London open: Dull start to the week

13th Jul 2009 08:43

London's blue chips have made a slow start to the week despite a small burst of takeover activity.A deal could be on the cards between insurance group Resolution and Friends Provident after Clive Cowdery's new vehicle said it has received "constructive feedback" from the board of Friends over its merger approach and is mulling its next move. Any deal would largely be shares with a small cash element, Resolution said.Oil and gas firm Venture Production today rejected last Friday's 845p-a-share hostile cash bid from energy group Centrica. Bosses say the £1.3bn offer "substantially undervalues" the business. The unsolicited bid, made after Friday's close, came as the British Gas-owner bought private equity group 3i's entire 5.4% stake in Venture. A slump in the UK and Ireland sent revenues tumbling by 8% in the three months to June at credit checker Experian. Sales in Britain and Ireland crashed by 22%, with falls also recorded in North America (2%), Latin America (9%), and emerging markets (8%). The picture was better stripping out the impact of currencies.Defence firm Cobham has announced its third contract win of the month with a deal to provide wireless network nodes for the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The cost plus fixed fee contract is worth $14.8m. Cobham will design, develop and demonstrate low-cost wireless network nodes which support adaptation by means of distributed network processing, with the emphasis on the "low-cost" element of the description. Sausages and pork products supplier Cranswick has made a positive start to its new financial year, with first quarter sales up across most parts of the business. Sales in the first quarter, excluding recently disposed of and acquired businesses, rose 11% to £167m from the first quarter of last year. Growth has been particularly strong in the sausages and bacon parts of the business, while growth was also seen in continental and charcuterie products, fresh pork and cooked meats. Utility support services provider Spice has bought ComGroup Australia, a company which designs and distributes Simoco branded mobile radio handsets and systems to utilities and government. Spice is initially paying £6.9m for the acquisition, representing a multiple of 3.1 times the operating profit of the business in the year to end-June 2008. Human resources consultant Savile Group has had a cracking year, predicting full year results will be "significantly" ahead of market expectations. The group, which has almost doubled in value since the start of June, said trading in the year ended 30 June 2009 was "extremely buoyant" and well ahead of the previous financial year.