Zambeef Products PLC (LON: ZAM) have seen their shares in red despite the firm reporting profit gains in an update on Monday.

Zambeef is the largest beef producer in Zambia. The company also provides feedlot services, and manufactures milk, chicken, eggs, leather and shoes. The company operates a fast food restaurant chain and a trucking company, including a fleet of refrigerated trucks

Shares of Zambeef dipped 3.83% to 5p on the positive announcement. 9/12/19 12:45BST.

The firm reported a full year profit rise but Zambian currency headwinds contributed to a mixed revenue picture, in what was a “challenging year” for the Africa-focused food producer.

In the year ended September 30, revenue was up 13% to ZMW3.13 billion from ZMW2.78 billion last year.

In US dollar terms, revenue declined by 9.2% year-on-year to $254.5 million from $280.3 million.

Pretax profit also climbed 38% to ZMW38.7 million from ZMW28.0 million, or by 11% to $3.1 million from $2.9 million last year.

The company operates a chain of 226 retail outlets and it also produces and distributes beef, chicken, pork, dairy, eggs, fish, flour and stockfeed in Zambia, Nigeria and Ghana.

Zambeef said: “The weakening of the Zambian Kwacha against the USD by approximately 24%, increase in the cost of fuel by 19%, together with constrained electricity supply that started in July 2019 due to reduced electricity generation arising from the low water levels in the Kariba Dam, impacted not only the Zambeef group’s performance but also our customers spending power.”

The company added: “The profitability was mainly driven by cropping, increased volumes and margins in the stock feed division and retail and cold chain food products which is in line with our strategic imperative of consistent revenue growth through expansion of our retail network.”

Zembeef concluded: “As we had anticipated, 2019 proved a challenging year for the group, driven by difficult economic and market conditions that impacted negatively on the group’s financial performance, particularly in the first half of the year.

“Set against this challenging macro economic backdrop, the group’s results were reassuring, especially in the second half of the year.”

Looking ahead, the firm expects the tricky market conditions in Zambia, which is mired by a high national debt and electricity supply constraints, to continue hindering consumer confidence.

Shareholders of Zambeef should remain optimistic, as the global state of the supermarket industry has been slow.

Certainly, UK supermarkets have been hit by slow trading and Brexit complications whilst overseas competitors have made gains.

FTSE100 listed Sainsbury’s saw a bruising to its profits in November, as the firm saw underlying profit before tax declined by 15% to £238 million, compared to the £279 million figure recorded for the same period the year prior.

Sainsbury’s did seem to make some ground however, as the firm reported a few days later that it had struck a deal with Australian retailer Coles for a wholesale partnership, as they look to expand wholesale business.

Additionally, Tesco reported a fall in their profits leading to the release of the ClubCard plus and this morning the firm led a consideration to sell its Asian operations.

In the food suppliers market, Associated British Foods saw their shares jump on Friday as the firm gave a confident outlook to shareholders following strong performance from brands such as Primark.

Open Orphan PLC (LON: ORPH) and Hvivo PLC (LON: HVO) have updated shareholders on Monday on the completion of a tie up deal.

Both the firms are AIM listed and the deal would value Hvivo at £13 million according to the Monday update.

Open Orphan is building a leading European rare disease and orphan drug focused pharma services company.

The firm do this in two ways: acquiring and consolidating a series of smaller, European, orphan drug services companies and deploying our digital data platforms to support companies in research & development and commercialization.

hVIVO has particular expertise in conducting human challenge studies using influenza (flu), human rhinovirus (HRV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) for pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

Under the terms of the agreement, hVIVO shareholders will receive 2.47 new Open Orphan shares per hVIVO share. The deal values hVIVO shares at 15.56 pence each, a 34% premium to the clinical development services company’s closing price of 11.62p on Friday.

As the tie up deal is a reverse acquisition, Open Orphan will need to win the approval of its shareholders at their general meeting on January 6th.

Open Orphan said it expects to issue 205.5 million shares under the terms of the merger, with hVIVO shareholders owning just shy of 45% of the enlarged firm.

Open Orphan said: “Open Orphan and hVIVO are AIM-quoted groups that share a similar vision for the future of European Clinical Research Organisations and an entrepreneurial approach to developing further their business through a focus on operational efficiency, organic growth and targeted acquisitions to expand their geographic and service capabilities.

“The Open Orphan directors and the hVIVO directors believe that the combination of the businesses will result in synergies across the enlarged group with each business providing complementary services with limited overlap in existing capabilities and customers.”

Open Orphan Chief Executive Cathal Friel said: “The merger of Open Orphan and hVIVO is a key milestone in the execution of our strategy to become a larger-scale specialist pharma services business and in complementary segments where specialist skills and know-how command higher margins.

“The merger allows the combined business to maximise shareholder value through delivering cost and revenue synergies across the businesses and one that is better positioned to consistently capture greater market share as part of a properly profitable business with losses confined to the past.”

Capital & Regional (LON: CAL) have updated shareholders on Monday about their share subscription being completed to finalize a deal with Growthpoint (JSE: GRT).

Capital & Regional plc is a large British manager of property assets – mainly shopping centres – for funds in which it has a significant stake.

Shares in Capital & Regional currently trade at 28p (+0.085%). 9/12/19 11:26BST.

In October, the firm announced that it would be looking to formalize a deal with Growthpoint.

The firm said that the first part of the deal would be or Growthpoint to acquire 219.8 million existing shares in Capital & Regional, which the firm has said has been completed.

The second part was for Growthpoint to subscribe for 311.5 million new Capital & Regional shares, at a price of 25p each to raise £77.9 million before costs for the company.

Johannesburg-listed real estate investment trust Growthpoint said it will invest around £150.4 million for a 51% interest in the UK real estate firm Capital & Regional.

The completion of this two phase deal means that the offer between the two firms is now wholly unconditional.

Capital & Regional Chair Hugh Scott-Barrett said: “The successful completion of this transaction is transformational for the long term growth of Capital & Regional. It provides us with the resources and support to continue the roll out of our community centre asset management strategy, while at the same time allowing us to further reduce the company’s leverage.

“The team at Growthpoint share our conviction that retail centres which focus on daily ‘needs’, rather than the ‘wants’, of the local communities they serve and which have a central role in their local economies, will continue to play an important part in the evolving retail landscape.”

Growthpoint Chair Francois Marais added: “Growthpoint fully intends to support the growth of Capital & Regional’s portfolio both as to quality and profitability.

“Growthpoint looks forward to a productive and profitable ongoing engagement with the management of Capital & Regional to assist Capital & Regional in achieving its strategic objectives.”

The industry has been busy, as rival Intu saw their share price crash after expectations for revenue income have fallen for financial 2019. Intu said that new rent in the nine months to 30 September 2019 hit £19 million, falling from £32 million during the same period last year.

Additionally, NewRiver Reit PLC saw their shares spike in November, after the firm announced the purchase of a Northern Ireland retail park for £40 million.

Deepmatter Group PLC (LON: DMTR) have seen their shares rally on Monday morning after the firm announced a pharmaceutical technology collaboration.

Deepmatter platform transforms chemistry into code. It uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to make better molecules and provide insights never before available.

Digitized chemistry enhances reproducibility and increases productivity. The contextualized data generated by deepmatter provides greater access to high fidelity data and informs and improves better outcomes.

Deepmatter shares rallied after the firm said that it will be collaborating with giant AstraZeneca PLC (LON: AZN) in a digital technology venture, designed to speed up the drug delivery process.

AstraZeneca is a FTSE100 and announced that it had received received marketing authorization from China’s National Medical Products Administration for their Lynparza drug with partner Merck & Co just last week, which won shareholder appetite.

Today Deepmatter, will work with AstraZeneca on their DigitalGlassware platform, which enables chemists to share the details of their experiments from anywhere and in real-time.

Michael Kossenjans, an associate director at Astra’s Discovery Sciences, Research & Development unit, said: “Our goal is to transform drug design using innovative digital technologies in combination with automation and artificial intelligence. To get potential new medicines to patients faster, we need to reduce the cycle time for lead identification and optimisation and look forward to working with DeepMatter to assess the potential of DigitalGlassware to help with this.”

DeepMatter Chief Executive added: “We’ve been impressed with the automated chemistry platforms developed at AstraZeneca sites for autonomous delivery of new lead series. We see an opportunity to draw together knowledge from the DigitalGlassware platform to enable machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to increase the certainty of producing a high quality and choice of candidate drug molecules.

“We look forward to progressing this exciting collaboration over the coming months as we continue to maximise the potential of the DigitalGlassware platform.”

DeepMatter explained: “Displayed in real time, the data can be interrogated using multiple views, enabling the analysis of reaction runs and the re-playing of syntheses. By capturing in-situ chemical data alongside the experimental intent, observations and outcomes, it is expected that machine learning and artificial algorithms could yield cost and time savings whilst also providing novel insights into chemistry.”

Shares of Deepmatter surged 43.9% to 2p. 9/12/19 11:17BST.

Shareholders of Tullow Oil plc (LON: TLW) have seen their shares crash on Monday morning after the Chief Executive announced his departure within a hectic week of trading for the firm.

Tullow Oil have seen a very volatile few weeks of trading. In November, the firm saw their shares crash after a production warning was issued alerting shareholders.

Tullow had warned production was likely to be between 89,000 barrels and 93,000 barrels, lower than the 90,000 barrels to 98,000 barrels initially guided, which caused shares to sink.

One week ago, The FTSE250 listed firm saw their shares in green following a positive update on their Ugandan operations.

The Ugandan Government had been in lockdown with firms such as Total (EPA: FP) and CNOOC (HKG: 0883) over the taxes assed on Tullow’s plans to sell part of its stakes in Ugandan oil fields, however the governmental disputes seem to have progressed last week.

Today, the firm saw their chief executive and exploration director quit which caused shares to crash.

Shares in Tullow Oil crashed 58.05% to 59p following the announcement. 9/12/19 10:54BST.

Pat McDade, along with exploration director Angus McCoss, said they had quit the firm. The board said it was “disappointed by the performance of Tullow’s business”.

Tullow Oil saw more than £1.05 billion wiped off their market value at 9am this morning, which left the company only valued at £801.7 million.

The firm has suspended its dividend to shareholders, and “now needs time to complete its thorough review of operations”.

Dorothy Thompson, the company’s chair, said: “Despite today’s announcement, the board strongly believes that Tullow has good assets and excellent people capable of delivering value for shareholders.

“We are taking decisive action to restore performance, reduce our cost base and deliver sustainable free cash flow.”

Thompson has temporarily been installed as executive chair, as the firm kicks off its search for a new chief executive.

“The board has, however, been disappointed by the performance of Tullow’s business and now needs time to complete its thorough review of operations,” Executive Chairman Dorothy Thompson said.

The company said it expects full-year net production to average around 87,000 barrels of oil per day, reiterating its guidance from last month’s trading statement.

However, Tullow said that after a review of “production performance issues” this year, and the impact this could have on its fields’ performance in the coming years, it had changed its guidance.

Next year’s production is predicted to average between 70,000 and 80,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd), while over the next three years it expects an average of 70,000 bopd, which may leave a bitter sweet taste in the mouths of shareholders.

Tullow said it had picked out “a number of factors” that have caused the reduction in guidance.

“Whilst financial performance has been solid, production performance has been significantly below expectations from the group’s main producing assets, the TEN and Jubilee fields in Ghana,” it said.

Tesco PLC (LON: TSCO) have seen their shares jump on Monday morning after the firm was considering the sale of its Asian supermarket business.

Shares of Tesco jumped 4.61% to 243p. 9/12/19 10:28BST.

Tesco have seen a mixed trading year, as the firm saw slow sales growth in its first quarter as reported in June.

The FTSE100 listed firm said that like-for-like sales increased 0.4% year-on-year in three month period until 25 May.

At the end of October, Tesco additionally announced that they would be set to trial the ClubCard Plus in an attempt to stimulate business.

Tesco, in similar nature to rivals such as Sainsbury’s have seen their trading hampered by stiff competition from overseas competitors such as Lidl and Aldi, which led to the firm agreeing a wholesale deal with Australian firm Coles.

Also noteworthy, Marks and Spencer reported a slump in their quarterly profits in October, and this led to mass store closures and saw their shares in red.

Today, Tesco the largest UK supermarket chain has considered selling its Asian operations which was reported by the Times.

The Asian grocery business, comprised of operations in Thailand and Malaysia, could be worth up to $9 billion, the Times said.

In a statement, the retailer said it had had received “inbound interest”, but did not name the potential buyer or buyers. Tesco Lotus employs about 60,000 people.

The business boasted revenues of £4.9 million in the year ending in February – making a profit of £286m – about a fifth of Tesco’s total global profits.

Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital, said the Asian operation was a “trophy asset”, and was likely to achieve a knock-out price.

A valuation of £6.5 billion to £7.2 billion seemed “fair”, according to Bruno Monteyne, analyst at Bernstein.

If a sale does go ahead it would mean the company would be left with stores in the UK and Ireland, and an unprofitable division in central Europe. That unit covers the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

Tesco has been shifting its focus as part of a restructuring plan launched around five years ago.

This change was sparked by an accounting scandal and stiff overseas competition. The firm has lost several businesses across the world in recent times, and another may be heading that way.

It will be interesting to see how Tesco respond to this potential takeover, however shareholders will be pleased as reflected in this morning’s stock price movement.

The firm said in a statement: “Tesco confirms that, following inbound interest, it has commenced a review of the strategic options for its businesses in Thailand and Malaysia, including an evaluation of a possible sale of these businesses.”

It added: “The evaluation of strategic options is at an early stage, no decisions concerning the future of Tesco Thailand or Malaysia have been taken, and there can be no assurance that any transaction will be concluded.”

Berkeley Group Holdings PLC (LON: BKG) have seen their shares in green, despite a poor update to shareholders on Friday morning.

The Berkeley Group Holdings plc is a British property developer based in Cobham, Surrey.

Shares of Berkeley Group trade at 4,560p (+0.24%). 6/12/19 10:26BST.

In September, the housing market saw a bruising from external shocks including Brexit complications. This led to Berkeley having to reassure shareholders about their trading figures ahead of their AGM.

Berkeley announced a dividend of 20.08 pence per share, to be paid on 13 September 2019; the remainder of the £139.2 million return for the six months ending 30 September 2019 has been ‘satisfied’ through share buy-backs.

Today, the FTSE100 listed firm saw a slump in first half pretax profits, as Brexit continued to weigh upon the UK Housing market.

A survey from mortgage lender Nationwide showed last week that home prices rose more than expected in November, suggesting this month’s national election was not putting further pressure on the market which remains sluggish, according to Reuters.

Berkeley sources three quarters of its revenue from London, set a pretax profit aim of £3.3 billion over the six years to 2025.

The firm expected profits to be within the £500 million and £700 million guidance in any one year.

The company, which operates primarily in London, Birmingham and the South of England, said pretax profit fell 31% to 276.7 million pounds ($355.01 million) for the six months ended Oct. 31.

The company delivered 1,389 homes during the period, down from 2,027 last year, while average selling price decreased 13% to 644,000 pounds.

Brexit has continued to cast a gloomy shroud over the UK Housing market and UK business more generally.

Yesterday, MJ Gleeson saw their shares in red despite a confident outlook to shareholders.

The firm said it expects to deliver annual results in line with forecasts backed up by a strong performance by its Home unit, however this did not seem to be enough to spark appetite.

The struggling nature of the UK homebuilding industry is one that has been seen for many firms, however competitors do seem to be making ground.

FTSE250 listed Homeserve saw their shares rally in November. The firm saw a 2% rise in pretax from £19.3 million to £19.7 million, which caught shareholders attention.