Member Info for mulledwine

Standard Life (SL.) has appointed Paul Matthews as chief executive of its UK arm, allowing David Nash, the group CEO, to focus on the company's strategy and shaping the future direction of the business. "Paul is a strong and respected leader", commented Mr. Nash. "His experience and understanding of the UK market, combined with his customer-focused approach, make him the ideal person to lead our UK business." The shares moved ahead 1.5p to 206p.

Ahead of the interim management statement tomorrow, Panmure Gordon maintained its "buy" recommendation for Bellway (BWY) with a 761p target price. The broker said that whilst the stock is one of the more highly valued in the sector, given the outperformance of the housebuilder's peers in terms of Net Asset Value sustainability during the downturn, it continues to think the shares are worth owning. Shares in Bellway, which has provided more than 100,000 homes since it was formed in 1946, fell 5.5p to 697p.

Arbuthnot reiterated its "strong buy" rating for Alternative Networks (AN.), the business-to-business telecoms re-seller, with an increased target price of 310p, up from 300p. The broker notes that the strong financial performance for the six months to March 2011, with revenue growth up 25% year-on-year, and said the group is well positioned for further acquisition activity. On the back of this, Arbuthnot has raised its expectations for financial year 2011 and 2012. Shares in Alternative Networks added 8p to 277.5p.

BarCap recommends overweight on Tullett Prebon, target price cut from 480p to 450p.

OOps - ignore post at 15:36 re MONI - obviously wrong board

Medusa Mining reveals big boardroom shake-up By Benjamin Chiou Date: Thursday 09 Jun 2011 LONDON (ShareCast) - Philippines-focused gold producer Medusa Mining has announced a major boardroom shake-up, following the voluntary delisting from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). The firm revealed on Thursday that, since listing on the TSX in November 2009, it has only achieved a “disappointing” shareholding base of less than 4% in Canada. “As this low level of interest and volume have not matched expectations despite creditable production and exploration results, it is with regret that the Company can no longer justify maintaining a listing on the TSX,” said former managing director (MD) Geoff Davis. Also announced today was a significant restructuring of Medusa’s board and senior management, to “oversee the next phase of the company’s growth and development.” The restructuring will see Mr Davis stand down from his position as MD, replacing Peter Jones as a non-executive chairman, who is to retire. The executive director of operations, Peter Hepburn-Brown, is to replace Mr Davis as MD. Meanwhile, Roy Daniel will retire as finance director and joint company secretary, but will continue in his role as chief financial officer.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201106091145471633I

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201106091147291638I

Monitise cashing in with Visa Date: Thursday 09 Jun 2011 LONDON (ShareCast) - Monitise, the AIM 50 mobile banking and payments provider has announced a new 5 year contract with financial powerhouse Visa. The move, worth in excess of $10m a year for the first 3 years (and rising thereafter) will see Monitise produce applications to enable Visa account holders in the US and “other key geographies” to make payments from their mobile phones. It is intended to make day-today transactions like mobile top-up, utility payments, and toll road fees easier to complete. Alistair Lukies, the Chief Executive of Monitise said in reaction to the tie-up: “This agreement validates Monitise's strategy of becoming the leading trusted enabler in the (mobile payments) space and cements our role in this ever growing ecosystem…” As well as partnerships with most UK high street banks, Monitise provides services to over 240 financial institutions in the United States. In response to today’s announcement the company’s share price leapt 7.62% to 28.25p BS

Machine gun maker Manroy shoots up Date: Thursday 09 Jun 2011 LONDON (ShareCast) - Britain’s only machine gun maker has announced a big increase in profits. Manroy’s interim results for the 6 months to the end of March show revenues at £3 million and pre-tax profits rifling up to £1.14 million (from a loss of £33,000 for 2010). Manroy's shares were admitted to trading on AIM in December 2010 and it is well known for making some of the biggest machine guns in production anywhere in the world. Basic earnings per share reached 12.5p, up from a loss of 1.1p in 2010 and the company has decided to issue an interim dividend of 1p per share earlier than previously planned. But despite this positive news the chief executive Glynn Bottomley acknowledges potential difficulties. He admits that “certain overseas markets” have been adversely affected in the first half of the year. Analysts point out this coincides with the so called “Arab Spring” where instability in North Africa and the Middle East may have made arms sales more complicated. Nevertheless the interim results do reveal at least one (unnamed) Middle East country has agreed a 3 year technical support contract with Manroy. Mr Bottomley is at pains to point out his group “does not accept orders from any embargoed country” and sticks “strictly” to UK armament sale legislation. Manroy’s management is also clearly intent on expansion in the US, choosing to extend its option to acquire 49% of Manroy USA – another machine gun manufacturer – to the 30th of June. Following the release of the results the company’s stock rose 6.88% to 114.90p.

Kepler recommends buy Aegis Group, target price raised from 160p to 170p.

PLACING OF NEW ORDINARY SHARES TO RAISE $3.1 MILLION, CAPITAL REDUCTION AND NOTICE OF GENERAL MEETING Rock Solid Images plc (AIM:RSI) is pleased to announce the placing of 47,342,700 new Ordinary Shares ("Placing Shares") at 4p each ("Placing Price) to raise $3.1 million ("Placing") and intends to make an application to the Court to approve the cancellation of its share premium account ("Capital Reduction"). Background to and reasons for the Placing Over the past seven months, Rock Solid Images has made great progress in re-engineering the business into a geophysical consultancy that provides clients with significant added value from seismic, well log and electromagnetic data. The added value comes through the Group's leadership in data processing and interpretation techniques together with the development of a very strong data integration platform. The Directors believe that in order to continue the pace of progress in highly focused software development and workflows ahead of an anticipated increase in sales, the Group requires additional working capital and investment funds over the next 12 months of approximately $2.9 million. This would be provided through the proceeds of the Placing. The sales pipeline has increased markedly, following the recent increase in the Company's salesforce. Accordingly the Directors anticipate that the Company will become net cash positive from its trading activities in the second quarter of 2012. New funds are therefore required to take the Company through this period and avoid any interruption to this revenue growth and investment flow.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201106091454191834I

Britvic has had its target price raised by UBS, who notes that there is less input cost variability in the current year and cost-cutting measures are now in place for next year. “We believe Britvic has regained some control of its profitability with its planned GBP8m in cost savings for 2012FY, though PET (plastic) inflation is still a key swing factor,” the broker said. “We previously applied a 10% discount to reflect high input cost uncertainty. We remove this discount, which increases our price target from 390p to 430p.” A ‘neutral’ rating is kept.

Guoco’s offer for casino and bingo hall operator Rank Group has gone unconditional, prompting Panmure Gordon to put its ‘buy’ rating and target price of 204p on Rank under review, saying that this is a very disappointing outcome. Rank revealed today that Guoco’s 150p per share offer has received additional 15.6% acceptances and has been declared as unconditional, as Guoco now owns 56.4% of the issued share capital. “This is a very disappointing outcome but as we noted on 9 May whilst Guoco said this was not a hostile move, we failed to see how it could not be interpreted as one,” said analyst James Cooke. The broker – and Rank itself – have previously said that the offer “significantly undervalues” the group. Panmure’s take out estimate was around 248p per share.

http://sharecrazy.com/beta/Tips/5379/buy-aec-education-aec-at-13p

Investec reiterates buy on JD Sports Fashion, target price raised from 950p to 1065p.

Kepler recommends hold WPP, target price cut from 850p to 800p.

Deutsche initiates buy on Yule Catto, target price 290p.

Goldman reiterates conviction buy on Old Mutual, target price reiterated at 172p.