Member Info for mulledwine

Newsagents WH Smith reported a record profit performance from its Travel segment in the year to the end of August. Profit before tax rose 4% to £93m from £89m the year before. Total group sales were £1,273m (2010: £1,312m) with like-for-like (LFL) sales down 5%. Travel sales grew by 1% to £455m, down 3% on a LFL basis. High Street sales were down 5% at £818m and down 6% on a LFL basis (excluding entertainment, LFL sales were down 3%).

Stocks to watch Wealth management and stockbroking firm Hargreaves Lansdown saw assets under management slide to £22.3bn from £24.6bn at the end of June, but was pleased to report net new business inflows of £0.68bn, up 24% on the corresponding quarter of last year, in what is traditionally the firm's quietest period of the year. Revenue was up 27% on a year earlier to £57.2m. The number of clients using the firm's Vantage service rose by 8,000 to 388,000. The number of active accounts held by these clients increased from 585,000 to 597,000.

Financing update Further to the trading statement made on 6 October 2011, Mouchel has commenced discussions with its lending banks regarding covenant breaches which are anticipated to arise given the reduced profits highlighted in the trading statement. The Board is encouraged that the banks have been supportive and the discussions continue to be constructive with the objective of providing Mouchel with a stable funding structure. In that context the banks have asked KPMG to provide them with a report to help them secure that objective. In view of the importance of these discussions the Board has concluded that it should defer the intended date of publication of the report and accounts for the year ended 31 July 2011, to 30 November 2011.

Grant Rumbles said: "Following discussions with Mouchel Board members about the business and its future prospects I am convinced that Mouchel has a strong customer base and dedicated talented staff. Despite recent reductions in UK government spending, the future of government outsourcing is assured and will continue to grow. Mouchel has the expertise and ability to deliver sustainable long term growth." David Sugden said: "We are sincerely grateful to Bo Lerenius for his important contribution to Mouchel. We are strengthened by the appointment of Grant Rumbles and I would like to thank Bo for leading the search and attracting such an excellent candidate. Mouchel is a company with leading market positions and I'm confident that Grant is the right man with the right experience to provide the strong direction we need in future. In my role as interim Chairman, with our Finance Director Rod Harris, I will be focused on ensuring Mouchel has a clear strategy and a sound financial structure, whilst building our relationships with our shareholders and our banks." Bo Lerenius said: "I am delighted that we have been able to find a chief executive of such quality as Grant Rumbles to succeed Richard Cuthbert. Now is the right time to hand over the Chairmanship to David Sugden in whom I have complete confidence."

Board Changes and Update The Board of Mouchel today announces that it has appointed Grant Rumbles (53) as its new Chief Executive. Grant will join the Board as Chief Executive with effect from 13 October 2011. Grant was formerly CEO of Exova plc, an international Testing, Advisory and Assurance services business from 2008 to 2011. Previously he was with Serco Group plc for 25 years where he held a range of senior management positions, culminating in his last 4 years as the Group Chief Operating Officer. He was also a Board member of Serco Group plc from 2007 to 2008. Grant has extensive experience and knowledge of partnering and delivering outsourced services within the UK and internationally to both public and private sector clients. Mouchel is also announcing today that Bo Lerenius, Chairman of Mouchel, has decided to stand down from the Board. Bo's resignation follows the successful appointment of a new Chief Executive. David Sugden, Non-Executive Director of Mouchel, will take over as interim Chairman. David joined the Board of Mouchel in January of this year as a Non-Executive Director as part of the process of strengthening the Board. David has over 30 years experience of public companies. He stepped in as Executive Chairman of Findel plc, the leading UK home shopping company, to take charge of the Company's refinancing and turnaround. Furthermore, as Chairman of BPP Holdings plc, he led the performance transformation and subsequent successful sale of the company. He remains Chairman of Findel plc and is also a Non-Executive Director of Greencore Group plc.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201110130738231104Q

Evolution Securities maintained its "buy" recommendation for BAE Systems (BA.), with a target price of 340p. The aerospace group expects underlying earnings per share for the year to be similar to 2010's performance of 38.5p, against the broker's forecast of 37.5p. Evolution notes that the company has raised 1.25 billion dollars (0.79 billion pounds) in the bond market, at an average rate of 4.7%, in order to replace a 1 billion dollar (0.64 billion pound) bond at 6.4%, which is due for repayment in December.

Sinclair Is Pharma (SPH) kept its "buy" rating from Singer Capital, with a 48p target price. The broker says that a new Irish distribution agreement with Fannin should help improve the pharmaceutical company's margin and allow it to focus on other areas of its European business. Additionally, Singer expects the merger with Is Pharma to result in further investment in the UK, leading to improved revenues and margins

To look at the way the economy has been going it might come as something of a surprise that builders' merchant and DIY retailer Travis Perkins has managed to book a 5.9% rise in like-for-like turnover for the nine months to the end of September. The valuation of just 9.3 times full-year forecast earnings is undemanding. And it is true that Travis Perkins has been doing remarkably well; it could continue to gain market share, but it will have to work hard to maintain momentum given the pressures on its market. We would also note that it is not as if there is the compensation of a chunky yield, which stands at a prospective 2.5% for this year, rising to 3% next year. Avoid, says the Independent.

Datatec, a distributor of IT products and provider of IT services, has tended to look towards the developing world for growth, unusually for a company in this line of business. Areas such as Brazil, Latin America as a whole, Indonesia and Turkey offer double-digit annual growth rates, as opposed to the more pedestrian 4 to 6% available in more developed territories, the main market for other companies in the sector. The shares are on a little more than ten times earnings; not easy to get hold of in London, but an interesting play on global economic growth, says the Times.

Since exiting the passenger jets market some years ago, BAE has been an entirely defence-focused business. Today, about half the workload comes from the UK military and about a fifth from the UK defence establishment. This is not a good place to be; last month the company announced about 3,000 job losses in its Typhoon programme. With defence cuts set to continue and earnings likely to be flat over the next couple of years, the shares could still have further to fall, the Times says.

Interesting read and some substantial trading went on late yesterday!

EXPLORATION Initial JORC code compliant Inferred Resource was established at Ozerny with 1.9 Mt of mineralized material grading 5.5 g/t gold and 24 g/t silver for 0.3 Moz of gold and 1.5 Moz of silver. The resource is amenable to open pit mining and is located approximately 70 kilometers from the Khakanja processing plant. Mining is expected to start in Q4 2012 with the first ore to be processed in Q2 2013. Initial JORC code compliant Inferred Resource was established at Kutyn with 5.5 Mt of mineralized material at 4.1 g/t gold for 0.7 Moz of gold contained. The resource is amenable to open pit mining with all mineralized zones traced only to a depth of 100-120 meters. Svetloye Inferred Resource was re-reported using higher cut-off grades yielding 4.1 Mt of mineralized material at 5.8 g/t gold for 0.8 Moz of contained gold. The resource is amenable to open pit mining (maximum depth of 110 meters) and is located approximately 230 kilometers from the Khakanja processing plant.

· Third quarter operating performance continued the upward trend in production with stronger performance across the Group's assets driven mostly by improvements in throughputs at most of the operations and grades, in particular at Voro and Varvarinskoye · Quarterly gold production increased 6% compared to the three months ended 30 September 2010 ("year-on-year") and 21% compared to the three months ended 30 June 2011 ("quarter-on-quarter") as a result of production increases at Omolon and Albazino · Quarterly silver production increased 41% year-on-year and 6% quarter-on-quarter with the Omsukchan concentrator operating at design parameters · The first lot of Albazino concentrate has been shipped to an off-taker in China with the intention of reducing the stockpile of concentrate accumulated since the start-up of the concentrator in April 2011, and thus generating immediate cash flows "The first shipment of concentrate from Albazino and the reaching of the designed capacity at Dukat are the key achievements of this successful quarter," said Vitaly Nesis, CEO of Polymetal. "Production growth momentum is building and we expect to carry it into the fourth quarter and 2012".

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201110130701191101Q

David Fowler, Chief Executive Officer commented: “It has been an exciting quarter for Orosur. The successful fund raising of US$ 13.5 million through a private placing demonstrated the support of our existing shareholders and attracted new investors, and their support resulted in the successful acquisition of Talca, a gold project in Chile which we believe will, long term, enhance our production potential. We have made good progress at Arenal Deeps and have delivered the first development ore to the plant and are on schedule to commence stope mining in November. In addition, exploration results from San Gregorio have confirmed the potential to continue extending mine life. All in all, it has been a successful start to our financial year and I am looking forward to updating the market on our continuing progress.”

Highlights Production Production for the quarter of 12,488 ounces in line with management expectation Cash operating costs increase to US$ 944 while maintaining operating margins, in line with management expectation Arenal Deeps on track to start production in November 2011 Financial Revenue of US$ 21.0m (US$ 18.2 m in Q1 2010/11), an increase of 15 per cent with realized gold price up significantly to US$ 1,612/oz (US$ 1,216/oz in Q1 2010/11) Net profit after tax for the quarter was US$ 4.4m (US$ 3.5m in Q1 2010/11), an increase of 25 per cent Cash flow from operations for the quarter was US$ 5.6m (US$ 5.4m in Q1 2010/11) Cash balance at the quarter end of US$ 20.3m (US$ 10.7m in Q1 2010/11), following which a further US$ 13.5m private placement was completed Exploration and development Positive infill drill programs on San Gregorio, Sobresaliente and Vaca Muerta and encouraging results on Santa Maria project including 25 meters at 1.72 g/t au in hole SMRC005 and 12 meters at 4.79 g/t from 78 meters in hole SMRC022. Corporate Acquisition of the Talca gold property in Chile, with estimated high grade artisanal production of 300,000 ounces of gold Successfully raised gross proceeds of US$ 13.5m through a private placing with new and existing investors

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=20111013070000Z4097

Outlook Group turnover in the second half to date is ahead of the same period last year. Working capital levels and costs are in line with plan. Overall, Booker continues to trade in line with management expectations. Commenting on the results, Charles Wilson, Chief Executive of Booker, said, "Our plan to Focus, Drive and Broaden Booker Group is on track. We improved choice, price and service for our customers, which increased sales by 8.5%. Ritter Courivaud and Classic, the two businesses we acquired last year, have fitted nicely into the Group and the internet and India are making good progress. In a challenging business environment, Booker continues to advance."

Operating Highlights · Customer Satisfaction has improved which has driven like-for-like sales · Conversion of another 11 branches into the 'Extra' format, taking the total number of 'Extra' branches to 126. An additional 10 are planned for the second half · Internet sales +22.6% to £300.0m (2010: £244.8m) · Ritter Courivaud and Classic, the two businesses we acquired last year, are performing well · Our branch in Mumbai is performing well and we have opened in Pune · We are building a more sustainable business with waste to landfill down 9%