UK Home Prices Climb, Motorola Solutions to Acquire Psion

Arthi Gupta
18 Jun, 2012
New York City

The UK indexes advanced after home prices climbed in June. Irish surplus rose in April. Motorola Solutions agreed to acquire Psion for

[R]3:00 PM London – The UK indexes advanced after home prices climbed in June. Irish surplus rose in April. Motorola Solutions agreed to acquire Psion for £129 million. Rolls-Royce signed a contract worth in excess of £1 billion with the UK Ministry of Defence.[/R]

The UK indexes edged modestly after home prices rose in June. Investors focus on Greece where the conservative New Democracy party led by Antonis Samaras won the elections held yesterday securing 129 seats in the 300-member parliament. However, since the New Democracy leader does not have a clear mandate he needs the support of other parties to form a coalition government.

In London, the benchmark index FTSE 100 gained 0.14 or 0.1% to 5,486.11 and the pound edged lower to $1.5654.

UK Home Prices Climb

The average asking price in the United Kingdom climbed 1.0% on month in June to £246,235, property Web site Rightmove said today. That follows the flat monthly reading in May. Prices in London surged 1.7% to a £477,440.

On a yearly basis, home prices advanced 2.4% in June after rising 2.0% in May.

Irish Surplus Rises

Ireland''s seasonally adjusted trade surplus rose to €3.43 billion in April from €3.11 billion in March, preliminary data released by the Central Statistics Office showed today.

Exports decreased a seasonally adjusted 9% on a monthly basis to €6.99 billion and imports fell 23% sequentially to €3.56 billion in April.

Motorola Solutions to Acquire Psion

Motorola Solutions Inc., the provider of mission-critical communication solutions agreed to acquire Psion plc for $200 million or £129 million.

Motorola has offered to buy each Psion share for $1.36 or 88 pence, representing a premium of about 45% on the closing price of 60.5 pence per Psion share on June 14. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

NHS Supply Chain Inks Agreement with Elekta

NHS Supply Chain signed a deal to purchase ten Elekta Synergy radiation therapy treatment systems. They will be delivered over the next 18 months. The deal begins to address the shortage of linear accelerators in the UK and the replacement of aging linacs.

Gainers & Losers

DS Smith plc fell 1.1% to 139.30 pence after the supplier of recycled packaging for consumer goods confirmed that the expected date of completion for the acquisition of SCA Packaging Holding BV is June 30.

Melrose Plc slumped 3.1% to 370.60 pence after the investment company confirmed that it is in discussions with the Board of Elster Group SE relating to a recommended cash offer for the entire issued share capital of Elster.

Rolls-Royce Holding PLC rose 1.5% to 834.50 pence after the provider of power systems and services signed a contract worth in excess of £1 billion with the Ministry of Defence to deliver reactor cores for the UK’s nuclear-powered submarine fleet.

Tesco Plc climbed 0.6% to 303 pence after the retailer said it has entered into an agreement with Aeon, Japan''s largest retail group.

WPP plc increased 1.1% to 755 pence after the advertising agency’s wholly-owned operating company Ogilvy & Mather acquired a minority stake in Communication Group, A.S., the holding company for the Istropolitana group of companies, in the Slovak Republic.