Punters hoping for a fight over Salamander Energy may be disappointed.
The South-east Asia-focused oil and gas explorer jumped more than 20% on Friday after outlining the bid proposal that Spanish energy giant Cepsa was considering.
Speculators hoped the announcement would prompt a counter-offer from circling Ophir Energy. But Canaccord Genuity today played down the chances of Ophir jumping in, saying Cepsa’s 121p-a-share offer is too chunky.
Meanwhile Salamander may have blown its chances altogether. Cepsa issued an icy statement today saying Friday’s disclosure was made “without its consent” and it is “considering its position… [with] no certainty that an offer may be forthcoming”. Salamander fell 6.5p to 110.62p.
Another potential bidding war was put to bed as Microchip Technology confirmed it would not make a play for CSR, under offer by Qualcomm. CSR dipped 5.5p to 826.5p.
Shock waves from Tokyo heralded a dour start to the week for the Footsie, which slipped 18.27 to 6636.10. Exane BNP had the honour of bookending the index.
An upgrade from the broker helped ARM Holdings to the top of the blue-chip index, 12.5p better at 881.5p, while red pens taken to Weir saw it tumble 93p to 2034p at the bottom. The crisis at Quindell, off 5.5p at 63.12p, deepened as it revealed joint broker Canaccord Genuity has thrown in the towel.
The disclosure sent Quindell’s adviser and other broker Cenkos Securities down 19.5p to 181p.
Victoria, the carpets specialist that provided the rugs for the royal wedding, collapsed 40p to 382.5p.
A leap in exceptional costs pushed it to a pre-tax loss of £8.12 million in the first six months, compared with a £30,000 loss a year earlier.
