The FTSE-250 listed insurer Direct Line found itself back in the spotlight after a joint statement was published by the company’s management and Aviva. Just over a week ago, Aviva made a bid for Direct Line, which was rejected as undervaluing the prospects for the business, but a renewed offer at 275p per share – a 73% premium to the price traded before the first approach was made public – is seen as being more realistic. Direct Line management are minded to support the deal and the share price is up a further 7% this morning – although at 252p that’s still shy of the offer.
Fashion retailer Quiz has had a rough start to the session as investors digested a trading and cash position update which was published this morning. Sales in November have been underwhelming, with the month usually marking the start of the festive season uptick in activity. As such, management are cautioning that unless there’s a material improvement in sales, additional funding will be necessary in the first quarter of the new year. Whilst a shareholder loan is being pursued, failure to secure that would leave the business looking at making a cash call on investors. The Quiz share price was trading down 44% before 9am.
The investment platform may have published another set of record results on Thursday, along with news of a £30m share buyback, but many investors appear to be treating this as an opportunity to book profits. However, at the start of December 2023 the share price was sitting close to multi-year lows, whilst by the middle of this week, it had advanced by more than 100% so with gains of that magnitude having been booked, taking some money off the table can be of no surprise. The update also flagged a legacy issue which was proving morse costly to resolve than had been anticipated, but the provision for this is still ‘only’ £6.2m. The AJ Bell share price was down 4% in early trade.
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