FTSE 250 movers: Aston Martin motors; IDS fails to deliver

FTSE 250: 19,260.97, +0.24%

Chinese auto group Geely has committed to invest £234m in UK luxury car maker Aston Martin Lagonda, to become its third-largest shareholder.

Geely will buy 42 million ordinary shares from largest shareholder Yew Tree, owned by Aston Martin chairman Lawrence Stroll, at 335p each and subscribe for another 28 million shares at the same price.

Aston Martin's stock closed at 231.2p on Wednesday. Geely will end up with a 17% stake in the company and one board seat. Yew Tree remains the largest shareholder at 21%.

Aston Martin added that it would receive around £95m in cash from the subscription of the new shares.

"Geely Holding, who initially became a shareholder last year, sees tremendous potential for Aston Martin's long-term growth and success," Stroll said in a statement.

"They offer us a deep understanding of the key strategic growth market that China represents, as well as the opportunity to access their range of technologies and components."

UK postal carrier Royal Mail swung to a massive £1bn annual loss, pushing parent company International Distributions Services into the red after a bruising year-long battle with unions over pay and conditions and a failure to deliver productivity improvements.

The scale of the Royal Mail loss - against a profit of £250m a year earlier - led IDS to a group loss of £748m for the year to March 26, compared with a profit of £577m last time.

Group adjusted operating losses were £71m compared with a profit of £758m. Analysts on average had expected a loss of £114m, according to a company-compiled consensus.

IDS cited industrial action by the Communication Workers Union, lower Covid test kit volumes and a weaker online retail market for the loss.

Revenue across the group fell 5% to £12.04bn and group pre-tax losses were £676m, having posted a profit of £662 million last year. IDS said it was targeting an adjusted operating profit in this financial year.

More than 115,000 postal workers at Royal Mail held a total of 18 days of strikes between September and December last year, demanding higher pay and better working conditions.

An agreement with the CWU is awaiting approval by the unions members. The dispute last week claimed the scalp of chief executive Simon Thompson, who had been accused of taking too confrontational a position.

He also faced criticism from MPs who accused him of not giving “wholly accurate” answers about the company’s treatment of staff when he appeared before them.

The company also confirmed that the Royal Mail loss and plans to invest in its profitable GLS parcels division, meant it would not pay a final dividend. To compound the company's woes industry regulator Ofcom on Monday said that it had opened an investigation into Royal Mail’s failure to meet its delivery targets for 2022-23.

Eastern Mediterranean gas producer Energean cut production guidance and said it expected to make a final investment decision on its Olympus fields off Israel by the end of this year.

Guidance for year was reduced to 125,000-140,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 131,000-158,000 due revised gas sales to Israel and higher-than-expected output declines in Egypt.

Revenues for the quarter to March 31 were $288.8m, up 69% year on year. Core earnings rose 81% to $162.2m.

Energean operates a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel off Israel, supplying that country’s market from its Karish offshore field, which started operations last October.

The Olympus field would connect to the FPSO and deliver to the Israeli market under existing contracts, with any excess gas going to Egypt and Jordan.

Its development has taken precedence over the Tanin gas field, which is set to stay undeveloped into the 2030s, Energean said.

Shares in Genuit Group spiked almost 8% on Thursday as the plastic pipe and ventilation products maker said annual earnings would be slightly ahead of consensus.

In a trading update for the four months to April 30, the company said revenue fell 3.8% to £201, and 4.7% on a like for like basis, driven by an 11% fall in volumes offset by higher prices in response to inflationary pressures.

EBIT consensus as compiled by Genuit, formerly known as Polypipe, is £84m with a range of £70 - £96m.

UK housebuilder Vistry said it expected to report adjust annual earnings of more than £450m as the market continued to improve in the wake of the disastrous ‘mini budget’ of former prime minister Liz Truss.

"We have continued to see improving market conditions and the group has traded in line with our expectations for the year to date,” the company said in a trading update on Thursday.

The group said it had £4.4bn in forward sales and was “well positioned” to manage costs and was targeting to offset any inflationary cost increases this year.

Truss's unfunded £44bn tax cuts package sent markets into a tailspin last September, resulting in thousands of mortgage products being pulled by lenders and worsening an already fragile economy.

Vistry added that its sales rate continues to improve with the average weekly private sales rate per site per week at 0.83 for the year to date.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 263.00p 13.75%
Genuit Group (GEN) 335.50p 12.58%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 24.30p 6.58%
Keller Group (KLR) 711.00p 5.80%
ASOS (ASC) 452.90p 5.33%
Vistry Group (VTY) 851.00p 4.55%
TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 2,460.00p 4.24%
Vanquis Banking Group 20 (VANQ) 228.50p 4.10%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 140.60p 4.07%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 206.80p 3.87%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Future (FUTR) 878.00p -16.06%
Energean (ENOG) 1,132.00p -8.41%
International Distributions Services (IDS) 206.10p -7.25%
Tritax Eurobox (GBP) (EBOX) 65.60p -5.34%
Supermarket Income Reit (SUPR) 83.70p -3.24%
UK Commercial Property Reit Limited (UKCM) 53.90p -3.23%
Tritax Big Box Reit (BBOX) 143.40p -2.78%
LXI Reit (LXI) 102.70p -2.19%
Bluefield Solar Income Fund Limited (BSIF) 134.80p -2.03%
LondonMetric Property (LMP) 184.30p -1.92%