Premier Foods (LON:PFD) has sold its canned grocery business, which includes the Crosse & Blackwell and Fray Bentos brands, to Princes Ltd in a deal worth £182 million. While it includes a number of household names, the business unit also sells non-branded, or ‘white-labelled’, products. The disposed assets are expected to contribute £334 million in sales and £32 million in earnings (EBITDA) for Premier Foods’ 2010 financial results.
The Thomas Cook Group (LON:TCG) expects the civil unrest in Tunisia and Egypt to make a £20 million dent to its second quarter profits. The company said that it continues to monitor the situation closely. It has been working to redirect its holiday programme to other destinations to help mitigate the negative financial impact.
Housebuilder Bellway PLC (LON:BWY) said the number of visitors to its showrooms and subsequent reservations since the beginning of January has been encouraging, but it is too early for a revision forecasts for the current full year.
Carillion (LON:CLLN) has agreed to acquire Eaga plc (LON:EAGA) in a cash and share deal worth £306.5 million, creating a business with a combined support services revenue of approximately £3 billion. The Newcastle headquartered business is one of the largest suppliers of heating and renewable energy in the UK.
London Stock Exchange Group (LON:LSE) is merging with Canadian counterpart TMX Group (TSX:X), the operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Under the terms of the merger agreement, TMX shareholders will receive 2.9963 LSEG ordinary shares for each TMX share.
SuperGroup (LON:SGP) reported that total group sales in the quarter to 30 January soared 86.9% to £81.7 million as retail sales almost doubled. Retail sales climbed 91.8% to £61.4 million, while wholesale sales surged 73.3% to £20.3 million, which the group said was due to the ongoing international expansion of Superdry.
Africa focused conglomerate Lonrho (LON:LONR) is buying secure accommodation specialist AFEX Group for a maximum of US$8 million. The initial payment will be US$3 million followed by a capped earn-out staggered over the next two years.
Niche home credit and motor finance provider S & U PLC (LON:SUS) said it is trading well and that results for the year to end-January 2011 are in line with market expectations. Group borrowings have been reduced by £5 million compared to the previous year-end, which means gearing is now below 50 percent against 72 percent two years ago.
British coal bed methane developer IGas Energy (LON:IGAS) has completed a placing to raise £20.625 million.
Zenergy Power (LON:ZEN) shares dropped over 15 percent, as it revealed that it has hired Matrix Corporate Capital and Woodside Capital Partners to help it sell the company. The company believes that its patented portfolio of High Temperature Superconductivity (HTS) intellectual property (IP) assets has significant value but it requires too much investment for Zenergy to commercialise the technology on its own.
Biopharmaceutical contract manufacturer Angel Biotechnology Holdings PLC (LON:ABH) has agreed a 5 year pricing agreement with its Russian partner Materia Medica Holding.
Waitrose’s online retailing associate Ocado Group (LON:OCDO) told investors that the John Lewis (LON: JLH) pension fund has now sold all its shares in the company. The fund had held around 10 percent of Ocado.
Shares in Oxford Nutrascience (LON:ONG) have spiked 150 percent at the end of the week as the market belatedly digested the potential of a breakthrough tie-up announced last week. ON and Isis Innovations - the commercialisation arm of Oxford University - have come together to create a new chewable way to deliver ibuprofen, which gets past the painkiller's bitter aftertaste.
Renovo Group (LON:RNVO) chief executive Mark Ferguson said he was “surprised and disappointed” after its scar treatment Juvista failed to hit its primary and secondary endpoints in a pivotal phase III trial.
Crop enhancement specialist Plant Impact (LON:PIM) said that it is appointing Dr David Jones as chairman to replace Martin Robinson, who is leaving after almost six years in the role.
SocialGO (LON:SGO) has raised £1.335 million to fund the launch of version two of its SocialGO social network product. Around 45 million shares were placed with investors at a price of 2.95 pence each, which represents a modest 11 per cent discount to last night’s closing price of 3.33 pence a share.
Drug developer Sareum Holdings (LON:SAR) has conditionally raised £500,000 before expenses via the issue of 50 million new shares, in response to strong investor demand.
Monitise (LON:MONI) reported that revenues in the six months to 31 December soared 207% to £5.3 million, while gross margins rose from 54% to 62%. However, the mobile banking company’s operating losses increased from £6.9 million to £7.9 million and pre-tax losses rose from £6.7 million to £8.7 million.
Business services group Xchanging PLC (LON:XCH) expects revenue and underlying operating profit for 2010 to be in line with market expectations but warned that underlying operating profit for the current year will be below the lower end of the £55.5-£80.2 million range estimated by analysts.
Pursuit Dynamics PLC (LON:PDX) said its Ethanol Reactor System (ERS) installation at Pacific Ethanol Inc's Columbia Plant near Boardman, Oregon, is now moving into commercial production.
Specialist Energy Group (LON:SEGR) told investors that its wholly-owned subsidiary Hayward Tyler Group landed £5.9 million in new business in January. FinnCap raised its valuation for Specialist Energy Group by 45 percent. The City broker hiked its price target to 94 pence a share from 65 pence.
Kiotech International (LON:KIO) shares jumped over 16 percent in early deals on Tuesdaywhen it told investors that its upcoming results would beat market expectations. It said 2010 was a very successful year and it is seeing the benefits of the Optivite acquisition earlier than it originally anticipated.
Silence Therapeutics (LON:SLN) reported that it is no longer in takeover discussions, which were first mentioned in September 2010. Silence said has received a number of indicative proposals, but “it is the view of the board that none of these were sufficiently compelling to pursue further in the context of the continued success of the company”.
Next-generation mobile messaging services provider Synchronica (LON:SYNC, TSX-V:SYN) said it saw strong growth in 2010 and an extremely strong end to the year. In a trading update for the year to end-December, it said that, in the final quarter alone, the group won an additional 5 mobile operator contracts, and closed 2 new device manufacturer deals.