|
|
|
|
||
Re: Cowen pushing L3/Coltthe following is from the financial times today High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/17fa77e6-00a3-11e5-a8e0-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3ath3U0fJ Dotcom survivor Colt Group made a return to London gainers board on Friday on hopes of a bid from the US. Level 3 Communications would be an ideal buyer for Colt, analysts at Cowen & Co said. With Level 3 having paid down debt from the 2011 purchase of Global Crossing, its management should now look at tackling its poor performance in the highly fragmented European corporate broadband market, the broker said. More On this topic Liberty Global’s comments lift Vodafone Lex Vodafone — hold that call Vodafone stems slide in core revenues Case for a break-up boosts Vodafone Bryce Elder Tullow jumps on South American optimism GSK unmoved by broker talk of takeover Bid revival hopes boost Aveva Small-cap Week, May 16 Sign up now firstFT FirstFT is our new essential daily email briefing of the best stories from across the web “As the pieces come together in the US, Level 3’s next major initiative could be to look to European M&A,” Cowen told clients. “Colt’s mostly continental-focused network makes for an ideal complementary footprint both from a long-haul and metro-fibre perspective.” European regulators are taking an increasingly relaxed view of consolidation in a telecommunications market dominated by incumbents and local operators, said Cowen. It argued that Colt is one of just a few pan-European providers within Level 3’s price range. Colt spent three years of the dotcom boom as a member of the FTSE 100 with its market value peaking in early 2000 at more than £26bn. That had fallen to £1.4bn on Friday with the highly illiquid stock squeezed 1.6 per cent higher to 151.4p. The FTSE 100 rose for a fifth straight day, albeit with a slim gain of 0.3 per cent, or 18.25 points, to 7,031.72. For the week, the index was up 1 per cent. Continuing bid speculation lifted Vodafone 4.6 per cent to 253.8p. Meetings this week between Liberty Global management and investors were said to have been supportive to the idea that Liberty could finance a bid for the whole of Vodafone, with a view to spinning off the African and Indian operations later. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs told clients after hosting a Vodafone investor roadshow that group finance director Nick Read is open to doing deals but seems less keen on an autonomous break-up. “Vodafone is willing to consider both acquisitions and disposals where the financial rationale makes sense, [but] changing the structure of the group in the absence of a tangible offer for its assets would create a number of dis-synergies,” Goldman said. “Given Liberty’s recent publicly stated preference for a tax-efficient capital structure, in contrast to Vodafone shareholders preference for dividends, we believe Vodafone may be more likely a seller than a buyer of assets.” Website Just Eat rallied 5.2 per cent to 456p after successfully placing 105m shares at 425p to fund its acquisition of an Australian peer Menulog. IG Group rose 1.1 per cent to 794.5p amid hopes that it has been taking customers from Plus500, the contracts-for-difference broker that admitted this week that it had suspended UK accounts because its identity checks had been too lax. Plus500 sunk 35 per cent to 258p having first been the subject of a critical report from Cable Car Capital, a US short seller, then having had its shares temporarily suspended while it clarified the scope of its recent issues with the Financial Conduct Authority. |
return to message board, top of board |
Msg # | Subject | Author | Recs | Date Posted |
134588 | Re: Cowen pushing L3/Colt | mrwright192234 | 3 | 5/22/2015 4:17:01 PM |