Monday 9 January, 1:00 PM GMT (Thomson Financial): European markets mostly
higher, led by the automobiles sector. The oil & gas and basic resources
sectors are also performing well on the back on the back of higher
commodity prices.
M&A activity is dominating investor sentiment as Adecco acquires the
Paulmann family's 29% stake in the German-listed DIS for 54.50 euros per
share and launches a tender offer for the remaining shares at the same
price. Meanwhile, TDC is still recommending its shareholders accept an
offer from the Nordic Telephone Company despite it being rejected one of
its major shareholders, while Dofasco has unanimously recommended that its
shareholders accept a revised offer from ThyssenKrupp. Elsewhere, Royal
Philips Electronics and Arima Devices have agreed a share purchase
agreement to transfer Philips' optical pick-up business unit to Arima
Devices. Finally, Pilkington is under pressure on unconfirmed reports that
its takeover talks with Nippon Sheet Glass have failed.
London's FTSE-100 Index has risen by 15.40 points or 0.27% to 5747.20,
while Paris's CAC-40 Index has climbed by 14.60 points or 0.30% to
4881.75. Frankfurt's DAX Index has gained by 9.46 points or 0.17% to
5545.78 but Milan's S&P MIB Index has slipped by 108 points or 0.30% to
36,257. The pan-European blue chip Dow Jones Stoxx 50 Index has added
13.91 points or 0.41% to 3448.33.
* Swiss recruitment group Adecco has purchased the Paulmann family's 29%
stake in the German-listed DIS for 54.50 euros per share. At the same
time, the company has announced its intention to launch a voluntary public
tender offer for the remaining shares at the same price.
* Danish telecommunications operator TDC says it still recommends that its
shareholders accept a 382 Danish kroner share offer from fund-owned Nordic
Telephone Company, despite the rejection from major shareholder, the ATP
pension fund. Denmark's biggest pension fund has a 5.51% stake in TDC and
does not consider the current offer sufficiently attractive compared with
alternative initiatives already proposed by TDC management.
* Royal Philips Electronics and Arima Devices have agreed a share purchase
agreement to transfer Philips' optical pick-up (OPU) business unit to
Arima Devices. Philips will take an approximate 14% share in Arima Devices
at the completion of the deal. The OPU business unit produces optical pick
up units for DVD recorders and PC DVD drives and is part of Philips
Optical Storage. No financial details have been disclosed.
* Accountancy software group Sage has agreed to acquire Verus Financial
Management from Financial Technology Ventures and its other shareholders,
for an enterprise value of approximately 184 million pounds. Verus is a
merchant services business specialising in credit card and cheque
processing for small and medium-sized businesses based in the United
States.
* Synthes has received an "approvable letter" from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) regarding its ProDisc-L Total Disc Replacement
pre-market approval application (PMA). The FDA has determined that the
device is safe and effective for use in treating Degenerative Disc Disease
in the lumbar spine at a single level.
* Dofasco says its board of directors has unanimously recommended that its
shareholders accept the revised ThyssenKrupp offer of January 3, 2006, at
an offer price of 63 Canadian dollars per common share. The board further
recommended that its shareholders reject the Arcelor offer announced
December 23, 2005. Rival Arcelor is now under pressure to raise its bid.
* Project management and services company Amec has been awarded a
three-year service contract from BG Group with a further two one-year
options, initially valued at 90 million pounds. AMEC will provide support
to all of BG's U.K. upstream assets and manage the development of the
Maria brownfield gas project in the North Sea.
* Low-cost airline carrier easyJet has announced December passenger
numbers totalling 2.372 million, up 11.1% year-on-year, with a load factor
of 80.5%, down 0.2 percentage points. On a rolling 12-month basis,
passenger numbers amounted to 30.301 million, up 17.8% year-on-year, with
total revenues coming to 1.381 billion pounds, up 20.5% year-on-year.
* Air France-KLM says that traffic increased by 11.9% year-on-year in
December, on 9.0% higher capacity. The load factor improved by 2.1 points
to 79.8%. The number of passenger carried has grown by 8.0% year-on-year
to 5.6 million.
* German retail group KarstadtQuelle says it has achieved its sales target
for 2005 and feels comfortable with its forecast (excluding Thomas Cook)
of adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation
(EBITDA) of more than 350 million euros.
* Shares in Pilkington are under pressure on unconfirmed reports that its
takeover talks with Nippon Sheet Glass have failed.
* According to a report in the Financial Times Deutschland,
DaimlerChrysler has given a mandate to a leading investment bank to take
soundings regarding the diversification of its struggling Smart brand.
* According to the Swiss weekly Sonntagszeitung, Novartis has completed
its due diligence on Serono and remains interested in snapping up its
smaller peer.
* Vodafone and Sony NetServices have announced the global rollout of a
service that streams personalised radio channels to both 3G mobile phones
and personal computers.
Simon.Tse@Thomson.com; Thomson Financial
This is Thomson Financial Corporate Services Europe Market Commentary.
The information herein is believed to be true and accurate. If you have
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SOURCE Thomson Financial Corporate Group
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