The new City game of guess the takeover
DEALERS had only one thing on their minds and it wasn't tomorrow's Budget. They know the chances of Chancellor Gordon Brown abolishing the 0.5% stamp duty on share dealing to make London more competitive with other international bourses are nil.
But another 1p on a pint of beer, 5p on a bottle of wine and 8p on a packet of oily rags will not bring about a grave change in their lifestyle. The identity of the next Footsie takeover target is of far more importance.
Confirmation of Aviva's £17bn allshare bid approach helped Prudential soar 91p before closing 71½p higher at 743½p. Aviva itself was 2p off at 848½p, but confirmation of the long-mooted move galvanised other insurers.
Friends Provident closed 4¾p up at 218 ¼p and Legal & General 1 ¼p at 144¾p. Royal Sun Alliance, rumoured to be on Axa of France's shopping list, touched 145 ¼p but ended only ½p dearer at 140p.
Spurred on by actual and rumoured takeover situations, the Footsie advanced 39.7 points to 6,039.1 before reacting on late profit-taking to finish 7.7 points off at 5,991.7. Wall Street lost an initial 28-point gain to trade 19 lower in the early stages.
Hanson jumped 27 ½p further to a record 778p as speculation intensified about a possible cash bid from Lafarge of France. Hanson has the ability to generate £500m cash and stands alone in the global building materials industry after BPB Industries was bought by St Gobain of France for £3.9bn and RMC by Mexico's CEMEX for £3.3bn.
Almost 69m LloydsTSB shares changed hands as revived rumours of a cash deal in excess of £7 a share from Spain's BBVA did the rounds. After touching 572p, the weakest and cheapest of the UK banks closed 7p better at 558p.
International bank Standard Chartered raced up to 1583p amid vague bid talk before retreating on a Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein sell recommendation to finish at 1533p, up 13p.
Strongly rumoured to have recently rejected a £6bn, or £10-plus cash bid approach, 3i gained 14 ½p to 953p. The only private equity firm in the Footsie has accelerated the speed at which it is sell its legacy portfolio of small, minority shareholdings.
It recently hit the headlines by launching an agreed £111m bid for Noddy and Mr Men intellectual property group Chorion, unchanged at 428½p. Mining giant Anglo American advanced 28p to 2063p amid reports that Finnish-Swedish StoraEnso is mulling a £4.5bn bid for its paper unit, Mondi. Anglo has already announced plans to spin the division off and possibly list it on the London Stock Exchange.
Vague talk of a possible bid from ExxonMobil, the world's largest listed oil company which operates as Esso in the UK, helped BG Group gush 8½p to 709p. Last week it was suggested that Exxon is stalking BP, 4p cheaper at 657½p.
Housebuilder Crest Nicholson jumped 25¼p to 570½p on continuing speculation that Gerald Ronson's Heron International has been approached for its 23.3% stake in the company. Heron held on to the shareholding following an abortive takeover attempt last year.
Caravan park company Parkdean rose 1p to 269p following confirmation it has received several expressions of interest to acquire the group's camping division, which reported much lower profits of £13m last year, compared to £18.9m the previous year.
Aortech International soared 114p to 388p after signing a licensing and supply agreement with St Jude Medical allowing it to use Aortech's Elast-Eon biomaterial for cardiac rhythm management leads.
After signing a license term sheet with an unnamed U.S. dermatological drugs company, Henderson Morley firmed 0.35p to 2.3p. HM's technology will be used by the U.S. company to make non-genital wart products.
Central China Goldfields firmed ¾p to 7p amid speculation the firm is about to acquire the first in a series of producing mines in China which will all be cash flow positive from year one.
• DEALERS expect Sandvine to shoot to a 20p premium when dealings get under way on the thriving Aim market today. Placed at 75p by the ubiquitous Canaccord, shares of the Ontario-based provider of broadband equipment and software will be popular with the techno buffs. The group's blue-chip clients include Mediacom in North America, Wanadoo in Europe and Zycom in Asia.
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