Balfour Beatty, Songbird Reject Takeover Offers

Nigel Thomas
05 Dec, 2014
New York City

Balfour Beatty rejected a

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – Balfour Beatty rejected a £1 billion offer from John Laing Infrastructure. Berkeley Group profit surged 85% to £242 million. Glaxo abandoned its plan to sell a portfolio of medicines. Songbird rejected £2.6 billion revised takeover proposal from Qatar Investment and Brookfield.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index increased 0.8% or 51.39 to 6,730.76 and in Frankfurt the DAX index climbed 1.8% or 166.53 to 10,017.88.

In Paris, CAC 40 index jumped 1.8% or 77.05 to 4,400.94.

Balfour Beatty Plc climbed 5.5% to 194.80 pence after the U.K.-based infrastructure developer rejected a £1 billion or $1.6 billion offer from John Laing Infrastructure Fund for its public-private partnership assets as “significantly short of its own view of its value.”

The Berkeley Group Holdings Plc jumped 4% to 2,605 after the U.K.-based property developer reported revenues in the first-half ending in October soared 24.5% to £1.02 billion from £821 million a year ago period.

Profit in the period surged 84.5% from a year ago to £241.7 million compared to £131 million and diluted earnings per share jumped to 158.8 pence from 84.7 pence.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc rose 0.4% to 1,467 pence after the U.K.-based healthcare company abandoned its plan to sell its some of old medicines with lost patent protection in North America and Europe after it received considerable offers from world’s largest private equity groups.

Outsourcery Plc surged 30.9% to 27.48 pence after the U.K.-based cloud-based service provider won a significant contract from a large company for its O-Cloud platform for about £1.1 million for the initial three-year period.

Premier Foods Plc declined 6.1% to 33.79 pence on speculation the U.K.-based food and bakery products maker asking its suppliers for payments or else run the risk losing their contract.

Songbird Estates Plc halted at 330 pence after the U.K.-based property investor rejected an increased takeover proposal from Qatar Investment Authority and Brookfield Property Partners LP of £2.6 billion or $4.07 billion and said offer still undervalues the company.