LVMH Agrees to Buy Belmond for $3.2 B, Balfour Beatty, GVC, Scout24 Jump

Sarla Buch
31 Jan, 2019
London

Balfour Beatty forecasted profits may beat expectations. LVMH agreed to acquire luxury hotels operator Belmond for $3.2 billion. Scout24 explore to take it private. SThree forecasted gross profit to jump 12%.

In London trading, FTSE 100 index slid 15.92 or 0.2% to 6,860.46 and in Frankfurt the DAX index slipped 30.60 or 0.3% to 10,894.10.

In Paris, CAC 40 index fell 28.47 or 0.6% to 4,866.43.

Balfour Beatty Plc jumped 4.6% to 257.40 pence after the U.K.-based infrastructure developer forecasted group revenues in the second-half is likely to flat from the first-half and profits may beat expectations.

The construction services said as of December 13, total orders of about £12 billion from £11.4 billion in the same period a year ago.

GVC Holdings Plc surged 11.1% to 735 pence ahead of the U.K. parliamentary vote on fixed-odds betting terminals in the next week.

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE dropped 1.8% to €251.80 after France-based luxury goods conglomerate agreed to buy London-based luxury hotels operator Belmond Limited including Venice's landmark Cipriani for $25 per share or about $3.2 billion.

The transaction is expected to close in the first-half of 2019.

Scout24 AG soared 10.4% to €39.84 after Reuter said Germany-based online advertisement services provider explore to take it private to domestic buyouts as the U.S.-based technology buyout firm Silver Lake is also among the bidders.

SThree Plc advanced 5% to 273.06 pence after the U.K.-based specialist staffing provider forecasted fiscal 2018 gross profit to jump 12% to £320.9 million.

SThree forecasted fiscal 2018 gross profit in Europe to soar 20% to £183.3 million and gross profit in the U.S. to advance 8% to £66.6 million and gross profit in the Asia and Middle East region to surge 11% to £18 million.