FTSE 250 movers: G4S surges on bid; Wetherspoons retreats

London’s FTSE 250 was up 0.4% at 17,621.04 in afternoon trade on Monday.

Shares of security services firm G4S surged after privately-owned Canadian rival GardaWorld announced a hostile 190p per share possible offer valuing the company at £2.96bn. The offer price is 30% premium to Friday’s closing share price and an 86% premium to the price prior to its first approach in June.

GardaWorld has made three separate approaches to G4S but said the board has refused to engage in "meaningful discussions". The company said it had made its intentions public "in the hope that G4S’s shareholders will put pressure on their board to come to the table".

Oxford Biomedica was up after AstraZeneca and Oxford University confirmed that UK trials of their Covid-19 vaccine were resuming. The company has a supply agreement with AZN for the vaccine and its shares fell sharply last week when it emerged the trials were being halted.

On the downside, transport operator FirstGroup and housebuilder Crest Nicholson were the worst performers on the index.

Pub chain Wetherspoons was also in the red after it emerged that 66 members of its staff have tested positive for the coronavirus across 50 pubs.

FTSE 250 - Risers

G4S (GFS) 182.50p 25.09%
Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 343.00p 6.69%
Meggitt (MGGT) 279.70p 5.83%
HGCapital Trust (HGT) 287.00p 4.36%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 304.40p 3.61%
easyJet (EZJ) 600.00p 3.45%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 856.00p 3.13%
IP Group (IPO) 73.20p 3.10%
Serco Group (SRP) 142.20p 2.89%
AO World (AO.) 188.00p 2.73%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

FirstGroup (FGP) 41.14p -4.37%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 191.70p -4.15%
Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 888.50p -4.10%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 49.95p -3.94%
Rank Group (RNK) 118.20p -3.90%
Royal Mail (RMG) 225.80p -3.38%
Coats Group (COA) 53.60p -3.25%
Polypipe Group (PLP) 400.50p -2.67%
Investec (INVP) 141.60p -2.61%
Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 1,194.00p -2.61%