Tuesday tips round-up:Hunting, De La Rue, Anglo Pacific

1st Nov 2011 06:39

"Hunting continued its strategy of expanding its offering through acquisitions yesterday, with the takeover of Specialty Supply. The oil services firm agreed to buy the Texas-based maker of precision-machined drilling parts for a cool $31m," writes The Independent. The deal is the latest in a series of 'bolt-on' acquisitions as the company looks to build a broad range of services to aid in the extraction of conventional and unconventional oil and gas reserves. The $5.5m (£3.4m) pre-tax profit Specialty reported in 2010 will have added about 10 per cent to Hunting's bottom line - based on Hunting's £38.5m profit last year - though the deal could well end up boosting it by far more over the years, the newspaper reckons. With the price of oil and gas set to remain high and unconventional drilling all the rage, Hunting's future looks pretty good. The Independent says Buy.The Times's Tempus column looks at De La Rue, the bank note printing firm. The company's position was weakened last year by a scandal over test certificates for the currency it produces. Since then, its French rival Oberthur has, Tempus suggests, "parked its tanks on the lawn". This has been mainly achieved by hiring the former Chief Executive of De La Rue James Hussey, indicating a takeover is in the offing. It suggests a target price may be £10 per share. The current price is 844.5p. Tempus says buy.The Telegraph's Questor column looks at the mining royalty company Anglo Pacific which aims to hand back much of its free cash to investors in the form of dividends. Currently the dividend is at 3.6% but the firm is committed to increase that above inflation. The business model of APF is to buy, or enter in to, royalty agreements where it receives an agreed percentage of a mine's income. With exposure, via an Australian mine, to China and other growing Asian economies, the Telegraph says Anglo Pacific is a buy.