SABMiller Agrees to Merger with AB Inbev, U.K. Sells Royal Mail Stake

Nigel Thomas
13 Oct, 2015
New York City

Aixtron plunged 14% on lowered revenues outlook. Leoni tumbled 33% on weaker than estimated operating profit. The U.K. government sells its remaining 14% stake in Royal Mail. SABMiller agreed to merge with Anheuser Busch. SAP third-quarter revenues surged 17%.

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – Aixtron plunged 14% on lowered revenues outlook. Leoni tumbled 33% on weaker than estimated operating profit. The U.K. government sells its remaining 14% stake in Royal Mail. SABMiller agreed to merge with Anheuser Busch. SAP third-quarter revenues surged 17%.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index fell 17.26 or 0.3% to 6,354.36 and in Frankfurt the DAX index decreased 87.23 or 0.9% to 10,030.92.

In Paris, CAC 40 index slipped 42.56 or 0.9% to 4,646.14.

Aixtron SE plunged 14.2% to €4.91 after the Germany-based deposition equipment maker lowered revenues forecast for the year in the range of €190 million to €200 million from the earlier estimated range between €220 million and €250 million mainly due to delay in shipments to its customer in China.

Leoni AG tumbled 33.7% to €35.45 after the Germany-based wires, optical fibers and cables provider said operating profit for the year likely to be less than the earlier estimate of €200 million after weaker performance in the wiring systems division.

Leoni reported consolidated sales for the year are still expected to be at least €4.3 billion.

The company also lowered its revenues forecast for the fiscal 2016 to €4.6 billion compared to previous guidance of about €4.8 billion.

Royal Mail Plc declined 4.8% to 449.50 pence after the U.K. government completed the sale of its remaining stake of 13% in the postal services provider at a price of 455 pence per share or about £591.1 million or $904.89 million.

The government offered to gift the remaining 1% of stake to the employees of the postal department.

SABMiller Plc jumped 9.1% to 3,950 pence after the U.K.-listed brewing and the beverage maker agreed to $106 billion offer from the rival Anheuser Busch InBev.

Anheuser agreed to pay a $3 billion break-up fee to SABMiller in the event regulators reject the deal.

SAP SE soared 5.8% to €64.04 after the Germany-based analytics software developer reported total revenues in the third-quarter ending in September surged 17% from a year ago to €4.98 billion.

Operating profit in the quarter jumped 5% from a year ago to €1.21 billion compared to €1.16 billion and earnings per share increased to €0.75 from €0.74.

SAP is schedule to report its third-quarter results on October 20.

Svenska Cellulosa AB SCA rose 0.7% to 225.20 Swedish kronor after the Sweden-based paper and hygiene products maker agreed to acquire the U.S.-based tissue maker Wausau Paper Corp for about $513 million in cash.

Worldpay, the payments processor listed its stock on the London Stock Exchange in an initial public offering valuing the company at £4.8 billion or $7.4 billion, the largest U.K. public offering in the year so far.

The company priced its 900 million share offering at 240 pence a share and stock rose 6% on the first day of trading.