A British songwriter who crafted hits with Adele and Stormzy has sold part of his back catalogue to a music investment firm. Hipgnosis Songs Fund (SONG) said it had snapped up worldwide income rights held by Fraser T Smith to 298 songs, including several UK and US number one hits. Smith was entitled to royalties from 2011’s Set Fire To The Rain by Adele, as well as Sam Smith’s 2014 album In The Lonely Hour. Hipgnosis did not disclose how much it had paid for the income rights. The company has raised more than £625million from the markets since it listed in London in July last year.
The £4.7billlion takeover of Inmarsat (ISAT) by a private equity-led consortium was rubber stamped by London’s High Court after a group of rebel shareholders dropped their opposition the deal. In a bid to extract more cash from the buyers, hedge funds Oaktree Capital, Kite Lake and Rubric Capital had been due to urge a judge to withhold final approval of the deal today. But the group of shareholders said they had dropped their opposition after the buyers – a private equity consortium, involving Apax Partners, Warburg Pincus and Canadian pension funds – confirmed they would not increase or extend their offer. It comes after the buyout won approval from regulators and a majority of shareholders.
Glencore (GLEN) has been ‘shocked to the core’ by a spate of deaths at its mines and is ramping up efforts to improve safety. As chief executive Ivan Glasenberg hinted he could step down next year, the company’s head of industrial mining, Peter Freyberg, said: ‘We know it’s something we have to deal with, and we’re dealing with it.’ Sixteen people have died at the Anglo-Swiss group this year, up 23% from last year and 77% more than in 2017.
The success of blockbusters like Joker and Frozen 2 were not enough for Cineworld Group (CINE), which warned full year revenues were likely to come in lower than expected. The group said UK cinema admissions in the 11 months to 1 December fell by 13%, blaming it on the delay in the release of some ‘highly anticipated’ movies like Avatar 2, to next year. However, the owner of Picturehouse cinemas said the second half of the year started ‘strongly’ thanks to the popularity of movies like Joker and Spider-Man: Far from Home. And Cineworld bosses are hoping the new Star Wars movie – Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – and Jumanji: The Next Level, due to be released this month, will boost sales.
Lens maker Gooch & Housego (GHH) rose 17.5p, to 1270p, despite the US-China trade war sending profits down 20% to £15million. Annual revenue at the Somerset engineer, which makes parts for medical devices, aerospace and surveillance, rose 3.4% to £129million. It said in June that profits would be hit by a drop in Chinese demand for products used in industrial lasers to make silicon chips. This cancelled out record demand for fibre optics products, used in undersea cables.
Bosses at Centamin (DI) (CEY) have snubbed a £1.5billion merger bid from Canada’s Endeavour Mining, as the latest wave of deal-making in the gold industry reached London. In its rebuttal, Centamin’s board said the terms of the offer undervalued the mid-cap miner and that Endeavour would benefit more from the tie-up. Centamin’s investors would have owned 47.1% of the new entity, while Endeavour’s would have 52.9%. But analysts saw potential, with Peel Hunt saying the timing was right and there was a good combined business model on offer. With just a single main project – the Sukari gold mine in Egypt – Centamin is seen as a bit of a one- trick pony. Despite being high-quality, Sukari is struggling with sluggish production. Centamin is also exploring for gold in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso – two of the three countries, incidentally, in which Endeavour has a presence. The third is Mali. Endeavour must formally make an offer, or announce it is not making one, by the end of December. Centamin rocketed 16.6p, to 128.8p, ahead of the 126p per share bid, suggesting the City is gearing up for a sweetened bid or hostile takeover. Finncap analyst Martin Potts said the bid could have wider repercussions and pave the way for a cut-price overseas takeover of struggling Yorkshire fertiliser miner Sirius Minerals (SXX).
