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CITYAM.COM
THURSDAY 2 MARCH 2017
NEWS
09
Premier Oil’s shares
tumble as it reveals
new refinancing terms
COURTNEY GOLDSMITH
@courtneynoelg
NORTH Sea-focused Premier Oil has
taken a step forward on its drawn-out
refinancing programme as it
announced convertible bondholders
came to an agreement with the firm’s
amended terms.
The new terms to its $245m (£199m)
convertible bonds were approved by
an ad hoc committee representing 47
per cent of its convertible bondholders.
Premier said it will look to implement
the terms through an
extraordinary resolution after 50 per
cent of holders have agreed.
Shares tumbled as much as seven
per cent yesterday before closing
down 6.12 per cent at 65.25p.
The embattled oil firm has been in
talks with lenders over its $2.8bn debt
pile for nearly a year, and in January
it said talks were at an “advanced
stage”.
Pyrrho Investments, one of the three
largest convertible bondholders in
Premier Oil, said it was “deeply dissatisfied”
with the offered terms and the
consultation process to date and
noted a lack of transparency.
PREMIER OIL
78
76
74
72
70
68
66
64
P
1 Mar
65.25
23 Feb 24 Feb 27 Feb 28 Feb 1 Mar
The Thames Tideway tunnel is forecast to cost a total of £4.2bn by its completion
London’s super sewer could see
Thames Water bills climbing £25
MARK SANDS
@MkSands
LONDON’S new super sewer could
add up to £25 a year to water bills in
the capital, according to the UK’s
public spending watchdog.
The Thames Tideway Tunnel will
cost a total of £4.2bn, but the
National Audit Office said it remains
uncertain what customers will pay. It
added £13 a year to Thames Water
customers’ average bills in 2016-17,
but that could almost double to £25
by the early 2020s.
A Thames Water spokesman said
users would also gain from savings:
“Average annual overall water and
wastewater customer bills are
expected to remain at, or very close
to, their 2015 level of £370 (before
inflation) until at least 2020.”
The RMT union
signals more
industrial action
REBECCA SMITH
@BexKSmith
THE RMT has announced that London
Underground members will be taking
industrial action from next Tuesday.
The dispute is over a “breakdown
in industrial relations” according to
the union, after a recent ballot
recorded 67 per cent of those voting
in favour of strike action and 88 per
cent voting in favour of action short
of a strike. The ballot had a 43 per
cent turnout.
Its fleet members have been
instructed to begin a work-to-rule
from 00:01 next Tuesday 7 March
“until further notice”.
Instances where they’ve been told
not to work include: not working any
overtime or attending training
courses outside of normal working
hours, not to carry out any higher
grade duty work and not to change
any shifts or work locations to assist
with maintenance.
Mitie flogs its troubled
healthcare firm for £2
COURTNEY GOLDSMITH
@courtneynoelg
MITIE yesterday agreed to sell its
loss-making home healthcare
business to the St Paul’s-based
specialist investor Apposite
Capital for a nominal £2.
Shares in the FTSE 250-listed
service provider rose more than
six per cent before closing up 3.58
per cent at 214.1p in London last
night.
The firm has had a challenging
year with both its chief executive
and finance director stepping
down over the course of just a few
months. It has also issued three
profit warnings since September
2015.
LUDWIG BURGER
DRUGS giant Bayer yesterday sold
€1.46bn (£1.25bn) of shares in its
chemicals subsidiary Covestro,
cutting its stake to 53.3 per cent as
it raises cash for its takeover of
seeds maker Monsanto.
The sale of 22m shares, or 10.9
per cent of Covestro’s capital, at
€66.50 each to institutional
investors, puts the chemicals
maker on track to enter
Germany’s blue-chip index as it
boosted the amount of shares that
can be openly traded.
Shares in Covestro, the maker of
transparent plastics, foam
The group announced in
November it planned to withdraw
from the healthcare market, and
today it revealed a £36.8m
writedown on the business in
addition to a £115.3m writedown
announced in the first half of the
year.
Mitie will contribute £9.45m by
making payments to Apposite in
April and July to fund the
healthcare business’ trading
losses and the cost of the
turnaround plan.
In its half-year results, Mitie
said weak business confidence
across the UK after the vote to
leave the European Union
affected client investment plans,
with the result that reductions in
Bayer sells 11 per cent stake in
chem firm Covestro for €1.46bn
chemicals and coatings
ingredients that Bayer listed in
October, hit a record high of
€73.27 last week, more than three
times their initial offer price of
€24.
The shares were down 5.6 per
cent at €66.49 last night, just
below the price of the block trade
that Bayer placed late on Tuesday.
Bayer reiterated that while it
will keep a majority stake for now
it still intends to sell all of its
Covestro shares in coming years.
Analysts at DZ Bank said
Covestro was on track to join the
DAX index of Germany’s 30 largest
listed companies soon.
Reuters
higher margin project work and
discretionary spend have reduced
profits in its facilities
management segment.
Mitie’s construction and
support service arms have
performed better than expected
through the initial impact of the
Brexit vote.
However, in January the group
blamed falling profits on
customers delaying orders market
uncertainty.
At the time the company
announced that Suzanne Baxter
would depart as group finance
director on 10 February, to be
replaced by Sandip Mahajan, who
was previously at Balfour
Beatty.
Not for resale? Bunzl
spashes out $160m on
US mini-me business
OLIVER GILL
@ojngill
SUPPORT services giant Bunzl yesterday
snapped up a US competitor labelled
a “mini-Bunzl” in a deal
understood to be worth around
$160m (£129m).
Diversified Distribution Systems
(DDS), a distributor of not-for-resale
items to retailers and other general
distribution customers, primarily
in North America, is a large
purchase for the acquisitive Bunzl,
which splashed out £184m during
2016. Analysts at JP Morgan valued
the deal at around $160m and said
DDS was Bunzl subsidiary Schwarz.
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Over 7,500 residents living in the 12 central London housing
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Ideas needed for a Smarter City
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Corporation, in partnership
with The City Centre and
Brookfield Property Partners,
is holding a competition to
find new ideas across three
‘Smart’ themes to ensure
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forefront of innovation. The
first theme is ‘Smart Green Spaces’. More details from
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