Wednesday April 30, 04:36 PM
Sector movers: Aussie takeover plan drags BG Group lower
LONDON (ShareCast) - Oil and gas giant BG Group (LSE: BG.L - news) is looking to beef up its Australian business with an unsolicited A$12.9bn
(£6.1bn) approach for Origin Energy. The £40bn UK company confirmed recent press speculation by making public details of a A$14.70 a share cash offer for Australia's second-biggest electricity and gas retailer. It (Frankfurt: A0MLX5 - news) also reported a forecast busting 78% hike in first quarter earnings to £767m, way ahead of the £685m predicted. Revenue was 59% higher at £3.09bn, while earnings before one-off items rose 76% to £789m. BG pitched its offer for Origin at a 40% premium to Tuesday's closing price, leaving its shares off colour Wednesday. It says the deal will be funded from existing cash reserves and debt financing provided by a syndicate of banks. The company has already been active in the region this year, having agreed in February to establish an alliance with Queensland Gas Company (QGC). The pair will develop onshore coal seam gas acreage and a new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production and export facility on the Queensland coast. First exports of LNG are expected in 2013. BG has paid £299m for a 20% stake in QGC's coal seam gas assets in the Surat Basin and for a 9.9% stake in the company itself. BG shares reacted negatively to the news, trading almost 5% lower Wednesday afternoon. Home Retail Group reported record profits at its Argos unit but things were tougher at Homebase where like-for-like sales slipped 4.1%. Revenue in the 52 weeks to 1 March 2008 rose to £5.98bn from £5.85bn (pro-forma) a year earlier. Revenue from Argos rose to £4.32bn from £4.16bn, with like-for-like sales up 0.7%, but sales at Homebase dipped to £1.57bn from £1.59bn. The group has published pro-forma comparative figures for the previous year to take into account the change of year-end and the change in company structure at the time of its demerger. Pre-tax profit rose to £426m from £321.2m a year earlier. Net cash increased by £114m to £174m, as at 1 March 2008. The company has announced a final dividend of 10p, making the total dividend for the year 14.7p, up 13% on the preceding year. Broker Panmure Gordon said the profits were at the top end of expectations and reiterated its "buy" recommendation.
Top performing sectors so far today
Personal Goods 7,941.40 +3.38%
General Retailers 1,580.30 +3.11%
Health Care Equipment & Services 3,892.70 +2.50%
Insurance (non-life) 1,195.10 +2.49%
Food & Drug Retailers 4,956.70 +2.32% Bottom performing sectors so far today
Forestry & Paper 4,327.40 -3.66%
Tobacco 24,844.20 -1.33%
Oil & Gas Producers 8,589.10 -0.89%
Mining 26,319.10 -0.51%
Electricity 7,940.70 -0.45%
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