The following stocks are the leading risers and fallers among London Main Market small-caps on Tuesday.
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SMALL-CAP - WINNERS
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Reach PLC, up 13% at 67.40 pence, 12-month range 58.47p-91.00p. The newspaper publisher reports that in the 53 weeks ended December 31, revenue fell 5.4% to £568.6 million from £601.4 million a year earlier. Pretax profit fell to £36.7 million from £66.2 million. Reach kept its dividend unchanged at 7.34p. Chief Executive Jim Mullen says: ‘This year we have successfully gained clarity on two significant long-term uncertainties in pension funding and Historical Legal Issues. With the end of these issues in sight, we have significantly reduced our obligations and have a clear path forward for the business.’
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SMALL-CAP - LOSERS
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SIG PLC, down 6.8% at 28.00p, 12-month range 25.35p-45.38p. The insulation, roofing, commercial interiors and construction products supplier reports revenue for 2023 of £2.76 billion, up from £2.74 billion a year earlier. It wings to a pretax loss of £31.9 million from a pretax profit of £27.5 million. CEO Gavin Slark comments: ‘The group delivered robust results in 2023, despite ongoing market weakness, demonstrating the benefits and resilience of our diversified geographic and end-market profile. Alongside this, the group has also been effective in executing restructuring and productivity initiatives across the business. These are a key element of our strategic plan to drive operating margin growth over the medium-term to our target of 5%.’
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Wincanton PLC, down 4.3% at 597.00p, 12-month range 187.00p-634p. CEVA Logistics says it will not increase its takeover offer for Wincanton, amid a takeover race. On Friday last week, Wincanton threw its weight behind the £762 million bid from GXO Logistics Inc, having previously accepted a rival offer. On Thursday, GXO announced an offer of 605 pence per share in cash for the Wiltshire, England-based company, and said two major shareholders supported its offer. The offer from Greenwich, Connecticut-based GXO trumped by more than a quarter a previously agreed takeover offer from CEVA Logistics UK Rose, a subsidiary of Marseilles, France-based shipping and logistics company CMA CGM. CEVA recently had increased its own offer for Wincanton to 480p per share from its original bid of 450p, which was made in January. In its statement on Friday, Wincanton said it was pleased that the public offer process, triggered by their recommendation of CEVA’s offer is ‘maximising value and delivering a significant premium to Wincanton shareholders’. As a result, Wincanton recommended ‘unanimously’ the GXO offer and, withdrew its recommendation of the bid by CEVA.
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