Monday 9 January, 5:00 PM GMT (Thomson Financial): European markets came
off their intra-day highs and ended the trading session mixed as the
earlier momentum drained away. M&A activity was the dominant theme of the
day as Adecco acquired a 29% stake in the German-listed DIS for 54.50
euros per share and launched a tender offer for the remaining shares at
the same price. Meanwhile, TDC reiterated its recommendation that its
shareholders accept an offer from the Nordic Telephone Company despite it
being rejected one of its major shareholders, while Dofasco unanimously
recommended that its shareholders accept a revised offer from
ThyssenKrupp. Elsewhere, Royal Philips Electronics and Arima Devices
agreed on a share purchase agreement to transfer Philips' optical pick-up
business unit to Arima Devices. Finally, Pilkington was under pressure on
unconfirmed reports that its takeover talks with Nippon Sheet Glass had
failed.
London's FTSE-100 Index was effectively flat, losing only 0.30 points or
0.01% to 5731.50, while Paris's CAC-40 Index rose by 7.94 points or 0.16%
to 4875.09. Frankfurt's DAX Index was barely changed, adding only 0.79
points or 0.01% to 5537.11 and Milan's S&P MIB Index fell by 138 points or
0.38% to 36,227. The pan-European blue chip Dow Jones Stoxx 50 Index ended
up by 7.67 points or 0.22% to 3442.09.
* Swiss recruitment group Adecco purchased the Paulmann family's 29% stake
in the German-listed DIS for 54.50 euros per share. At the same time, the
company announced its intention to launch a voluntary public tender offer
for the remaining shares at the same price.
* Danish telecommunications operator TDC reiterated its recommendation
that its shareholders accept a 382 Danish kroner a share offer from the
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 agreed on 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 acquired 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 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 determined that the device
is safe and effective for use in treating Degenerative Disc Disease in the
lumbar spine at a single level.
* Dofasco said its board of directors had 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.
* Project management and services company Amec was 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 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 said that traffic increased by 11.9% year-on-year in
December, on 9.0% higher capacity, improving the load factor by 2.1 points
to 79.8%. The number of passenger carried grew by 8.0% year-on-year to 5.6
million.
* German retail group KarstadtQuelle said it had achieved its sales target
for 2005 and felt comfortable with its forecast (excluding Thomas Cook) of
adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation
(EBITDA) of more than 350 million euros.
* British food producer Premier Foods expects total reported grocery sales
for continuing operations for 2005 to be up by approximately 15% and
like-for-like grocery sales growth of around 2%.
* Shares in Pilkington came under pressure on unconfirmed reports that its
takeover talks with Nippon Sheet Glass had 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 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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