Legal action against litigation funder Burford Capital (BUR) over allegations of irregular accounting practices has been withdrawn. Burford has been under pressure after short-seller Muddy Waters questioned its corporate governance and accounts in a scathing report, prompting it to agree to a major overhaul of its boardroom and to improve accountability. Yesterday Burford said: ‘The US securities class action against Burford filed in August 2019 has been withdrawn and dismissed in its entirety.’ The company said two new non-executives will be unveiled ahead of the annual shareholder meeting in May, and a listing in the US.
Aston Martin Holdings (AML) shares have plunged more than 75% below their float price after the car maker issued yet another profit warning. After what chief executive Andy Palmer described as a ‘bloody difficult year’, profits for 2019 are set to almost halve to £130million. One analyst branded the performance as ‘one of the biggest flops in living memory’. Aston Martin saw car sales fall 7% last year to 5,809. It reported ‘rapidly’ growing orders for the new DBX four-by-four, seen as key to Aston’s success. But it was held back by weak European sales and subdued demand for its Vantage model.
Safestore Holdings (SAFE) says it is in a ‘strong position’ despite a operating profits falling by 17%. The Hertfordshire firm increased its revenue by £7.9million in the 2018/19 financial year to £151.8million. The company has also been growing its presence in the UK, Netherlands and French self-storage markets and on Tuesday, it announced a £15million deal to enter the Spanish market. Safestore put the fall in profits down to a change in its property portfolio valuation. It acquired a number of new sites during the year, including a Heathrow site for £6.6million, storage units in Chelsea and St John’s Wood in London for £14million, and four stores in Barcelona after taking possession of Spanish firm OhMyBox. The group also purchased a 20% stake in Dutch firm M3, which has six stores in Amsterdam and Haarlem.
Barclays (BARC) must end the £13billion a year it sends to finance fossil fuel companies and stop funding coal mines and controversial tar sands exploration, a group of shareholders has said. Eleven institutional investors, including several pension funds, want it to phase out its financing of ‘active agents of driving the climate crisis’. The investors, who own about 1% of shares, want a vote at May’s shareholders’ meeting on a motion to gradually stop project finance, corporate finance and underwriting of projects not aligned with the Paris climate agreement. ‘Piecemeal changes in energy policy will no longer cut it. ‘For too long, minor policy improvements have provided cover for the banking sector, while failing to halt fossil fuel financing,’ said Jeanne Martin at the Share Action charity.
A partner at ULS Technology (ULS) major shareholder has joined its board as a non-executive director. Oliver Scott, 52, is an investment manager at funds group Kestrel, which owns 24% of ULS’s shares. Software provider ULS, whose systems help automate housing transactions, has seen shares jump by as much as 42% since the December election. But shares in the firm stumbled on news of the latest hire.
BP (BP.) has announced it will sell its oil fields in the North Sea for $625million (£475million). Premier Oil (PMO) is acquiring the Andrew Area and Shearwater oil sites from the company in the hope that the fields will produce enough oil to improve the company’s financial situation. The two areas produce between 39,000 and 44,000 barrels of oil a day while the Shearwater site has estimated reserves of 25 million barrels. The cost of the acquisition works out at less than 10 dollars per barrel of oil, while it will cost Premier around 20 dollars to extract it from the ground. This means that as long as the price of oil stays above 30 dollars, the driller will be able to make a profit. The deal comes as the oil price notched above 70 dollars per barrel on Monday, following tensions arising from the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimaini in a drone strike by the United States.Traders fear that if tensions in the Middle East are further exacerbated, oil supplies from the region could suffer major cuts, pushing up the oil price even further.
Premier Oil (PMO) is facing a public showdown with its largest creditor over plans to refinance and go on a North Sea acquisition spree. The energy group yesterday revealed plans to buy BP (BP.) oilfields in the region for £475million and an agreement worth up to £188million to buy assets from Korea’s Dana Petroleum. The announcement came alongside £2billion refinancing proposals that would give it breathing room until 2023. But its biggest creditor, Hong Kong-based hedge fund Asia Research & Capital Management (ARCM), has vowed to fight the strategy, urging Premier to ditch the deals and plough all its money into paying off debt. City insiders say shareholders are furious that ARCM is kicking up a storm when it also has a huge short position against Premier. Although ARCM has bought around 15% of Premier Oil’s debt, it has also short-sold a whopping 17% of its stock – meaning it would make a huge gain if its shares lost value. Premier argues that the North Sea deals would help bring in an extra £760million by 2023. So the rabid fight back against what seems to many to be a good option has raised eyebrows. And even if ARCM has pledged to disrupt the deals, it is not clear that it can, as Premier is just shy of the 75% of its creditors needed to give their backing.
NMC Health (NMC) tumbled 177p, to 1494.5p. Finablr PLC (FIN), a currency exchange firm which was also set up by NMC’s founder, fell 9.5p, to 154.5p. After the stock market closed, it was revealed that two Middle Eastern businessmen were set to sell around £370million shares in NMC, and £57million in Finablr. Saeed Mohamed Butti Mohamed Khalfan Al Qebaisi and Khaleefa Butti Omair Yousif Ahmed Al Muhairi said they were selling the shares to help pay off their own debts. But this will come as little comfort to shareholders in the firms, who are worried that Muddy Waters’ attack on NMC will continue to ward off new investors.
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) was given a boost by brokers at Berenberg, who bestowed on it a rare double upgrade from ‘sell’ to ‘buy’ ahead of its third-quarter trading update tomorrow. Berenberg analysts think there will be a ‘significant improvement’ in its clothing and home arm and shares rose 5.3p, to 218.4p.
Technology group BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) was on the up after it received its first commercial order for a new DNA-based medical diagnostics system from an Italian medical equipment distributor.
