Forth Ports climbed £1.03 to £20.15 amid rumours that it may face a takeover approach at about £23.50 a share, valuing the group at more than £1 billion. Macquarie, the Australian bank, has been mooted as the bidder, as is often the case when an infrastructure company is on the block, but dealers believe that another private equity firm could move first.
Forth, the last of Britain’s publicly traded ports operators, has long been considered a bid target, for its property portfolio as well as its core business. The company owns land in the Leith district of Edinburgh, which analysts believe could be worth more as a housing development than a dockyard.
Sondex took on 22¼p to 305p on “buy” advice from Investec, which said that the drill equipment maker was well-positioned to benefit from soaring costs in the oil industry. Chris Dyett, analyst, forecasts Sondex to show earnings growth of more than 30 per cent in the next three years as the energy majors look to squeeze additional value from their late-life developments.
At a time when demand for oil hardware is outstripping supply, investors welcomed news that Antrim Energy had secured a rig to drill its North Sea prospect. Shares moved up 1p to 169p, also helped by news of a successful fundraising. Its peer Nautical Petroleum inched up ¼p to 8p after securing two North Sea drilling slots for next year.
CML Microsystems lost 24p to 172p after the communications chip specialist posted interim sales and earnings below forecasts. Analysts at house broker Panmure Gordon said that unless demand rebounds the company will not reach break even until beyond 2008.