22 November 2013 | General News

London Stock Market weekly report (22/11/2013)

Stock Market Flotations

Bonmarché listed on AIM only two years after the business went into administration. The fashion retailer has been valued at around £100m, with Private-equity owner Sun European retaining a 52.4% share in the firm after selling 40% of its stake. The company has over 250 stores.

Applied Graphene Materials PLC is looking to raise £11m in a placing ahead of its initial public offering on AIM. The company will have a market capitalisation of £26 million.

Key results

National Grid Half Year Results note PBT down 7% at GBP979m reflecting the temporary additional cost of pre-financing asset growth at what it described as ‘attractive interest rates’ in an overall ‘solid performance’. The interim dividend is 14.49p as announced in March 2013 and 2013/14 capex of around GBP3.5bn, net of efficiency savings is expected to drive regulated asset growth of about 6%. It added that it looks set to deliver another year of good operating performance.

Johnson Matthey Half Year Results see PBT up 12% at GBP202.1m on sales excluding precious metals 13% ahead at GBP1.48bn. The dividend is raised 10% to 17p with it noting that the results exceeded its expectations having been driven mainly by good growth in Emission Control Technologies. It added that in H2, its long standing deal with Anglo Platinum will expire on 31 December 2013 which will impact profitability in Q4 but expects to benefit from tighter European truck legislation. It therefore expects that if the impact of the Anglo Platinum is excluded, performance in H2 will be in line with H1.

Close Brothers IMS reports that it has made a positive start to the year and continues to see good growth opportunities for the Banking division where it is focused on maintaining the quality of its lending model. Winterfloods benefited from improved market conditions and increased retail investor trading activity with Asset Management on track as it continues to progress towards its medium term targets. It added that it remains confident in the outlook for the current financial year. 

AMEC IMS reports that year-to-date trading continues to be in line with expectations with order intake and forward visibility remaining good. Full year 2013 underlying revenue, excluding incremental procurement is expected to be in line with 2012 with good visibility provided by the order book of GBP4bn. H2 2013 margins are expected to be stronger than H1 with operating cash flow for the year expected to be strong. It noted that the pipeline of acquisition opportunities remains strong and depending on progress made, further cash returns to shareholders will be considered before the year end, adding that it is still on track to achieve EPS of over 100p in 2014.

Lloyds Banking Group confirmed press reports on the sale of its asset management business Scottish Widows Investment Partnership Group (SWIP) to Aberdeen Asset Management for an initial consideration payable in Aberdeen shares with a value of GBP560m, and a further deferred consideration, payable in cash of up to GBP100m. As part of the deal, the bank will enter into a long-term strategic asset management relationship whereby Aberdeen will manage assets on behalf of the bank. The sale is expected to complete by the end of Q1 2014 subject to regulatory and other consents and note it does not include Scottish Widows, the life, pensions and investment business.

Petrofac IMS reports a ‘good’ operational performance and is on track to deliver ‘modest net profit growth’ in 2013. The group backlog has been maintained at USD14.3bn and it expects net income in 2014 to show ‘flat to modest growth’ year-on-year reflecting the rephasing of a project in Abu Dhabi and the second stage of a project in Malaysia. It added that it continues to expect ‘strong’ year-on-year growth in 2015 net income, but the achievement of its earnings target will also be dependent on the timing of potential ECOM contract awards in 2014.

Markets Summary Previous Change
FTSE 100 6681.33 +0.25
FTSE 250 15148.50 -30.25
Dax 9196.08 -5.99
Dow Jones 16009.99 +109.17
Nasdaq 3969.15 +47.88

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