Member Info for mulledwine

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201107080700100184K

Jack Pitman, Investment Director at Helical Bar, commented: "With a further £20m of sales under offer, in addition to the £42m completed since the year end, we are continuing to make good progress with our capital recycling programme. Having already acquired over £115m of properties since the start of this calendar year, including our latest acquisition in Basildon, we are confident that we will be able to deploy the equity from these sales into attractive, income producing assets where we can use our asset management skills to deliver future growth."

Helical continues capital recycling programme In line with its strategy of selling non-income producing assets or those with limited potential and recycling capital into investment opportunities, Helical Bar is pleased to announce that it has completed £42m of asset sales since the 31 March year end and made an acquisition in Basildon for £11.1m. All disposals were undertaken at, or marginally above, the year end valuations. The competed sales are as follows; · An office investment in Southwark Street, London SE1 in an off-market sale to Dorrington plc for £19.5m · A portfolio of four industrial estates for £12.1m in Fleet, Glasgow, Hailsham & Blackwood, South Wales. The portfolio had a vacancy rate of 28%. Helical was represented by Tudor Toone · A retail property in the centre of East Grinstead for £5.85m · Three vacant industrial units in Southall, West London, for £1.117m · Eight units at Helical's retirement village in Liphook for £3.5m. In addition, Helical has acquired 80-104 Town Square, Basildon for £11.1m, reflecting an 8% net initial yield. The retail block, with offices above, was acquired from DTZIM. Since acquisition, Helical has already agreed terms to regear three of the retail leases and completed new leases on two office suites. Tenants include JD Sports, Nationwide and T-Mobile. CWM acted for the vendor and Jones Lang LaSalle for the purchaser.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201107080700100133K

Finncapp upgrades Advanced Medical Solutions Group from sell to hold, target price unchanged at 70p.

Merchant Securities initiates sell on Alexon Group.

Numis upgrades Rightmove from hold to add

Numis upgrades Dunelm Group from add to buy, target price 500p.

The last time we looked at McBride, we decided to sell, reasoning that its stock was likely to be pressured by the combination of rising raw materials costs and the ongoing consumer squeeze, particularly in the UK. There was nothing in yesterday's trading update to suggest that input prices had softened, nor was there much encouragement on the retail environment, which the group characterised as "weak". This is hardly surprising, giving activity on the commodity markets and increasing signs of turmoil on the high street. We look forward to the release of its full-year results, which may well prove to be a catalyst for gains. But until then, we think the backdrop remains far too uncertain, according to the Independent, which recommends to sell.

The internet is not getting any safer. The rise of “cloud computing”, where data is stored remotely rather than on a company’s database, offers its own security concerns, while the proliferation of tablet computers offers increasing access to such data. This is good news for NCC, which provides companies with internet security solutions — indeed, Rob Cotton, the chief executive, describes the coming of cloud computing as a “honey-pot” for his business. Mr Cotton says his market is an “arms race” between his trained staff and cyber-criminals. The woes of Sony’s PlayStation platform in April will have concentrated minds at other corporates. The strong prospects for NCC have been reflected in the share price performance, up 5p yesterday to 652½p. They are on a hefty forward multiple of 15.5 but should have further to go in due course, according to the Times.

Worried about defence cuts? No problem. At least that's the message from Babcock International. In fact, the group says that countries such as Britain and America, which are laden with vast amounts of public debt, are increasingly looking to drive efficiencies by outsourcing defence work to companies such as Babcock, which is perhaps best known for maintaining the Royal Navy's submarine fleet. We've always been slightly sceptical about the outsourcing story. All too often its trotted out as a panacea when people, often in the public sector, need to save money. The results are not always happy. At current levels, the stock is valued at nearly 12 times full-year earnings, falling to 10.5 times next year. The group has historically traded at about 14 times, which suggests that there is room for a little growth. But times are tougher now. It's a tough call. However, on balance, in the short to medium term we don't see much to drive the stock forward. Take profits. Sell, recommends the Independent.

A consortium made a tentative approach for car dealer Lookers at 80p a share, sought due diligence, reckoned the company had a couple of issues that made it worth less than that and offered 70p, we learnt yesterday from Lookers. The company rejected this, and the consortium said it would not bid. The world moves on, and Lookers shares fell 3¾p to 54p yesterday as the consortium’s low-ball offer was revealed. The company is actually not doing that badly in today’s trading environment. Lookers shares are on about eight times this year’s earnings, but with profits looking flattish for the next couple of years at least, there seems no reason to chase, suggests the Times.

Financial advisers have threatened to pull millions of pounds out of Standard Life Investments after the provider took the unusual step of raising fees on some of its funds, bucking the trend for fund managers to cut headline costs for investors. In an e-mail to financial advisers, SLI said that fees on seven retail funds and two institutional funds would rise from November 2011. Investors in the funds will not be informed in writing until next week, the Financial Times reports.

Excellent recovery so far from PURE from the lows in early June - long way to go but its getting there

Commenting on the adoption by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, PureCircle CEO Magomet Malsagov said "This has been an important week for approval and adoption of stevia as a mainstream food ingredient around the globe. Early this week, we had a positive vote by the EU Standing Committee recommending steviol glycosides in Europe. We now welcome this week's Codex adoption which will help to open all remaining new markets for PureCircle's high purity stevia products around the world."

FURTHER REGULATORY APPROVAL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STEVIA PureCircle (LSE: PURE), the world's largest producer and marketer of high purity stevia, today provides a stevia market update concerning the Codex Alimentarius Commission adoption of proposed maximum levels for steviol glycosides. PureCircle notes that during its meeting this week, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), adopted all the proposed draft maximum levels for steviol glycosides as submitted for adoption by the Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA). The CAC official report will be issued after the end of the meeting on July 9th. The Codex Alimentarius Commission, or Codex, was created by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Its main purposes are to protect the health of consumers and to ensure fair practices in international trade in food through the development of food standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations. Codex standards and guidelines are developed by committees, which are open to all UN member countries. The Codex standards and guidelines are then used by many countries as the benchmark for their own internal approval processes. As part of the adoption, the approved maximum use levels across all major food and beverage categories have now been defined. This is the last outstanding major approval that will unlock a number of important markets such as India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Philippines. Such countries look for the Codex adoption of a food ingredient to support their evaluation and approval. PureCircle has been actively engaged in these markets on regulatory approval and market development.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201107080700100150K

William McGrath, Chief Executive commented: "In the current market we are pleased with our performance, strong cash balance and market leading positions. Looking forward we are excited about the growth opportunities for our new products led by AGA Total Control which epitomises our plans for the future."

Profit growth achieved and AGA Total Control launch well received AGA Rangemaster Group plc, the range cooker and kitchen living specialist, today provides a trading update ahead of its interim results for the six months ended 30th June 2011 to be announced on 26th August 2011. The Group has had a solid first half to the year. Good operating profit progress was made even though housing-related consumer expenditure remained subdued. Revenues were slightly lower but margins improved, particularly in parts of the Group that had been weaker performers. Net cash balances have increased year-on-year. Rangemaster cooker volumes were, overall, slightly down because of the relatively quiet UK market. Exports continued to achieve new record levels on the continent. The Group is now seeing the benefit of decisive management action taken at Fired Earth. The run rate of losses has fallen sharply. A clear plan with a strong incentive structure is in place to improve performance over the next three years. For AGA Marvel in North America demand remains subdued and the onus remains on programmes to widen the customer base using, in particular, a new range of premium undercounter refrigerators. Profitability has improved following the rationalisation of Heartland cooker production and the cold lines of Marvel into the one Greenville, Michigan production, distribution and service support facility. The major development for the Group in the first half of the year was the UK launch of AGA Total Control which was very well received. It will be launched this autumn in international markets. The flexibility of the AGA Total Control - "On when you need it; off when you don't" - is attracting new customers to the radiant heat cooking of cast iron ovens and the sales to owners trading up continues to rise. AGA Total Control will bring renewed sales momentum for AGA in the second half of the year and is central to our strategy to grow cast iron cooker sales substantially. Cash flows remain carefully managed and working capital ratios are now in line with long run objectives. At 30th June 2011 net cash was in excess of the £22.4 million balance of a year ago.

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