Premier Foods’ shares hit a four-month high this week, but it wasn’t just the sale of its pickles and table sauces business that sent the stock soaring.

Shares climbed to 101.5p on Monday following weekend reports the debt-laden food manufacturer had been approached by private equity over a possible £1.2bn takeover. And they kept rising on Tuesday, closing at 109p, when Premier revealed it had completed the £200m sale of its sweets, spreads and jellies business to Hain Celestial and sold the Branston pickle brand to Japanese group Mizkan for £92.5m.

The deals, on top of the vinegars sale in June, mean Premier has now made £370m through disposals since March - way above the £330m it had promised the banks it would achieve by June 2014. Analysts noted Premier’s announcement that it now planned to “focus our attention on driving further momentum in our grocery business and unlocking value in bread”.

Panmure Gordon analyst Graham Jones, said: “We don’t think this rules out further disposals, such as sweet dehydrated powders, for example, and we think no option is being ruled out in bread, including exiting milling, looking again at logistics costs, or even selling the business as a whole if a high enough offer is received.”

Takeover news - or rather the lack of it - made shares dip slightly at Britvic (by 0.8p to 359.2p) and AG Barr (by 3p to 445p), which on Wednesday revealed the Takeover Panel had extended the 31 October deadline to agree a merger until 28 November. “In the event that this merger does not proceed, we see little downside for AG Barr but meaningful downside for Britvic,” said Canaccord Genuity analyst Wayne Brown.

Shares were also down at Imperial tobacco this week. The full-year results on Tuesday revealed it had taken a £1.2bn writedown on its Spanish business due to the worsening economic climate in the country. Its shares fell 30p to £23.40.

But it was another great week for wholesaler Booker whose shares continue to climb following the release of its half-year results a fortnight ago when CEO Charles Wilson laid out his plans for the recently acquired Makro. A positive note from analysts at Investec, who suggested Booker had the potential to be a FTSE 100 company, sent shares to a record high of 102.5p by Wednesday.

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