Johnson Matthey, up 0.2%, announced that it will open a new battery application centre at the business and science community of Milton Park in Oxfordshire.
Greene King, up 0.1%, announced that it has received an unconditional clearance from the European Commission, under the EU Merger Regulation, for the recommended cash offer by CK Bidco to acquire entire issued and to be issued share capital of Greene King. The Sanction Hearing will be held on 29 October 2019 and the scheme is expected to be effective on 30 October 2019.
Brady, up 140%, announced that it has received a takeover offer from Hanover Acquisition Limited (Hanover Bidco), an investment vehicle owned by Hanover Active Equity Fund II. Brady’s board has recommended its shareholders to accept Hanover Bidco’s cash offer of 10p per Brady share.
Sareum Holdings, up 3%, announced that its annual operating loss slightly declined to £1.68m from £1.72m reported in the last year. Its basic and diluted loss per share remained steady at 0.05p. Separately, Sareum announced that it has published the abstract of its poster which is to be presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) International Conference on 29 October 2019 by Sareum’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Tim Mitchell.
Science Group, up 0.5%, in its trading update, announced that its trading performance over the summer period was slightly better than anticipated, with Group businesses performing well. It expects to report a £3m one-off charge related to Frontier Smart Technologies Group Limited’s (Frontier) restructuring and to book profits through Frontier in 2020. Separately, the company announced the successful completion of its acquisition of Frontier and notified that trading of its shares has been suspended and will be delisted from AIM on 21 October 2019.
Gaming Realms, unchanged at 6.9p, announced that it has appointed Mark Blandford as a Non-Executive Director, with immediate effect.
Tristel, down 0.8%, announced that its annual revenues rose to £26.2m from £22.2m posted in the last year. Its profit before tax advanced to £4.7m from £4m reported in the previous year, while its basic earnings per share advanced to 9.1p from 7.6p. The Board has declared a final dividend of 3.5p per share.
1Spatial, down 2.9%, announced that its half-yearly revenues advanced to £10.9m from £8.8m posted in the same period last year. Its loss before tax narrowed to £0.7m from £0.8m reported in the previous year, whereas its basic loss per share declined to 0.6p from 2p.
UK markets ended mostly lower last week. The British unemployment rate surprisingly rose in the June-August period, whereas the nation’s inflation rose less than anticipated in September. Meanwhile, UK retail sales remained steady in September. The UK Prime Minister and the European Union agreed on a new Brexit deal; however this has not been ratified by parliament. The FTSE 100 index declined 1.3% to settle at 7247.08, while the FTSE AIM 100 index rose 1.2% to close at 4441.82. Meanwhile, the FTSE techMARK 100 index lost 0.8% to end at 5295.66.
US markets closed mixed in the previous week, as traders remained anxious regarding the status of the US-China trade talks. The US housing starts fell more than anticipated in September, while the industrial production dropped more than expected in September. The US Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book report indicated that the US economy grew at a slight to modest pace since September, despite mounting trade tensions and weaker global economic growth. The DJIA index fell 0.2% to end at 26816.59, while the NASDAQ index gained 0.4% to close at 8057.04.