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’Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Total to pay $1.63bn over seven years in US shale gas venture with Chesapeake and EnerVest — statement.
- Codelco says it exercises disputed option to buy 49 per cent of Anglo American’s Chile subsidiary,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday,
- Ocado warns on its measure of profits; sees full EBITDA between £27.5m to £28.5; analysts expecting £34.3m — statement.
- HMV puts Live business up for sale;
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday,
- BHP Billtion to plough $4bn into US shale gas — statement.
- Sage rejects claims for damages by Archer Capital — statement.
- ITV reduces capex forecast;
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Olympus admits to covering up losses since 90′s — statement and statement.
- Lloyds Banking Group warns medium-term financial targets may be delayed; however Q3 Net Interest Margin in line with forecasts — statement.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Wednesday,
- AstraZeneca says FDA advisory committee has voted against diabetes drug dapagliflozin — statement.
- Handelsbanken reports better-than-expected Q2 results — statement.
Yell goes digital
About 10 years too late, Yell — the heavily indebted directories group — is going digital.
From Thursday’s strategic review announcement:
(Warning contains management speak.)
Following a rigorous six month strategic review,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- UBS to axe 5,000 jobs – report.
- Yell announces new strategy (to provide a broad range of digital services to SMEs) — statement.
- Premier Foods appoints Kraft executive as new CEO — statement.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Thomas Cook warns on profits – statement.
- PSA Peugeot reports rise in sales — statement.
- Microsoft and Yell announce strategic alliance — statement.
Taking the corporate hospital pass
Yell has a new chief executive. His name is Michael Pocock and in a previous life he was the boss of Polaroid* which he managed to nurse back to profitability and eventually sell.
Presumably he will
Yell and the curse of the rescue rights issue
Strange but true.
Until Prudential launched its record breaking £14.5bn fund raising on Monday, there had been no cash call from companies listed on London Stock Exchange in 2010.
However, the fallout from last year’s wave of rescue rights issues is still being felt.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Vodafone expects 2011 operating profits to be in the range of £11.2bn to £12bn; takes impairment charge of £2.3bn on Indian operations – statement.
- Yell announces retirement of chief executive and chief financial officer;
Corporate change and cash calls
It’s obviously coincidental, but isn’t it funny how often management change follows an unpopular cash call?
It happened at Reed Elsevier, then Rexam and now Ladbrokes, which you may recall launched an unpopular £275m rights issue in October.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Wednesday,
- Akzo Nobel announces debt tender offer – statement.
- Yell gets valid acceptances on about 84 per cent of open offer shares – statement.
- Corporate: Compass,
Yell calls for cash
The generosity of big City investors is about to be tested again.
Yell – that’s the directories company with a broken business model and a mountain of debt – has announced on Tuesday morning plans to raise £660m via firm placing and open offer at 42p.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Friday,
- Nationwide UK house price index shows annual house price inflation was positive for first time since March 2008 – statement.
- Cosmen family voices concern about “absence of a well defined strategy”
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- Aegon to repay €1bn to the Dutch state – statement.
- Deutsche Bank reports third quarter net profit of €1.4bn – statement.
- National Express ends merger discussions with Stagecoach and will move forward with rights issue – statement,
Yell misses debt deadline
Yell, the UK telephone directories group, on Monday failed to meet its deadline to win enough lender support for plans to restructure its £3.8bn debt. Yell is on Tuesday expected to announce a second deadline extension to give lenders more time to approve the plans.
How to spot a takeover target – quant style
We all know M&A is back (or is supposed to be), and with the revival, various lists of possible takeover targets.
And here is another from Citigroup – but with a twist. The targets have been generated by a logit regression model with inputs from 1,000 deals stretching all the way back to 1994.
Bonfire of the bears – Yell edition
Wednesday’s early price action.
And over the past week..
Date Chg % Chg
The smell of burnt fingers…
is wafting across the Square Mile on Tuesday.
From Data Explorers, we present the short interest in Yell.
And the recent price action in the heavily indebted directories group.
Today’s advance seems to have been caused by Cazenove,
Yell faces reality
What’s that we can hear from the Reading headquarters of Yell? Why, it is the unmistakable sound of the penny finally dropping.
Here’s Tuesday’s “shock” statement from the heavily indebted directories company.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Nationwide says house prices rose by 0.9 per cent in June — statement.
- Yell Group starts refinancing, Q1 revenue to be 20 per cent lower — statement.
- Aminex announces placing to raise $11.5m and open offer to raise $3m — statement.
Working knowledge of reckless leverage – Yell edition
Yell has a new chairman and it is someone who knows all about debt – a very senior ex-investment banker.
From the Yell statement:
Bob Wigley (aged 48) was, until 30 January 2009, Chairman, EMEA, Merrill Lynch International,
Yell(ow) analysis?
It’s not often a house broker withdraws an investment recommendation on a corporate client. But it happened on Thursday – to Yell.
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch moved from a “neutral” recommendation on the heavily indebted directories business to “No Rating”.
YELLow Directors
Buried in Wednesday’s annual results statement from debt laden directories group Yell was this rather worrying note:
The financial information contained herein has been prepared on a going concern basis.
Yell shares plunge on profit warning
Shares in Yell suffered one of the biggest one-day falls seen by a FTSE 100 company in years, as the directories business struggled to persuade investors it could tackle a flood of competition in its US market.