Member Info for mulledwine

Raised to 2300p from 2190p at S&P, rating remains hold.

Upped to 2385p from 2140p at UBS, rating stays at buy.

Imperial Tobacco target price raised to 2,420p from 2,330p at Credit Suisse, rating stays outperform.

Yule Catto moved to add from buy at Numis, target price 244p

Parkmead’s tie up with Deo Petroleum underlines its crazy valuation By Lucian Miers, the bard of the Boleyn In January last year I wrote about the mad valuation of DEO Petroleum, then a shell company with £160,000 in cash and two directors controlling 96%. The shares have lost 90% of their value since then and trade at 49p (down from 550p, allowing for the 200-for-one consolidation post my article.) In the meantime the company has raised around £17.5mn equity and used most of this acquiring a 42% working interest in some North Sea Oil licences called the Perth Assets. The directors holdings have been significantly diluted and the company is now capitalised at £21mn. Leaving aside the merits of the Perth Assets, Deo has today announced a 50-50 collaboration with Parkmead (PMG) in which Parkmead will be the “exploration operator” and Deo the “development operator” for any future projects. I wrote about Parkmead last December pointing out that with no assets or earnings to speak of, a market cap of £167 mn was rather a lot to pay for the services of Dana founder and Oil supremo Tom Cross. The stock has since fallen 30% to 17p but still values PMG at £106mn. Today’s announcement makes it clear by how much PMG is overvalued. Would you rather own a stock (DEO) which owns a North Sea oil asset and has full access to the Tom Cross magic for £21mn, or a stock (PMG) which has no oil assets and has full access to the Tom Cross magic for £106mn.? Either the market is hugely undervaluing the Tom Cross touch at DEO or it is overvaluing it by a factor of more than five at PMG. I suspect the latter is more likely and have sold more PMG. Readers who follow my logic could do likewise, buying Deo as a hedge.

Operating profit up 10.9% at Dignity Date: Friday 13 May 2011 LONDON (ShareCast) - Full year expectations remain unchanged at Dignity, the UK's only listed funeral care provider, after the group saw underlying operating profit increase by more than 10% in the first quarter. In the 13 weeks to 1 April, underlying operating profit, which excludes profit on sale of fixed assets and transaction costs, rose to £22.6m from £20.4m in the first quarter of last year. Over the same period, revenue was £59.1m, up 9.6% on the £53.9m achieved in the the corresponding period of 2010. The group said trading since the end of the reporting period has been in line with management's expectations. The group has acquired three existing funeral locations and has opened eight new satellite locations since the start of the year. As expected, the crematorium in Somerset became operational in late March and the crematorium in Worcestershire is anticipated to become operational by the end of the third quarter of 2011. Pre-arranged funeral plan sales continue to be strong. "The group has seen a strong start to the year in each of its three businesses. Our outlook remains positive and our full year expectations are unchanged," said chief executive Mike McCollum. ---

11/05/2011 Photo-Me International (PHTM) has continued to trade well and results for the year to 30th April 2011 are expected to be in line with market expectations, the instant service equipment group announced in a trading update. The group's largest trading area was France, where the operations division delivered a "very strong" performance over the year which has helped to offset the disruption to the operations business in Japan following the recent earthquake and some restrictions on electricity usage. The shares rose 5.75p to 48p.

Tullett Prebon (TLPR) reported on lowered revenue in the first four months of this year and said the level of activity in the markets during the first quarter was at very similar levels to the comparable period last year. The inter-dealer broker said revenue in the four months to April was 304 million pounds, 3% lower than reported for the equivalent period last year. Shares in Tullett, which demerged from Collins Stewart Tullett in December 2006, lost 24.9p to 392.6p.

Panmure Gordon maintained its "buy" rating on office2office (OFF), the provider of office solutions, with a 190p target price. Commenting on the contract win with Advantia, the broker said this significantly underpins current expectations and removes a substantial risk-element to current contract renewals expected over the summer. What's more, with a significant pipeline of opportunities, Panmure added that it believes this could be the start of a number of contract wins which could materially improve short-term prospects.

Arbuthnot upgraded its recommendation for Bovis Homes (BVS), the housebuilder, from "neutral" to "buy" with a target price of 520p. The broker said the group appears to be firmly back on the front foot with new selling outlets coming onstream and land sales contributing to cash whilst reducing longevity on certain strategic sites. The gross margin should improve as the new sites come onstream, Arbuthnot added, and in early May the group had maintained a modest net cash position

Neil Bleasdale, EDEMSA President commented, "Whilst the results for the quarter show a drop in performance quarter on quarter, we are pleased with the results given the fact that the introduction of a polynomial formula that recognises increases in costs due to inflation is still pending, which will allow us to continue to invest in and improve the quality of the service we provide whilst providing long term financial stability and sustainability".

Financial Overview of EDEMSA In the first quarter of 2011 EDEMSA reported a profit of AR$7 million, compared to a profit of AR$11 million in the first quarter of 2010. Sales for the first quarter of 2011 increased by AR$7 million over the first quarter 2010, representing an increase of 4%. This increase is mainly due to the pass through of increases in energy costs and reduced energy losses that were offset by a slight decline in the demand for energy Inflationary pressure resulted in a drop in gross profits from AR$57 million in the first quarter 2010 to AR$55 million in the first quarter 2011, with operating profit dropping from AR$31 million to AR$17 million, but should be considered in the context of the fact that current tariffs are those based on 2008 cost values. The main increases in costs arose in salaries and other employee related costs and the costs of third party services. The company recorded EBITDA of AR$24 million for the first quarter of 2011 compared to AR$38 million for the corresponding period last year. The benefits from the restructure of the debt can also been seen with a AR$7 million reduction in finance costs and exchange losses quarter on quarter. The debt buy-back program has changed the long-term financial profile of the company, improving and reducing credit and foreign risk exposure and reducing future uncertainty.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201105130700105304G

Tosedostat data to be presented at 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Interim results from a study of tosedostat will be presented at the 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, which is being held in Chicago on 3-7 June 2011. The study in elderly patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) has also been selected for oral poster discussion. The data will be presented on 3 June 2011 by Jorge Cortes, M.D., of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, an investigator on the tosedostat study, during the Leukaemia, Myelodysplasia, and Transplantation session between 2.00 and 6.00 pm. The poster will also be included in a discussion session from 5.00 till 6.00 pm. The presentation, abstract #6517, titled "Interim results of OPAL, a study of tosedostat in elderly relapsed/refractory AML" will be available at www.asco.org on 18 May 2011. Vernalis licensed tosedostat to Chroma Therapeutics Limited in 2003 and is entitled to royalties on commercial sales. Chroma Therapeutics Limited licensed the rights to tosedostat in North, Central and South America to Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTI), in March this year. CTI is responsible for further development of tosedostat and intends to progress it into Phase III studies of AML in Q4 2011. Tosedostat has been granted orphan drug status for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) by both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA).

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201105130700095280G

Acquisition of Finsch Diamond Mine - Update Petra Diamonds announces the following update with regards to the acquisition of the Finsch diamond mine in South Africa ("Finsch") from De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited. As announced on 21 January 2011, completion of the acquisition was subject to a number of conditions precedent, the majority of which have now been satisfied. The only remaining material conditions are the consent of the Minister of Mineral Resources to the cession of the mining right (including rehabilitation obligations) in respect of Finsch and registration of the ceded mining right in the South African Mineral and Petroleum Titles Registration Office. The process with regards to satisfying the outstanding conditions is progressing well and the Company will provide an update in due course.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201105130700095268G

Financial Results for the First Quarter of 2011 Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited ("BPL" or "the Company"; AIM Symbol: BXP), the fast-growing manufacturer of generic pharmaceutical formulation products, active pharmaceutical ingredients and intravenous fluids, today announces its unaudited financial results for the three month period ended 31 March 2011. The information set out below has been released to the Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges in compliance with the requirements from the Bangladesh SEC. The accounts can be viewed at the Company's website: www.beximcopharma.com

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=201105130700095273G

Clark Arnold, Director of Geology, commented: "We are confident in our exploration approach and pleased that the programme is now gathering momentum. We plan to test at least six of the targets we have developed before the end of the current calendar year. With the experience and track record of the team and the data base we have compiled covering the southwest U.S. copper province that currently accounts for some 60% of total U.S. copper production. We are optimistic that we will be able to add another copper deposit to the established list of those already known in the southwest province."