London open: Bid speculation enlivens dull market

6th Dec 2010 08:47

The prospect of mergers and acquisitions activity is livening up an otherwise sedate opening session for London.De La Rue has received a bid, the banknote printer confirmed Monday, thought to be from French rival Oberthur Technologies. Talk is the all-cash deal valued the UK company, also responsible for printing UK passports, at around £800m, a 25% premium to Friday's price tag of £641m.Punch Taverns, Britain's biggest pub company, is on the rise on press reports that private equity group CVC has the debt-heavy group in its sights. Enterprise Inns rises in sympathy.Mobile phone network operator Vodafone is wanted as news filters out that it is close to selling its 44% stake in SFR, the French mobile phone group, for £7bn.Rio Tinto has offered £2.2bn (A$3.5bn) for Riversdale Mining, a Sydney-based firm with interests in African coal. Riversdale confirmed Monday it had held talks with the Anglo-Australian mining giant about a deal valuing the business at A$15 a share.Contractor Mouchel is mulling a share issue and wholesale disposals to fend off takeover approaches sparked by the recent collapse in its share price.Nestor Healthcare's patience has been rewarded with a £124m bid from the owners of the AA and Saga, almost three months after it rejected an initial approach worth just £102m. Saga Group, a subsidiary of Acromas oldings, is paying 110p a share in cash for the social care firm.Engine designer Rolls-Royce has announced a clutch of contract wins for energy projects across the globe. The contract wins are worth $110m in total. The European Commission has granted marketing authorisation to AstraZeneca's Brilique blood thinning drug. The drug will be in competition with Plavix, the second best selling drug in the world.Defence group Cobham is further beefing up its US surveillance division with the acquisition of RVision for $28m in cash, plus up to a further $20m. RVision specialises in electro-optical and infra-red imaging systems to protect vital installations such as military bases, border security posts, law enforcement, nuclear and chemical plants, ports and harbours and various transport applications. International engineering group IMI is teaming up with the Shanghai Automation Instrumentation Company (SAIC) to form a joint venture to serve the nuclear energy market in China. The proposed joint venture will produce control valves for critical applications for new nuclear power generation plants. The drilling programme of North Falklands oil explorer Desire Petroleum continues to frustrate, as the company has plugged and abandoned the 14/15-2 Rachel North well. Desire's share price virtually halved in early trading, while Rockhopper Exploration, which has a 7.5% interest in the well, also takes on a few dents.FTSE 100 - RisersXstrata (XTA) 1,425.00p +2.52%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,955.00p +1.51%Vodafone Group (VOD) 166.15p +1.28%BG Group (BG.) 1,248.50p +1.13%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 565.00p +1.07%Serco Group (SRP) 571.00p +0.97%FTSE 100 - FallersRandgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,900.00p -2.16%Tesco (TSCO) 419.60p -1.71%Shire Plc (SHP) 1,487.00p -1.20%Cobham (COB) 197.20p -1.05%ARM Holdings (ARM) 399.10p -0.92%Barclays (BARC) 266.00p -0.75%FTSE 250 - RisersDe La Rue (DLAR) 807.00p +24.63%Punch Taverns (PUB) 70.85p +9.08%Gartmore Group Ltd. (GRT) 98.30p +2.88%FTSE 250 - FallersDaejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,516.00p -3.19%F&C Commercial Property Trust Ltd. (FCPT) 91.20p -1.88%Redrow (RDW) 116.70p -1.85%