The Morning Call - Fidessa Group up sharply on takeover talks

Highlights of the Day

Asian Markets

Asian stocks were largely lower, though Hong Kong equities rebounded from early weakness following the Lunar New Year holiday.

U.S. Markets

U.S. Markets were closed as the U.S. celebrated Preisdents Day.

Today's News

BHP Billiton reported its first-half profit attributable to the members fell 37% to $2.02bn from last year’s $3.20bn; however, BHP raised is interim dividend significantly. Basic earnings per share dropped to 37.9 cents from 60.2 cents last year. The latest results included an exceptional loss of $2.0bn predominantly related to the recent US tax reforms. Underlying attributable profit was $4.05bn or 76.1 cents per share, compared to $3.24bn or 61 cents per share a year ago. Underlying EBITDA grew 14% to $11.24bn. Revenue for the first half climbed 16% from last year to $21.78bn.

HSBC reported a $17.2bn pre-tax profit for 2017, up 141% on the $7.1bn reported a year earlier amid both strong revenue growth and lending performance. The lender approved an unchanged fourth interim dividend of $0.21, bringing the total dividend for 2017 to $0.51, up 24% in 2017 compared to the prior year. HSBC’s reported revenue rose by 7% to $51.4bn from $47.97bn in 2016. The bank said strong performance in Asia particularly in commercial banking and retail banking and wealth management helped the group report adjusted group profit before tax of $21bn, up 11% on 2016.

Wood Group said it had been awarded a services contract for the Inpex-operated Ichthys natural gas export project in Australia’s Northern Territory. The five-year contract had a two-year expansion option and included delivery of engineering services to support the execution of brownfield works as well as technical support services. It followed the win of a five-year contract in September 2016, to provide subsea engineering services to support the project.

William Hill has been hit with a £6.2m penalty package for breaching anti-money laundering and social responsibility regulations. The Gambling Commission said the company did not do enough to ensure prevention measures were effective. As a result 10 customers were able to deposit money linked to criminal offences and William Hill gained £1.2m. The company was found to have not done enough to determine the source of the money or if they were problem gamblers.

Vodafone said it had commenced trials of what it claimed was the world’s first air traffic control drone tracking and safety technology. The project used 4G Internet of Things technology to protect aircraft from catastrophic accidents, as well as prevent inadvertent or criminal drone incursions, the company said. A preliminary trial was held near the town of Isla Mayor, near Sevilla in Spain, in late 2017.

Melrose Industries posted an annual loss after it wrote down the value of assets and incurred restructuring cost at its recently-acquired Nortek business. Pre-tax losses for 2017 of £27.6m narrowed from losses of £69.3m in the 2016. ‘As 2017 was the first full year of Nortek ownership by Melrose, significant restructuring costs were incurred,’ the company said. ‘Following the structural decline of the core gas turbine market for Brush, its balance sheet value has been reduced to £300m,’ it added. Underlying pre-tax profit, which stripped out the one-off charges, more than doubled to £257.7m.

Fidessa has confirmed that it is in “advanced discussions” about being taken over by Swiss banking software group Temenos for around £1.4bn of cash. After the trading and investment management software company’s shares rose almost 12% the day before, as it put out its final results, the company’s directors said that if the discussions result in a firm offer they intend to recommend it to shareholders.

Gold fell as investors waited for the minutes of the latest Federal Reserve meeting for clues on the outlook for U.S. interest rates.

Oil Prices were split, with U.S. crude pushed up by reduced flows from Canada while international Brent prices eased.

Companies Reporting this week

Day	Companies
Monday:	Reckitt Benckiser
Tuesday:	HSBC * InterContinental Hotels
Wednesday:	Lloyds * Glencore
Thursday:	Anglo American * BAE Systems * Barclays * British American Tobacco * Centrica * Intu * Kaz Minerals * RSA Insurance * Moneysupermarket.com
Friday:	Pearson * RBS * William Hill * IAG

Early Market Movements

Market	Index	Change	% Change
UK 100	7,247.5	-0.2	-0.0%
UK 250	19,737.3	+83.7	+0.4%
GER 30	12,418.2	+32.6	+0.3%
FRA 40	5,263.0	+6.8	+0.1%
U.S. 30	25,219.38	–	–
U.S. 500	2,732.2	–	–
OIL (BRENT)	65.41	-0.26	-0.4%
GOLD	1,337.55	-8.91	-0.7%

UK Risers & Fallers (8:15am)

Company	Price	Change	% Change
Fidessa Group	3587.5	+672.5	+23.1%
Barratt Developments	561.6	+5.6	+1.0%
Ashtead Group	2038	+20	+1.0%
InterContinental Hotels Group	4517	-180	-3.8%
BHP Billiton	1518.6	-43.4	-2.8%
Dunelm	585.75	-60.75	-9.4%

Latest Broker Views

Company	Broker	Recommendation	Price	Target
Reckitt Benckiser	Berenberg	Buy	6075	7500
Fresnillo	Goldman Sachs	Neutral	1361	1200
Standard Life Aberdeen	JPMorgan	Overweight	372.9	500
BT Group	Bernstein	Outperform	228	305

Forthcoming Economic Data

Time/Date	Previous	Forecast	Outcome
10.00am: German ZEW Economic Sentiment	20.4	16.0	–
11.00am: U.K. CBI Industrial Order Expectations	14	12	–