HeidelbergCement Raises

Mayank Mehta
22 Sep, 2009
New York City

Accor announces the sale and leaseback of low end hotel properties to lower debt. HeidelbergCement raised

[R]7:00PM Frankfurt, Paris; 1:00 PM New York – Accor announces the sale and leaseback of low end hotel properties to lower debt. HeidelbergCement raised €2.2 billion through a stock offering and plans to reschedule its €5 billion debt. Hermes sees difficult period in 2009. Wendel SA offer launch bond exchange plan.[/R]

In London FTSE 100 Index closed higher 8.24 or 0.16% to 5,142.60, in Paris CAC 40 Index increased 11.36 or 0.30% to close at 3,823.52, in Frankfurt DAX index higher 40.73 or 0.72% to close at 5,709.38. In Zurich trading SMI increased 34.19 or 0.55% to close at 6,340.72.

Gainers & Losers

Accor SA increased 4.9% to €39.85 after the French hotel operator sold and agreed to lease back 158 Formule 1 budget inns for €272 million. The leaseback is for 12-year period and will lower Accord debt by €187 million and add €5 million to its pre-tax profits.

Air France-KLM added advanced 5.3% to €12.78 after the airline said that it plans to cut its overall capacity for the winter season of 2009-2010 by 2% in available-seat-kilometers compared to a year ago season.

Audika SA rose 1.3% to €22.20 after the hearing-aid distributor was upgraded to “outperform” from “underperform” at Cheuvreux.

BAUER AG rose 3.3% to €30.60 after the construction company was downgraded to “underweight” from “neutral” at HSBC Holdings Plc.

BMW added 1.7% to €34.88 after the luxury-car maker said is planning to release new models over the next 12 to 18 months.

Credit Agricole SA rose 2.3% to €14.06 after the bank was upgraded to “neutral” from “sell” at UBS AG.

Commerzbank AG added 0.8% to €8.77 and Daimler AG the maker of luxury cars advanced 1.8% to €33.66.

Deutsche Wohnen AG fell 2.6% to €16.85 after the publicly traded residential landlord plans offering with a subscription price of €4.50 per share for the new ordinary bearer shares with no par value. The new shares carry full dividend rights as of Jan. 1, 2009.

GEA Group AG the company whose machines milk a third of the world’s dairy cows rose 4.5% to €14.72.

HeidelbergCement AG increased 4.9% to €45.87 after the cement supplier completed the sales of 62.5 million new shares and 57.2 million shares controlled by lead shareholder Ludwig Merckle for the same price of €37 a share. The company received €2.2 billion in proceeds. Chief executive Bernd Scheifele said the company still needs to refinance €5 billion of debt.

Hermes International SCA decreased 1% to €99.90 after its chief executive Patrick Thomas said in an interview with Bloomberg that company owned store sales are in line with management expectations but department stores have cut orders to conserve cash. He also added that things are not likely to improve till 2010.

K+S AG fell 0.6% to €37.84 after the potash producer was downgraded to “underperform” from “neutral” at Bank of America Corp.

Lagardere SCA climbed 4.1% to €33.16 after publisher of consumer magazines said French business weekly La Lettre de L''expansion reports that Lagardere Active, a division of the company is examining options for its U.S. magazine unit Hachette Filipacchi Media US without naming sources.

Publicis Groupe S.A advanced 4.1% to €28.61 after the advertising agency was upgraded to “outperform” from “neutral” at Exane BNP Paribas.

Q-Cells SE added 1.9% to €13.91 after the solar company said it expects demand to rise amid low prices but it is still too early to make a forecast for the year given the volatile market situation, Chief Executive Officer Anton Milner told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.

Renault SA the automaker climbed 2.5% to €32.78.

STMicroelectronics N.V added 2.9% to €6.74.

Seche Environnement SA increased 4.8% to €62.69 after the company engaged in the collection, storage and treatment of non-radioactive waste was upgraded to “buy” from “add” at Natixis Securities.

Vivendi SA rose 1.8% to €21.10 after the music company as investors speculated that the company may decide the fate of its 20% stake in NBC Universal at board meeting this week.

Volkswagen AG the carmaker rose 0.3% to €110.84.

Wendel SA rose 4.1% to €39.51 after the publicly listed private-equity firm said that it has invited holders of its 5% bonds due 2011 to exchange, at par value a total of up to €400 million of such existing bonds for new euro denominated 4.875% bonds due 2014 to be issued.

DAX Index Movers

K+S AG led the decliners in the DAX index of 1.31% followed by losses in Linde AG of 1.29%, in Deutsche Boerse AG of 1.16%, in Man SE of 0.82%, in Bayer AG of 0.67%.

Daimler AG led gainers in the DAX index with a rise of 3.51% followed by increase in Muenchener Rueckversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG of 3.32%, in Salzgitter AG of 3.08%, in Deutsche Lufthansa AG of 2.93%, in Allianz SE. of 1.77%.

CAC-40 Index Movers

PPR SA led the decliners in the CAC-40 index of 1.66% followed by losses in Bouygues SA of 1.50%, in Carrefour S.A. of 1.47%, in Gdf Suez SA of 1.28%, Technip of 1.26%.

Lagardere SCA gainers in the CAC-40 index with a rise of 4.02% followed by gainers in Alcatel Lucent SA of 3.76%, Michelin SCA of 3.50%, in Accor SA of 3.26%, in Alstom SA of 2.72%.