MARKET REPORT: Interserve soars 25% as it secures vital funding following talks with banks including HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Barclays
Shares in Interserve surged after the outsourcer received a lifeline from its lenders that will put it on a more secure financial footing.
The refinancing will see it get a £196.6million cash injection and £95million in bonds following talks with its banks, which include HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Barclays.
Fears had been mounting for the group, which holds several government contracts and employs 80,000, as the fallout from the collapse of Carillion threatened to engulf the sector.
It is responsible for British military bases in Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands and has several contracts with councils, London Underground and Whitehall.
Refinancing deal: Outsourcer Interserve will receive a £196.6 million cash injection and £95 million in bonds following talks with its banks
Shares surged 25.75 per cent to 87.9p shortly before market close.
Interserve added that its total debt pile will stand at £834million once the refinancing is complete.
The FTSE 100 edged 0.32 per cent, or 22.3 points lower, to 7038.97 due in part to another tough day for tech firms.
Three directors of FTSE 100 tech giant Micro Focus learned the hard way that you should never try to time the markets.
On Monday, investors shed £11billion of technology investments in the wake of the Facebook data scandal. British companies weren't immune: Micro Focus fell 46 per cent after a gloomy update.
Probably assuming the worst was over, chairman Kevin Loosemore, 59, and non-exec directors Karen Slatford, 61, and Darren Roos snapped up about £350,000 worth of shares.
But they fell a further 1.9 per cent, or 18.8p, to 972.6p, leaving them nursing a £11,400 loss on their new shares.
In total their stake has dropped £7.1million in value in two days. The FTSE 250 ended down 0.28 per cent, or 55.52 points, at 19668.04 but Neil Woodford will probably have popped open a bottle of bubbly after his Woodford Patient Capital Trust topped the index.
Shares in his fund surged after Prothena, its biggest holding, signed a £1.48billion deal with a US investor to develop treatments for dementia.
It will come as a huge relief to Britain's most famous fund manager, who has suffered from a series of high-profile stock picking disasters of late. Woodford shares leapt 11.3 per cent, or 8.2p, to 81p.
At the other end of the FTSE 250, profit taking took the shine off a decent set of results for IT infrastructure provider Softcat.
It reported a 25 per cent rise in revenue and a 15.4 per cent increase in operating profits, while customer numbers were also up. Softcat ended the day down 13.3 per cent, or 90p, at 589p.
Elsewhere, inhaler maker Vectura tanked after a loss of £102.2million, due in part to falling royalties and higher costs associated with its takeover of Skyepharma.
It is the second blow in a month after it said its generic version of an asthma treatment, which it is working on with Hikma, will not be out until at least 2020. Shares fell 15.2 per cent, or 12.25p, to 68.4p.
Meanwhile, a tiny Aim-listed technology company has partnered with the billionaire Winklevoss twins – Cameron and Tyler – who famously sued Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 for allegedly stealing the idea for Facebook.
The deal means customers of Beeks Financial Cloud, which provides software for currency traders, can trade crypto currency on the brothers' Gemini exchange.
It is thought the pair have made more than a billion dollars through bitcoin and other currencies. Shares rose 3.4 per cent, or 2p, to 61.5p.
Publisher Future has paid rival Haymarket Media Group £14million in cash and shares for What Hi-Fi?, electronics title Stuff, football magazine FourFourTwo, Practical Caravan and Practical Motorhome.
The titles generated £14million in revenue in the year to June 2017. Future shares rose 4.5 per cent, or 16p, to 370p.
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