GKN Rejects

Sarla Buch
12 Jan, 2018
New York City

B&M reported strong sales in holiday period. Carrefour agreed to buy 17% stake in Showroomprive.com. GKN rejected

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt – B&M reported strong sales in holiday period. Carrefour agreed to buy 17% stake in Showroomprive.com. GKN rejected £7 billion Melrose proposal. Kering plans to reduce substantially its stake in Puma to 16%.[/R]

In London trading, FTSE 100 index edged up 0.75 to 7,763.69 and in Frankfurt the DAX index rose 5.55 to 13,208.45.

In Paris, CAC 40 index increased 12.88 or 0.2% to 5,501.42.

For the week, FTSE 100 index increased 0.7%, the DAX index slipped 0.8% and the CAC 40 index gained 0.6%.

B&M European Value Retail SA advanced 2.8% to 407.80 pence after the U.K.-based reported retailer total group revenues in the third-quarter ending in December soared 22.7% from a year ago to £969.8 billion and comparable sales in B&M store jumped 12.9%.

Carrefour SA jumped 2.2% to €17.86 after France-based supermarkets and discount stores operator agreed to buy 17% stake in domestic online fashion retailer Showroomprive.com from Conforama, subsidiary of Steinhoff International Holdings N.V. for about €79 million.

GKN Plc surged 25.9% to 418.70 pence after the U.K.-based engineering and aerospace services provider rejected £7 billion takeover offer and said it received “a preliminary and unsolicited” takeover proposal” from Melrose Industries Plc.

Separately, the engineering company also unveiled plans to separate its businesses.

GKN said Melrose made a proposal for 405 pence share on January 8, payable 80% in new Melrose shares and 20% in cash.

The engineering and aerospace services provider forecasted fiscal 2017 pre-tax profit may slightly be ahead of £678 million reported in fiscal 2016.

Kering dropped 0.9% to €404.60 after France-based luxury goods maker plans to sell 70% stake in its Germany-based sports brand Puma to French conglomerate and shareholders and retain 16% stake in Puma.

Vivendi SA declined 4.1% to €23.29 after France-based media conglomerate lowered fiscal 2017 revenue growth estimate to about 5% and added operating profit to increase by more than 30% to €365 million from the earlier estimate of €350 million.

In fiscal 2019, the media conglomerate forecasted operating profit of €500 million.

Vivendi is schedule to release its earnings on February 15 after the market close.