Top story
The sale of the Dunbia pork division to Cranswick has reignited speculation that a deal for the remaining red meat business is moving closer.
The entirety of the Northern Irish processor has been on the block for more than a year, with a potential joint venture spin-off with the red meat business of 2 Sisters, as revealed by The Grocer in March, failing to complete despite talks getting to an advanced stage.
A senior City source said this week that Jim and Jack Dobson, who founded Dunbia in the 1970s, were in “exclusive talks” with another bidder for the red meat arm.
“The red meat business will still have to be sold and if those talks break down then a piecemeal sale [for the 10 red meat sites] may be the only option left,” the dealmaker added.
Click here to read the full story.
Morning update
The Grocer also has the story this morning that One Stop’s franchise business made a trading loss of £2m in its latest year as it continued to be impacted by set-up costs.
According to results for the 12 months to 27 February 2016 published last week at Companies House, the loss had shrunk from £3m in the previous financial year, which covered the first year of its franchise arm which launched in 2014.
Overall, the Tesco-owned retailer said pre-tax profits increased 47.5% to £15.03m on sales up 3.7% to £958.7m.
Click here to read the full story.
Elsewhere, AIM-listed African agriculture group Agriterra has reported its full-year results for the year to 31 May 2016. The group’s loss for the year from continuing operations, which excludes the results of the discontinued cocoa operations, reduced from $8.2m in 2015 to $7.7m last year. Excluding non-recurring impairments $3m, the loss has decreased by 44% to $4.6m,reflecting both an increase in gross profit, primarily in the grain division, and a decrease in other operating expenses.
The company stated: “The African agriculture market remains an area of growth potential, with Mozambique having particularly strong prospects because of the eagerly anticipated establishment of a liquefied natural gas industry in the north of the country. As and when this industry gains significant development and production traction in Mozambique, it is expected to significantly change the economy of the entire country, which will translate into consequential growth in our revenue potential.”
On the markets this morning, the FTSE 100 has lost yesterday’s gains, dropping 0.6% to 6,752.4pts so far today.
Early risers include CARR’s Group (CARR), up 3.4% to 152p, Devro (DVO), up 2.5% to 178.6p, Premier Foods (PFD), up 1.6% to 47.3p and B&M European Value Retail (BME), up 1.6% to 260.4p.
Fallers include Applegreen (APGN), down 2.6% to 380p, Science in Sport (SIS), down 2.4% to 62p, Total Produce (TOT), down 1.4% to 145.5p and C&C Group (CCR), down 1.3% to €3.43.
Yesterday in the City
The FTSE 100 rebounded 0.7% yesterday to 6,794.7pts, lifted by the stronger than expected rise in ONS retail sales announced yesterday.
Despite announcing a £4.4m first half loss yesterday, Majestic Wine (WINE) shares rose 4.7% to 316p after management restated its commitment to reach £500m in sales by 2019 and reintroduced its shareholder dividend.
Ocado, which plunged on Wednesday after the announcement of the same day delivery tie-up between Morrisons and Amazon, recovered 2.9% back to 265.8p yesterday.
Other risers included WH Smith (SMWH), up 2.3% to 1,513p, Cranswick (CWK), after buying Dunbia’s pork business on Tuesday, was up 1.6% to 2,300p and SSP Group (SSPG) was up 1.6% to 332p.
The day’s fallers included Greencore (GNC) after its share price surge earlier this week on the acquisition of US business Peacock Foods, down 2.6% to 312.3p, Hotel Chocolat (HOTC) fell 3.3% to 235p, Patisseries Holdings (CAKE) dropped 2.6% to 312.3p, McColl’s (MCLS) was down 1.5% to 175p and Dairy Crest (DCG) dropped 1% to 572p.
No comments yet