Invensys popped almost 27 per cent on Wednesday on the back of some renewed bid speculation. As Paul noted unusually firm speculation has swirled round Invensys for months now and quite a few fingers have been burned as the company consistently failed to supply any confirmatory statements.
The lastest piece of guess-work came via Bloomberg (now updated): Read more
Kinda nutty this. For months now unusually firm bid speculation has swirled round Invensys. Accompanying press articles have carried progressively more detail. As recently as May 12 the Sunday Times named Siemens, ABB, Emerson and General Electric as all eyeing the British engineer.
But each time the share price has risen in anticipation of a fully-formed takeover, the lack of a confirmatory statement has burned the speculators. Read more
One cannot fault the Chinese walls at Merrill Lynch, joint corporate broker to Invensys.
We have upgraded Invensys to a Buy, with a price target of 285p. While pressure on Controls will potentially continue in the short term and H2 Rail margins could be at risk, we think the valuation is now more than discounting the earnings risk. Read more
Invensys, the controls and automation group recently kicked out of the FTSE 100 to make way for Glencore, is a perennial takeover target.
But in recent weeks the speculation has centred on the disposal of a major division. This was fuelled by respected blogger Jim Pinto who claimed the majority of Invensys’ rail business was about to be sold to China’s CSR, which has just detailed plans to raise the equivalent of £1bn via a share issue. Read more
Invensys has sacked its chief executive Ulf Henriksson whose approach to running the UK industrial group differed from that of chairman Sir Nigel Rudd, reports the FT. The news unsettled investors, and came after Henriksson had appeared to have made a good job of returning the previously crisis-ridden business to financial health. The low-key Swede had been in charge since 2005. Sir Nigel and the board had decided he was the wrong person for the challenge of stewarding Invensys over coming years. Henriksson’s replacement is Wayne Edmunds, chief financial officer. Read more
What is going on at Invensys?
The chief executive of the FTSE 100 controls company, Ulf Henriksson, has just been unceremoniously bundled out of the boardroom on Thursday morning without any explanation. Read more
The upbeat mood in the European credit derivatives markets quickly disappeared on Thursday morning, with indices moving slightly wider from opening levels.
The iTraxx Crossover index of junk-rated credits opened tighter at 195.5 basis points, but moved to 197bp by late morning, meaning that it costs €197,000 a year to insure €10m of a basket of junk names over five years. Read more
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