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Penny Share Review 161

Monday 02 December 2002

The Weekend's Comments

Envesta (EVS) features in The Guardian from Saturday, which reports that there has been "whispers of a bid from Glow Communications (GLW.L)." The Independent from the same day added that the management had been touring institutions in the North of England, "as bid hopes linger." Envesta shares were down 0.25p from Friday's close and were 3.75p at 11.44. Shares in Glow Communications at 11.45 were down 0.06p at 1.335p from Friday's close.

The Sunday Times reviews the recent upgrade of the estimate of resources at Griffin Mining's (GFM) project in China. It points out that the new figures that increased the size of the resource by 6.5 times to 1.23m tonnes only cover one of the six zones in Griffin's exploration area. The "ever-optimistic mining fraternity believes there is much more to come." A feasibility study is planned to raise the £7m or more required to build an underground mine and production could commence in 2004. Chairman Mladen Ninkov is confident that he can turn the project into "a world-class mineral field." The paper advises, "it's a gamble, but dig deep for victory." The shares at 11.46 were up 1p to 13.5p from Friday's close.

Saturday's Daily Express noted Hot Group's (HOT.L) inability to secure acceptable terms on a proposed acquisition. The final results released on Friday, however, went on to point out, which the paper failed to mention, that a number of other potential acquisitions in the online and traditional recruitment markets were being considered. The paper added that Hot Group is looking to raise £1.25m from a placing. At 11.56 the shares were unchanged at 16.5p from Friday's close.

Oxford Biomedica's (OXB) chief executive Alan Kingsman is featured in a lengthy article in The Sunday Telegraph about the British bio-tech sector. He is quoted as saying that the sector will recover and although confident about the Company's two cancer treatments it is still early days yet. In terms of corporate strategy the article suggests that a merger with a company, which is cash rich, but product poor is likely and pinpoints BritishBioTech and Oxford Glycosciences as potential candidates. The newspaper suggests that consolidation in the industry is inevitable. The shares at 11.46 were unchanged from Friday's close of 8.125p.

The Financial Mail on Sunday reported the announcement by Seymour Pierce (SYP.L) on Friday that it had received an approach and was holding talks with several parties. The paper adds that the worst kept secret was that the bid was an MBO offer from chairman Keith Harris, backed by Nigel Wray and venture capitalist Jon Moulton. A bid is expected between 7p and 8p according to "traders". However, The Times from Saturday throws a few other names into the ring noting that Peel Hunt, Evolution Group and Insinger de Beaufort, the Dutch investment group have also shown an interest in the Company. The shares at 11.44 were unchanged from Friday's close of 6.5p.

Today's Announcements

The following companies, in which City Equities customers may have an interest, released announcements to the market this morning. These can be found by entering the relevant company name or ticker code in the search box on this site.

Cambridge Mineral Resources (CMR) - Conceptual Mining Study. Trio Holdings (TRN.L) - Final results.

Look Out For This Week

2 Dec - Trio Holdings (F), UK manufacturing CIPS (Nov).
3 Dec - UK construction CIPS (Nov).
4 Dec - UK service sector PMI, Eurozone service sector PMI.
5 Dec - Seymour Pierce (F), UK MPC interest rate decision, Eurozone interest rate decision.
6 Dec - Protec AGM, Proactive Sports Group AGM, UK industrial/manufacturing output (Oct).

Compiled by Andrew McLintock

 

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