Chelsea fans facing the final whistle IT is all over for Chelsea supporters who own shares in the club.<\/p>\n
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich now controls 93pc of Chelsea Village, the club’s owner.<\/p>\n
The hard core of small investors reluctant to hand over their shares has until August 26 to accept the 35p bid. The company will then delist from Aim and investors will have no public market to sell their shares.<\/p>\n
One said ‘ I bought the shares because I wanted to feel involved in the club I support. It seems wrong they can be taken from me.’ To satisfy the grumbles, Abramovich says investors can keep their share certificates as a souvenir. They also get a commemorative certificate signed by players and staff.<\/p>\n
He will remove the 75m debt burden hanging over Chelsea, which was not due to be repaid until 2007.<\/p>\n
The Financial Services Authority is probing pre-bid share deals and ownership.<\/p>\n
DO you think power and water giant United Utilities would have had the bottle to switch on a heavily discounted 1bn rights issue a few months ago?<\/p>\n
Certainly not. Dealers therefore took it as another positive sign for the resurgent equity market that UU has decided trading conditions are now sufficiently safe for it to pass the hard hat round to shareholders for cash.<\/p>\n
Although the fundraising left UU 44p lower at 532p and other utilities in a state of shock – Severn Trent dipped 171\/2p to 668p – the rest of the market took it on the chin.<\/p>\n
Wall Street’s 172-point gain on Friday prompted an early mark- up. The Footsie stood almost 52 points better before 9am, but later drifted to close only 17.6 up at 4148.8. Wall Street succumbed to early profit-taking and traded 49 points lower.<\/p>\n
Sterling rose to $1.6250, while the euro traded at 71p and $1.1512.<\/p>\n
Fund managers reflected the healthier trend and drew encouragement from interim figures from Isis Asset Management, 3p dearer at 2071\/2p. Amvescap jumped 24p to 464p, Schroders 22p to 6353\/4p. Investment group 3i advanced 241\/2p to 6141\/2p.<\/p>\n
Confident that the interim dividend will not be cut when it reports on Friday, buyers chased LloydsTSB a further 12p higher to 471p. Abbey National, which reports half-year figures tomorrow, improved 33\/4p to 4893\/4p.<\/p>\n
Still worried about the marathon Competition Commission probe of extended warranties on electrical goods, Currys-to-PC World retailer Dixons shed 43\/4p to 131p. It relies on warranties for half of its UK profits.<\/p>\n
Oil and gas group Paladin Resources gushed 7p to an eight-year high of 851\/2p amid reports that Merrill Lynch had bought a large line of stock on behalf of a hedge fund.<\/p>\n
Quarries group Aggregate Industries firmed 3p to 853\/4p after a 10pc rise in the interim dividend to 1.13p, and chief executive Peter Tom’s upbeat view on second-half prospects. First-half pretax profits dipped 3pc to 40.2m.<\/p>\n
Lloyds broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson fell 19p to 571p after broker ABN Amro placed 10.3m shares, or 5.2pc, with various institutional clients at 570p.<\/p>\n
The seller was JLT’s 31pc- owned French associate SIACI SA. JLT’s first-half profits rose 8pc to 57.3m with dividends up a penny to 8.5p.<\/p>\n
After multimillionaire DJ and former-TV presenter Chris Evans agreed to pay 7m to the group to cover legal costs and damages for his unsuccessful claim against Virgin Radio, SMG improved 1p to 821\/ 2p.<\/p>\n
The temperature rose at Aim-listed Hot Group after the internet recruiter paid 5.5m to buy Greater Londonbased Parkside Recruitment.<\/p>\n
Newly appointed broker Numis raised 10.2m via a placing and open offer of 85m shares at 12p. Hot touched 183\/4p and closed 11\/4p better at 173\/4p.<\/p>\n
Medisys rose 11\/2p to 241\/2p on hefty turnover of 6.6m. It recently revealed that quality tests of its Futura safety syringe by co-marketing partner Smiths Group have been passed.<\/p>\n
Dealers now await a clinical marketing launch and its full commercial rollout in September.<\/p>\n
Black cab maker Manganese Bronze accelerated 121\/2p to 123p after an egm approved the planned disposal of its components division and Holyhead Road property.<\/p>\n
Continuing gossip that another mega-rich Russian recently approached one or more of Manchester United’s team of high-profile shareholders and asked them to name a price for their stake in the world’s richest football club, helped the shares rise 2p to 160p.<\/p>\n
ITNET, the outsourcing company, jumped 15p to 2631\/2p after securing its biggest-ever order, a five-year Cabinet Office contract worth 83m to merge three information management systems.<\/p>\n
BUYERS came back for Filtronic, the maker of radio frequency products, after a strong return to profitability. Full-year pretax profits of 3.8m replaced a loss of 25.5m last time. Gearing is down to 13pc and analysts forecast 5m for the current year. Filtronic now supplies 25pc of all UK handset antennae through its relationship with Nokia. The shares buzzed 171\/2p higher to 134p.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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