Imperial Brands, ZPG and Carclo

“The FTSE100 started on the front foot, shrugging off recent jitters over ongoing tensions in the Pacific and the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma. Wall Street rose yesterday which had a positive knock-on effect in Asia this morning, as investors weighed the US deal to ensure the funding of its government through to mid-December,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

“Tobacco giant Imperial Brands was one of the biggest blue-chip risers in early trading on plans to return up to £160m to shareholders. Imperial Brands is planning to reduce its stake in Logista to around 60% from the current 70% and use up to £160m of the proceeds to buy-back shares. Logista has continued to perform strongly and Imperial Brands is taking the opportunity to realise further value from the business and use the proceeds to buy-back its own shares and reduce net debt. Imperial Brands’ shares were up by more than 2.7%.

“Price comparison group ZPG’s shares jumped after it agreed to acquire Dot Zinc (Money) for an initial £80m plus a performance-based earn-out of up to £60m. Money is one of the UK's leading financial services comparison websites, and enables consumers to compare thousands of deals from over 600 providers across more than 60 product categories including mortgages, loans, credit cards, bank accounts and insurance. The acquisition is an ideal fit with ZPG’s established portfolio which includes Zoopla, USwitch and PrimeLocation. ZPG’s shares were up by over 6% in early trading.

“Carclo was one of the FTSE All-Share’s biggest fallers after a weaker than expected first half performance from its technical plastics division as some key new programmes were pushed back into the second half. Its results for the year ending in March remain on track, though, thanks to an outperformance from the LED technologies division. Carclo’s shares were down by more than 9.8%.”

These articles are for information purposes only and are not a personal recommendation or advice.