London pre-open: Footsie targets tiny gain

5th Jul 2010 07:37

It's looking like a quiet and nervy start for London as US stocks struck a new low for 2010 in very late trade Friday. Any moves will be locally-led in the absence of Wall Street, closed for Independence Day.Futures prices indicate a 4-point gain in early trade. The Dow Jones closed down 46 on Friday after disappointing non-farm payrolls.Premier Oil has upgraded reserves estimates for Catcher and Catcher East to between 60 million barrels of oil (mmbls) and 100 mmbbls after striking oil again at the lucrative field in the UK Central North Sea. The explorer, with a 35% interest in the 28/9 licence, drilled down over 6,000 feet at the Catcher South West Appraisal (28/9-1Y) sidetrack well and found 68 feet of net hydrocarbon pay over a gross vertical reservoir interval of 261 feet.This phase of the Catcher area drilling programme is now over, but Premier and other stakeholders in Catcher - Encore Oil (15%- operator), Nautical Petroleum (15%), Wintershall (UK North Sea) Limited (20%) and Agora Oil & Gas (15%) - are looking to buy "a number" of new site surveys over potential drilling locations in Block 28/9. Wickes owner Travis Perkins has got its name on BSS after the pair agreed a cash and share bid that values each BSS Share at 435.8p and the plumbing supplies firm at approximately £558m in total. The terms are in line with the initial approach from Travis in May. BSS shareholders will receive 232.91p in cash and 0.2608 in new Travis Perkins shares, valued at 196.8p. They will also get the recent BSS final dividend, worth an additional 6.09p. Part-nationalised lender Lloyds Banking Group is selling a portfolio of 40 private equity investments in its Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance (BoSIF) unit to a newly formed joint venture for £332m in cash. The new joint venture, called Cavendish Square Partners LP, will be majority owned by private equity investor Coller Capital, with Lloyds Banking Group retaining a stake of around 30%. Outsourcing specialist Serco has won a long term contract to provide and operate a new prison at Belmarsh West, London. This is the first prison contract to be awarded in the UK to an alliance of the private and voluntary sectors and is worth about £415m to Serco. Construction works will begin right away and the contract will run for 26½ years.Mining giant Rio Tinto has sold the last two remaining parts of its Alcan Packaging business. Medical Flexibles, which comprises four North American plants, has been bought for $66m by Amcor, and completes Amcor's acquisition of the Alcan Packaging global Pharmaceuticals, global Tobacco, Food Europe and Food Asia divisions. The rest of the transaction was completed in February 2010 for a total consideration of $1.948bnn. The other transaction relates to Alcan Beauty Packaging, which has been bought by Sun European Partners for an undisclosed sum.Distribution and outsourcing group, Bunzl, has snapped up Belgian cleaning and hygiene consumables firm Etablissements Glorieux SA. The Belgian company, which trades at Global Net, is being acquired from the owners, Olivier and Luc Glorieux. Last year it turned over €19.6m.