The sprawling retail and fashion group saw its shares sitting towards the foot of the FTSE-100 this morning as the company sees out its last days – at least for now – as part of London’s top-flight. The stock is set to be demoted into the FTSE-250 at the next reshuffle date in two weeks time, but this morning’s direction coincides with news that proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services is recommending that investors in boohoo vote against resolutions the firm has tabled. These will be presented at a General Meeting to be held next week – Frasers is a major shareholder and wants to install directors on the boohoo board. Frasers share price was trading as much as 2.5% lower shortly after the open although losses have been abating.
The biomedical innovator ValiRx saw its stock slump this morning after management announced a conditional fundraising round had been completed. This includes a significant contribution from the CEO who will increase his stake in the business to more than 5% and that commitment may have helped prop the share price up a little – the newly offered stock went for 0.65p yet the price at the time of writing was 0.75p Proceeds will be used to fund R&D initiatives across a number of projects, as well as supporting operating costs. The ValiRx share price was 47% lower at 9am.
The FTSE-250 listed IP Group had a good start to the week after announcing the sale of some secondary holdings in portfolio companies. The proceeds are modest and expected to be £15m, a slight premium to the carrying value, but the money will be returned to shareholders by extending the existing share buyback scheme by a further 50% to £45m. Since 2021, the Group notes that it has also delivered more than £100m of cash returns to shareholders via dividends and share buybacks. The IP Group share price was 3.5% higher in early trade.
Headlines we expect tomorrow
Naked Wines Interim Results
This time last year Revenue £132.3m, Net cash £2.8m, Pre-tax loss £9.7m
Ashtead Interim Results
This time last year Revenue $5.57bn, Pre-tax profit £1.25bn, Interim dividend 15.75c
