Investors Chronicle articles from June 2006

Investors Chronicle archives from June 2006

VECTURA (VEC).
June 2, 2006... Any investors losing faith in biotech should look to Vectura. The company, which only floated in 2004, has signed three major licensing agreements in the past 12 months, including a transformational deal with Novartis last April. This GBP200m...

Sipp into retirement.
June 2, 2006... If the stock market is the ultimate discounting mechanism, how is it that the government and the financial services industry manage to be the ultimate disregarding mechanisms? This question occurred to me after reading the latest research into...

Digital watches.
June 2, 2006... Saturday 18 March: Chinese paper torture Breakfast guerrilla games again. Eunice waits until I have my head well into the paper and then starts wittering at me. Today, the only day of the week I take the FT, I was well into a...

Investing for the social good.
June 2, 2006... My career to date has been devoted to backing entrepreneurs with venture and private equity capital, and to supporting their efforts to build and develop major businesses. I have been closely involved in harnessing the power of entrepreneurs...

Poor flaw.
June 2, 2006... Last week's White Paper on Pensions made so much progress that it seems churlish to knock it. Although much detail of how contributions will be collected, administered and invested has yet to be agreed, a big improvement on the current...

New-look value investing.
June 2, 2006... Nobody looks at a company's book value any more. That's because the accounting value of a company's assets and liabilities is for crusty old value investors, the sort whose suits smell of mothballs and who still use paper spreadsheets. Studying...

Buy in June?
June 2, 2006... "Sell in May" seems to have worked nicely. So should we buy in June? The case for doing so is straightforward. Expected equity returns have increased in the past month, but there's been no serious deterioration in the global macroeconomic...

Cash and carry.
June 2, 2006... The recent fall in the US dollar has imposed big losses on some 'yen carry' trades, whereby traders borrow in yen to buy higher-yielding US dollars. To any economics student, this raises one question: how can anyone have been foolish enough to...

There's gold in them there rigs.
June 2, 2006... Big oil has a problem. While profits are gushing at a record pace, the oil majors are also feeling cost pressures on key inputs, such as drilling rigs. This is because they're all simultaneously vying for new equipment from a limited group of...

When the dollar falls.
June 2, 2006... The bear market is back - the bear market in US dollars, that is. In the past month, the greenback has fallen 3.3 per cent against the currencies of the countries with which America trades. But this latest fall merely resumes the trend that...

Vodafone breaks with the past.
June 2, 2006... Vodafone has outlined a new strategy that sees it adopting the mantle of a mature company, rather than the out-and-out growth profile it had previously sought. Chief executive Arun Sarin announced five strategic objectives which, taken...

Monetary slowdown.
June 2, 2006... US money supply figures are pointing to an economic slowdown. The M2 measure of the money stock has not grown at all in the past 12 weeks. And, in the past six months, it has risen by less than consumer prices. Although short-lived falls...

Amlin at a premium.
June 2, 2006... Lloyd's underwriter Amlin has reported that gross premiums in the four months ended 30 April were up 25 per cent on the same period last year. Premiums had increased most in the property reinsurance, property insurance and energy classes, and...

Helphire denies bid reports.
June 2, 2006... Vehicle replacement group Helphire has denied reports that it is in bid talks, following newspaper reports that it had received an approach from private equity firm CVC. According to the Sunday Times, CVC made an informal approach, which...

Scottish & Southern to launch innovative boiler service.
June 2, 2006... Announcing results this week, Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) revealed plans for a new gas boiler installation and maintenance service to be launched in June. The initial roll-out will target 3.5m households as SSE seeks to meet growing demand...

Sentiment hurts emerging markets.
June 2, 2006... The global stock market shakeout has hit the "BRIC" markets - Brazil, Russia, India and China - especially hard. MSCI figures show that these have fallen 14.6 per cent in sterling terms since 8 May, while the global market has dropped just 5.7...

Cairn to spin off indian oilfield.
June 2, 2006... The Indian government has approved the field development plan for Cairn Energy's flagship Rajasthan assets. Long anticipated by analysts who tagged it a key hurdle, this firms up Cairn's plans to spin these oilfields off into a new...

Pace warns on profits.
June 2, 2006... Pace Micro Technology, which makes set-top boxes, has released yet another profit warning. The group said that key US shipments have been delayed by software development problems. Pace is likely to report a GBP15m loss before tax and...

IQE sales up 53 per cent.
June 2, 2006... Growing penetration in mobile handset markets helped semiconductor wafer specialist IQE post a 53 per cent improvement in first-quarter sales. The mobile handset market is expected to grow by 15 per cent this year and demand for IQE's gallium...

Eastern promise for AstraZeneca clouded by domestic problems.
June 2, 2006... AstraZeneca has become the latest pharmaceutical company to build a presence in China. The drug giant is investing $100m (GBP53m) in a new research and development unit in Shanghai, which will become operational in 2009. It will focus on...

Urals raises $190m.
June 2, 2006... Urals Energy has raised $190m (GBP101m) through a placing of over 28m shares at 360p each. The money raised will be used to complete the purchase of oil and gas assets in Russia following approval from the Russian authorities early in May. It...

Persian goes for Gold.
June 2, 2006... Shares in Persian Gold rose 2p to 19.5p after the company announced an option to acquire 70 per cent of a gold discovery in Iran. The Chah-e-Zard property is early-stage, but rock chip samples have shown grades as high as 21 grammes per tonne...

Week Ahead...
June 2, 2006... News Tuesday 6 June Analysts will be expecting Carphone Warehouse to report a burgeoning level of enquiries about its offer of "free" broadband across its Talk Talk network when it reports final results. At just GBP20.99 a month, the...

Oil explorers go drilling.
June 2, 2006... Soco International shares flopped earlier this week after an exploration well on one of its Vietnamese blocks came in sub-commercial. Investors were hoping that the project - known as the L target - would contain 500m barrels of oil. Soco...

BAA rebuffs Ferrovial again.
June 2, 2006... Spanish raider Ferrovial has come back with a higher bid for BAA. But its new 900p-a-share approach, which values the airport operator at almost GBP10bn, has still failed to win the board's backing. The offer is open until the 19 June, and...

ICI faces Cartel fine.
June 2, 2006... The European Commission is to fine ICI GBP63m for price-fixing. A group of chemical companies, including ICI, BASF and Arkema, were investigated for allegedly price-fixing methacrylate, a material used to make resins and plastics, in the 1990s....

Ottakar's agrees cut-price HMV bid.
June 2, 2006... After months of discussions and intervention by the Competition Commission, bookseller Ottakar's has finally agreed to a takeover by Waterstone's owner HMV. The agreed price, at 285p a share, values Ottakar's at GBP62.8m. This offer has...

Shire's attention deficit disorder blow.
June 2, 2006... The controversy over the safety of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medicines, including Shire's Adderall XR, was renewed this week following the results of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Using US...

Hardman at year-low.
June 2, 2006... Shares in Hardman Resources dropped 5p to a year low of 69.5p after the company confirmed news (also issued by Premier) that Mauritania's first commercial oil well was underperforming. The offshore Chinguetti well had been expected to produce...

Anglo and Shell join forces for coal.
June 2, 2006... Miner Anglo American and oil major Shell have formed an alliance to develop clean coal energy projects, combining Anglo's extensive coal reserves with Shell's technological expertise. Anglo's Monash project in Australia, which combines an...

Iron ore contract prices soar.
June 2, 2006... A 19 per cent price increase for iron ore supply to Chinese steelmills - collectively the world's leading buyers - now looks inevitable. BHPBilliton has settled contract increases of this magnitude with key mills across Japan, Korea and Europe...

Baugur in talks with House of Fraser.
June 2, 2006... Acquisitive Icelandic investor Baugur has confirmed it is in early-stage takeover talks with House of Fraser. Baugur has not named its price, but analysts at broker Seymour Pierce say that House of Fraser is worth 150p a share. House of...

WINDSOR (WNDR).
June 2, 2006... Windsor made progress in the first half, but it was tough going. While the Lloyd's insurers saw solid rate increases in their specialist lines, Windsor's professional indemnity and brokerage businesses suffered due to falling rates. And...

BRITVIC (BVIC).
June 2, 2006... Shares in Britvic have sprung a leak just five months after flotation, as consumers continue to migrate away from sugary and fizzy beverages. Sales of the company's carbonated and still drinks fell in the first half, with the only volume growth...

Scott Tod releases bullish update.
June 2, 2006... Shares in cash machine operator Scott Tod rose 6 per cent after the company released a bullish trading update. Trading has improved thanks to cost-cutting and the relocation of underperforming machines, while contracts with its two largest...

ARLA FOODS (ARU).
June 2, 2006... Dairy group Arla Foods is being squeezed tight. In March, the major super-markets cut their milk prices. And although the cuts were not immediately passed on to Arla, they did make its premium brand, Cravendale, which had been marketed heavily,...

DAIRY CREST (DCG).
June 2, 2006... Dairy Crest's figures showed a strong performance from the foods division, particularly from branded products such as Country Life butter and Cathedral City cheese. But it proved a difficult year in the dairy division - it was the first full...

EMI (EMI).
June 2, 2006... EMI has not completely given up on its hopes of cementing a tie-up with Warner Music, despite Warner rejecting the company's $28.5-a-share offer as inadequate. Management says that it believes the acquisition of Warner Music by EMI would be...

GCAP (GCAP).
June 2, 2006... GCap announced a radical shake-up of its flagship London station, Capital Radio, late last year in a bid to stem huge audience losses. It now runs no more than two adverts in a row, and has cut advertising minutes by half during the working...

US legal battle floors Ramco.
June 2, 2006... Shares in troubled Ramco dropped 40 per cent to 13.5p after the oil and gas company lost the latest round in its legal battle in the US. Ramco has been forced to turn over assets to the Texas state court, and has said in consequence that it...

SCOTTISH POWER (SPW).
June 2, 2006... These were the first set of results under new chief executive Philip Bowman, who was previously chief executive of Allied Domecq. And shortly before the year-end, he completed the sale of its US subsidiary, PacifiCorp, to Warren Buffett's...

INVENSYS (ISYS).
June 2, 2006... Invensys has announced its second rights issue and refinancing in two years. The group is raising GBP341m and has renegotiated GBP700m of bank debt in order to lower its interest payments. Of course, this is nothing new. Invensys has been...

KELDA (KEL).
June 2, 2006... Kelda's Yorkshire Water made a solid start to the first year of its five-year regulatory review period. Regulated turnover rose by 8.4 per cent to GBP694m and, thanks to savings on operating expenses that were GBP10m higher than the regulator...

GUS (GUS).
June 2, 2006... taking the consumer downturn into account, this was a resilient performance from soon-to-be-demerged retail conglomerate GUS. In fact, Argos's underlying sales fell by just 1 per cent, partly helped by its Argos Extra format, which has now been...

DAILY MAIL & GENERAL TRUST (DMGT/DMGO).
June 2, 2006... Daily Mail & general trust's (DMGT) results are a tale of divergent performance between sectors within the media industry. Its consumer operations are struggling in the advertising recession, while its business-to-business (B2B) assets are...

BURBERRY (BRBY).
June 2, 2006... Burberry looks all dressed up with somewhere still to go after a respectable 3 per cent rise in total underlying revenues during the period. The group's retail division also performed well, with like-for-like sales up 11 per cent and reported...

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE (LSE).
June 2, 2006... A buoyant stock market helped London Stock Exchange (LSE) push operating profits up by 42 per cent during the year to GBP120.1m, although pre-tax profits rose just 1 per cent after allowing for goodwill and other costs - these included GBP12.1m...

TELENT (TLNT).
June 2, 2006... Telent, formerly Marconi, has agreed to a 529.5p-a-share cash takeover bid from New York-based private-equity group Fortress Investment. But before the offer is formally announced, Telent is seeking confirmation from key customers that...

FUTURA MEDICAL (FUM).
June 2, 2006... "The short answer is slowly," admits chief executive James Barder when asked how out-licensing discussions for Futura's rub-on gel for erectile dysfunction are progressing. This time last year, the company announced it was in talks with a major...

INNOVATION (TIG).
June 2, 2006... Innovation reported first-half revenue growth ahead of the City's estimates, largely thanks to trading at its outsourcing operations in South Africa, the UK and Germany. Outsourcing accounts for just over half of the group's business, and this...

IMAGINATION TECHNOLOGIES (IMG).
June 2, 2006... Imagination licenses its technology to semiconductor companies, such as Intel and Samsung, who use it in chips sold to multimedia and communications product makers, such as Sony. So Imagination gets a licence fee when it signs up a partner and...

PAYPOINT (PAY).
June 2, 2006... PayPoint has already come a long way in a short period of time, but it shows no signs of slowing. The company provides terminals to handle bill payments, as well as cash withdrawals, and its number of outlets grew 17 per cent in the year to...

SUTTON HARBOUR (SUH).
June 2, 2006... Profits from Sutton Harbour's transport activities, which include low-cost airline Air Southwest and the operation of Plymouth City airport, more than doubled to GBP2.1m last year. Its Air Southwest operation flies to UK destinations from...

FERRARIS (FER).
June 2, 2006... Ferraris' shares fell over 30 per cent on the day of these results and it is easy to see why. The troubled diagnostics company has had a torrid 12 months since cancellations of customers' clinical trials last year forced it to warn on profits....

MOTHERCARE (MTC).
June 2, 2006... Mothercare continues to progress, under chief executive Ben Gordon's strategy of "transforming ourselves into a global brand which happens to have a UK presence". As a result, the group's international operation now comprises 266 stores in 37...

YOUNG & CO'S BREWERY (YNGA/YNGN).
June 2, 2006... "It's all about scale," is how Peter Whitehead, Young's finance director, sums up the business of making beer. And while his words will grate with beard-and-sandal-wearing ale connoisseurs, they are true enough. That's why the historic company...

WOLVERHAMPTON & DUDLEY BREWERIES (WOLV).
June 2, 2006... Wolves & Dudley raised a glass to its acquisition spree as it toasted solid full-year results. A string of acquisitions during 2005 - Burtonwood, Jennings Brothers and English Country Inns - are now delivering synergy benefits of over GBP6m a...

OPTOS (OPTS).
June 2, 2006... Optos, which floated on the main market in February, wants every optician to carry out its retinal test as standard. The company's technology takes an image of the back of the eye, allowing opticians to check for abnormalities such as macular...

MITCHELLS & BUTLERS (MAB).
June 2, 2006... Mitchells & Butlers owns and operates around 2,000 pubs and it enjoyed steady growth from both food and drink sales in the first half. The restaurant division's like-for-like sales grew 5.3 per cent in the period and the pubs' and bars' sales...

TREATT (TET).
June 2, 2006... Treatt's specialist flavour and fragrance businesses have enjoyed a buoyant first half, despite lacking the hefty one-off profits generated in the first half of last year from sales of grapefruit and orange oil products. Admittedly, the first...

HAMWORTHY (HMY).
June 2, 2006... Hamworthy ended the year in rude health, with a record order book of GBP207m. And management believes that strong demand for its maritime engineering products could see the order book exceed expectations this year. For example, the soaring...

NORD ANGLIA EDUCATION (NAE).
June 2, 2006... Nord Anglia owns the Leapfrog nursery chain, the UK's largest private nursery provider. Unfortunately, this division, which accounts for half of sales, is struggling. The government has increased its spending on free nursery places, and private...

CRANSWICK (CWK).
June 2, 2006... There's never a scrawny cut with Cranswick. The pork specialist has continued to serve up meaty growth, well ahead of the industry as a whole. While the fresh pork market expanded by only 2 per cent last year, the firm's range of products was...

TATE & LYLE (TATE).
June 2, 2006... Tate & Lyle isn't smiling about sugar any more. The EU sugar reforms, due to be finalised in July, will remove the protection enjoyed by European sugar manufacturers from cheap imports, effectively slashing their prices by 36 per cent. So Tate...

JELF (JLF).
June 2, 2006... Jelf continues to benefit from its aggressive acquisition policy, which has seen it integrate 16 businesses in the past four years. One of these was Goss, its biggest deal yet, acquired after the end of the first half. So, despite a soft...

Roche blow to Antisoma.
June 9, 2006... Shares in Antisoma fell 24 per cent after its partner, Roche, returned the rights to R1550, the company's breast cancer drug. Roche has also decided not to take up its option on Antisoma's lung cancer treatment, AS1404. Analysts at ING say...

CLUFF GOLD (CLF).
June 9, 2006... Last December, Cluff Gold raised over GBP800,000 via a placing at 45p and then, this March, it raised a further GBP15m at 68p. That gives it a war chest to accelerate trenching and drilling on its West African gold projects. The first to...

ENGLISH WINES.
June 9, 2006... A fire in August 2004 and the loss of 155,000 litres of wine knocked English Wines' 2005 results, but it ought to break even this year. There were also higher marketing costs incurred in rebranding wines under the Chapel Down label. However,...

SCOTTISH & SOUTHERN ENERGY (SSE).
June 9, 2006... A decision to delay energy price increases means that Scottish & Southern (SSE) is a popular choice for those looking to switch energy suppliers. In fact, during its last financial year, the group added 600,000 new customers, taking the total...

AquaSource Algae.
June 9, 2006... Ofex. Health foods and supplements

Supply shocks.
June 9, 2006... Investors don't spend much time thinking about real business-cycle theory. Maybe they should, though, because this bit of economic thinking is the biggest threat to our wealth. Put it this way, there are two big fears about the US economy now:...

They think it's all over.
June 9, 2006... Speculators, eh? they'll lend their support to almost almost anything when it's looking good, increase the hype and the volatility, and then run for the exit before the final whistle. That's certainly the explanation given by some stock-market...

Age concern.
June 9, 2006... Wednesday 29 March: No such thing as a free lunch Share club meeting. Serious drinking probable, so got Eunice to give me a lift. Mistake. Only she can overtake at 60mph in second gear, then ask what "that funny screaming noise" is. Only...

Vodafone's GBP24BN writedown.
June 9, 2006... Vodafone's GBP24bn writedown was irresist-ible for headline writers. This Alice-in-Wonderland number was the prime component in the biggest loss ever declared by any UK company. "The company actually made a profit of GBP9bn for the year but...

Property priorities.
June 9, 2006... Many investors have begun to venture into commercial property and, given the pricing of other assets and the recent tribulations of the equity markets, many more will now be looking to join them. One of the main attractions is that...

Generic threat stalks Biotechs.
June 9, 2006... The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first generic version of a biotechnology drug, in a move that could open the door for further copycat biotech products. Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis's drug Omnitrope is a generic...

Techmark Mediscience awards unveiled.
June 9, 2006... BTG was the star of this year's Techmark Mediscience Awards, announced on Thursday, walking away with two awards: the best-performing share and chief executive of the year for Louise Makin. The best-performing Aim share went to Henderson...

Value into growth does go.
June 9, 2006... Think of growth stocks and the instinctive reaction is still to turn to companies that operate at the frontiers of commercial technology - the sort you find in the computer and biotechnology sectors. However, a good question to ask about such...

Euro bondholders rail against debt deal.
June 9, 2006... Eurotunnel's bondholders are rumoured to be unhappy with the financial restructuring plan agreed with large debtors, and speculation is mounting that they will present an alternative proposal. Eurotunnel also has to get its restructuring deal...

Chocolate chairman keeps City sweet.
June 9, 2006... John von Spreckelsen, who successfully turned around Budgens and Somerfield, has now taken on the role of chairman at ailing chocolate retailer Thorntons. The shares rose 9 per cent following the news. At 127p, the shares trade on a heady...

Cadbury Schweppes reports growth.
June 9, 2006... Soda guzzling and gum chewing in the US have contributed to Cadbury Schweppes' strong recent growth. The confectionary and soft drinks giant - whose products include Green & Black's chocolate and Dr Pepper - has achieved a sales improvement at...

Faster profits.
June 9, 2006... In New York's Grand Central Station, cameras scan the dense crowds looking for terrorists. The technology is so sophisticated that it can film a person entering a station and, if he or she fits a terrorist's profile, it can send a message to...

McAlpine reaps bank of ireland windfall.
June 9, 2006... Infrastructure services provider Alfred McAlpine has been awarded an GBP80m contract by the Bank of Ireland to provide facilities management services for the bank's properties in Ireland. The contract will run for an initial seven years and is...

Regent bidder goes walkabout.
June 9, 2006... Takeover talks at Aussie-themed bar owner Regent Inns have come to nothing. And the company - which also owns comedy clubs - has admitted to sluggish trade of late. Even so, the World Cup could boost its Walkabout chain, should England do...