Europe midday: Shares hold gains on Telecom Italia bid news
European shares held gains at midday on Monday, although off morning levels, as a $12bn bid from US private equity firm KKR for Telecom Italia drove sentiment.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was up 0.19% in early deals after declines last week on the back of rising Covid cases and a full lockdown starting in Austria on Monday with Germany potentially set to follow suit.
"The realisation that a number of countries could see another disrupted Christmas hasn’t gone down well in a number of European countries with civil disorder breaking out in a number of countries across the region," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
Telecom Italia shares leapt 28% on the bid news, with KKR planning to take the group private. Spain's Telefonica was up 5% in response to the news.
Diploma rose 7% after the company reported a jump in full-year pre-tax profit on amid improved demand, as it backed its outlook for fiscal 2022.
Elsewhere in the sector, shares in Norway’s Telenor gained after the company agreed to merge its telecom unit with Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group in a deal valued at about $8.61bn.
Renault shares were up as the car maker signed a second supply deal with lithium developer Vulcan Energy Resources.
Marks and Spencer shares were higher on a report that New York-based private equity outfit Apollo Global Management is pondering a buyout of the company.
Danish wind turbine maker Vestas fell after saying it was hit by a cyber attack that affected its IT systems and compromised data.
Swedish telecoms company Ericsson fell after announcing a deal to buy cloud communications firm Vonage for $6.2bn.