goodwill and the related restructuring costs associated with its Environmental & Energy business in Australia. This is due to the business repositioning from its underperforming property and retail base to the resources sector where we see good opportunities. This is substantially a non-cash charge. The Board currently expects the market dynamics and characteristics for 2012 to follow a similar pattern to 2011 and our expectations for 2012 remain unchanged. The UK market is likely to stay subdued with ongoing constraints on public sector spending and a private sector where confidence and financing remain under pressure. We have absorbed £3.5 million of restructuring costs in 2011 to better position our UK business for its current markets and believe it is now appropriately structured and positioned. Our significant business in Sweden is taking strong momentum into 2012 across both its public and private sector activities. The economy in Sweden has grown strongly in 2011 and, whilst we are anticipating some reduction in the rate of economic growth, we expect that market to continue to perform well for us. Our businesses in the US are expected to report steady progress against a backdrop of a slow economy and we expect to see progress in our various other markets in the Rest of the World. In conclusion, the Group is soundly financed and well diversified, positioning it to perform resiliently in difficult markets and to rapidly benefit when markets improve.

WSP Group plc, the global business with a vision to be the outstanding supplier of specialist and integrated services to the built and natural environment, today provides the following update on trading in advance of its Preliminary Announcement to be made on 27 February 2012, together with details of a refinancing. Trading for the year ending 31 December 2011 is expected to be in line with the Board's expectations. As anticipated the year has proved challenging, however the Group's diversity both across sectors and geographies continues to underpin its performance. In particular the market positioning and scale of our Swedish business in a buoyant economy has provided strength, in contrast to a more difficult UK market. The Group's order book has remained stable and we continue to leverage our global footprint to win significant and high profile appointments across our various sectors and geographies. These include: · In Qatar our recent awards in Masterplanning and Infrastructure exceed US$60 million over the next three years. · Australia has won its first substantial mining project award for A$35 million, again over the next three years, through our newly-formed JV with TWP. · Together our Sweden and UK businesses have won the multidisciplinary consultancy for the largest new hospital in Odense, Denmark. · The UK has continued to develop its position as a railway station designer with significant extensions of work on London Bridge Station and good progress with the next phase of detailed design on the Crossrail station design programme. Momentum remains in the core residential and commercial sector with important project wins from a key client base that includes Taylor Wimpey, Hammerson, British Land, Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar. · The USA has an increasing order book with project wins in our regional Infrastructure business for New York State, Massachusetts and New Jersey Departments of Transportation. Property wins range from the IMF HQ in Washington to high-rise developments in China, Kuala Lumpur, Korea and Mexico working in conjunction with signature US architects.