Shares in the packaging company slipped almost 3% in early trade following news that the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers had agreed to extending the “put up or shut up” (PUSU) deadline for a further two and a half weeks on the company’s planned acquisition of DS Smith. However, with DS Smith itself now the subject of a bidding war and its valuation meaningfully above the price first offered by Mondi, it seems some shareholders are wary of being dragged into a bidding war and the consequent impact on the value proposition.
The specialist media platform Future published a short trading statement this morning, but the content was sufficient to fire up investors. Management noted that the expected revenue improvement seen in Q4 ’23 has been maintained and that the company returned to organic revenue growth in Q2 ’24, adding that the group is highly cash generative and cash conversion has been strong. Full year expectations remain on-track and the stock was sitting just over 10% higher in early trade.
A solid trading update from Cavendish Financial saw its stock leap on Thursday morning, with H2 revenues expected to be some 77% higher than the H1 figure, whilst full year statutory revenues are now forecast as being 44% up year-on-year. The gains reverse losses from the last two months and notes that a strong M&A market is being seen clearly bolsters hopes that the recently enlarged company can continue to deliver. The stock was trading some 31% higher shortly after 9am.
