Vodafone (VOD) has confirmed discussions regarding a potential all-share merger of its Indian business with Idea Cellular.
The FTSE 100 telecoms group has been struggling in India due to a price war after new market entrant Jio started offering free calls and data to grab market share.
Investors like the news that Vodafone is taking action to strengthen its position in India, sending its share price up 3.5% to 200.05p.
Alcohol supplier Convivality (CVR:AIM) has reported 4.4% like-for-like sales growth for the first half of its financial year. Reported figures show a very large increase in profit and sales; that’s down to the first full contribution from the reverse takeover of drinks wholesaler Matthew Clark.
Attraqt (ATQT:AIM) is to buy Fredhopper from SDL (SDL) for £25m cash. This is a cloud-based provider of onsite search, navigation and visual merchandising solutions to online retailers.
Its shares will be suspended pending the publication of a new admission document which is required under listing rules as the deal constitutes a reverse takeover. That is the description for when one company buys another business which is much larger in size.
Rainbow Rare Earths (RBW) rises 20% to 12p on its first day on the stock market. The company has been built by Pella Resources which has associations with Petra Diamonds (PDL), Tharisa (THS) and Chariot Oil & Gas (CHAR:AIM). Rainbow has a near-term producing asset in Burundi and plans to pay dividends in the medium term. We explained the investment case for Rainbow Rare Earths earlier this month in Shares.
Infrastructure consultant Waterman (WTM) says trading is in line with expectations and flags an intention to increase the half-year dividend when results are published on 28 February.
Broker N+1 Singer says Waterman’s shares trade on a much lower rating than its peer group, despite having a ‘long-established blue chip client base, strong management team and balance sheet’.
A flow test at Ascent Resources’ (AST:AIM) Pg-10 gas well has exceeded the company’s expectations, triggering an 11.5% rise in its share price to 3.15p. Broker Stockdale has increased its price target for Ascent’s shares from 3.5p to 4.5p, saying the latest test ‘substantially derisks the initial phase 1 project’.
Chinese door maker Jiasen (JSI:AIM) is to switch its stock market listing from AIM to NEX Exchange, the new name for the ISDX market. Investors dislike the news, as reflected by a 45% drop in the share price to 2.75p. NEX - at least when it was known as ISDX - is considered to have much lower liquidity, making it harder to buy and sell shares.
Jiasen has been a disaster for investors since floating on AIM at 82p in July 2014. We wrote about the company in Shares in October 2014, saying to steer clear at 79.5p as there were significant red flags in the business, questionable corporate governance and negative market sentiment towards Chinese stocks on AIM. It has since fallen by 97% in value.
