Flutter Entertainment has further expanded their portfolio of gaming brands with the acquisition of Italian gaming brand Sisal for a consideration of £1.6bn.
Sisal is expected to generate EBITDA of €248m/£211m in the year to December 2021. The deal is expected to be completed in Q2 2022 and is predicted to be accretive to earnings in the first 12 months post completion.
The acquisition will broaden Flutter’s global portfolio which includes PaddyPower, Betfair, Foxbet, PokerStars and Sky Bet.
“I am delighted to add Sisal, Italy’s leading gaming brand, to the Group as we look to attain a gold medal position in the Italian market. For some time we have wanted to pursue this market opportunity via an omni-channel strategy and this acquisition will ideally position us to do so,” said Peter Jackson, Flutter Chief Executive.
“Sisal has grown its online presence significantly in recent years, aided by its proprietary platform and commitment to innovation. I’m excited to see how Flutter can complement these capabilities through our scale, differentiated products and operational capabilities. We look forward to welcoming Francesco and the rest of the Sisal team to Flutter in 2022.”
York-based Aptamer Group got off to a successful start to its quoted life and the share price jumped from 117p to 141.5p, having been as high as 144.5p at one point.
There was a preponderance of buys at the beginning of the day with signs of shareholders taking some profit later in the day. The largest trade was worth £17,500. There were 182,100 shares traded during the day.
The company provides aptamer services and develops aptamer-based reagents. Raising cash will enable Aptamer Group to scale up its operations. The market is expected to grow substantially over the next decade and the compan...
The FTSE 100 rallied towards the highest levels since the pandemic started on Thursday as markets digested news Omicron had a lower hospitalisation rate than Delta.
The FTSE 100 traded at 7,358, up 0.23%, at the time of writing in light mid morning trade on Thursday.
IAG and Rolls Royce have become proxies for investor trading the Omicron sentiments and this was again the case as the two companies topped the FTSE 100 in early trade.
IAG and Rolls Royce were 4.1% and 3.3% higher at the time of writing.
The positive comments around Omicron have come just in time for the festive holiday booking season that sees holiday makers booking in breaks for the year ahead.
IAG is now the best performing share in the FTSE 100 in December gaining 15%. Flutter Entertainment is not far behind adding 14.6%. Despite a strong December for the companies, both shares are still negative in 2021 year-to-date.
Flutter Acquisition
Flutter Entertainment was also among the top riser on Thursday as it announced the aquistion of Italian gaming brand Sisal for £1.62bn from private equity group CVC Partners.
“I am delighted to add Sisal, Italy’s leading gaming brand, to the Group as we look to attain a gold medal position in the Italian market. For some time we have wanted to pursue this market opportunity via an omni-channel strategy and this acquisition will ideally position us to do so,” said Peter Jackson, Flutter Chief Executive.
“Sisal has grown its online presence significantly in recent years, aided by its proprietary platform and commitment to innovation. I’m excited to see how Flutter can complement these capabilities through our scale, differentiated products and operational capabilities. We look forward to welcoming Francesco and the rest of the Sisal team to Flutter in 2022.”
Lloyds share price could be set for a strong 2022 as a number of factors fall into place for the banking group. Having rebounded from the volatility during the pandemic, Lloyds are now in a position to grow revenues and profit, and shareholder distributions.
The Lloyds share price is up 28% year-to-date at the time of writing after staging a sustained rally through the first half of 2021.
Despite positivity in Lloyds shares through 2021, the stock faced a period of declines going into the end of the year caused by concerns around monetary policy.
This has left Lloyds shares trading at just 5.8x forecasted forward earnings which suggests their could be further upside, if Lloyds is to meet these forecasts and move up to historical price-to-earnings valuations.
Interest Rates
Lloyds, like all UK banks, are major beneficiaries of higher interest rates. The hopes they could eventually begin to operate in a higher interest rate environment dictated trade in the late 2021 with Lloyds shares rallying into the Bank of England’s November meeting, only to be let down by the ‘unreliable boyfriend’ as the BoE kept rates on hold.
The declines persisted into the next meeting in December with Lloyds shares touching lows below 45p.
It is likely the optimism around higher rates continues into 2022. Inflation will persist and if recent comments around vaccine’s effectiveness against Omicron are confirmed in the real world, the Bank of England will have no reason to not proceed with more rate hikes in 2022.
This will be positive for the Lloyds share price.
Lloyds shares & the UK Economy
Lloyds is both a facilitator and beneficiary of the UK economy. Lloyds’ lending activities and banking services provides individuals and businesses in the UK the means to propel the economy further, whilst benefitting from their increasing activity.
From an investor’s perspective, one would feel optimistic about how this will play out for the Lloyds share price in 2022.
The UK has a strong jobs market, house prices have shaken off numerous potential hurdles and GDP continues to increase. This will support banking earnings through 2022.
Lloyds dividend
The Lloyds dividend is becoming a major attraction to income investors. Lloyds paid an interim dividend of 0.67p in September 2021. This is after paying its first dividend of 0.57p since the pandemic, earlier in 2021.
Directors have been buying shares in Transense Technologies (LON: TRT) since its AGM on 23 November. Even so, the share price has fallen back from a pre-AGM 2021 high of 124p to 82p.
The recent high was the peak of the share price since 2015 and the current share price is still relatively high when compared to most of the previous six years.
Buying
The latest deals are a purchase of 10,000 shares by executive chairman Nigel Rogers for 84p each, while recently appointed chief operating officer Nick Hopkins bought 4,977 shares at 83p each. Nigel Rogers previously acquired 15,000 shares at 88.25p...
There was a dramatic reduction in European equity volatility on Wednesday as markets began to trade sideways into the Christmas holidays.
Having experiences a number of trading sessions with swings in the region of 1%, the FTSE 100 was up just 0.09% around midday on Wednesday.
The German Dax was 0.24% higher whilst the French CAC gained 0.2%. The Eurozone’s two largest domestic indices have been subject to significant volatility as they imposed COVID restrictions into a backdrop of uncertainty around Omicron.
“Investors are preparing to go into hibernation for Christmas and will hope by this time next week we’ll know a lot more about the trajectory of Omicron and the likelihood of further restrictions to contain it, and just how long those curbs will be in place,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.
“For now the markets, bar the odd day, have just about managed to hold on to the idea that, to employ central bankers’ favourite word of 2021, Omicron’s impact will be transitory.
“If that changes, we could see a more pronounced sell-off in global stocks as growth expectations for 2022 are rapidly reset.”
There is view building in markets that Omicron may not be a economically damaging as first thought and the slight ease in concern has been enough for some traders to turn off their screens and settle in for the holidays.
71 of the 100 shares included in the FTSE 100 were higher at the time of writing.
The top risers again included IAG which continued to be bought into by bargain hunters. Rio Tinto was among the fallers after it announced the acquisition of a lithium mine for $825 million.
On Tuesday, Titon Holdings (LSE: TON) reported its slightly delayed finals to Y/E September. The delay was to allow the Auditors more time to check the books of its South Korea, subsidiary which has been facing challenging conditions. Titon Korea's (51% owned) revenue fell 27% because of the continued slowdown in residential construction activity and delays in projects, the impact of the pandemic and supply chain issues. Elsewhere business is improving as Revenue increased 13% from last year to £23.4m with gross profit margins increasing to 31.4% to give a PBT of just over £1m ...
Klarna has joined forces with GoCardless to tap into the US audience of 21 million.
Customers who use Klarna are able to pay in four instalments with zero interest.
“The US is a key market for Klarna, and we continue to see strong growth, doubling our customer base to over 21 million from last year,” said Kalrna CEO Koen Köppen.
“To continue along that trajectory we need partners that not only provide our consumers and retailers more choice and control but also offer us cutting-edge technology and best-in-class service. We’re excited to work with GoCardless and leverage its expertise in account-to-account payments as we expand in the US.”
Hiroki Takeuchi, who is the co-founder and CEO of GoCardless, commented: “We’ve been proud to work with Klarna in the UK since 2018. From the start, it was clear one of our value-adds was our global bank debit network, enabling Klarna to access multiple markets through a single platform. After years of phenomenal growth across the world, we’re thrilled to be Klarna’s bank debit provider as they make further inroads in the US.”
Shares in Genedrive jumped 14.4% to 41.5p on Wednesday.
The group’s shares surged after it was approved to sell products in the UK.
CEO David Budd said: “The next milestone is approval by the Department of Health and Social Care. However, no assured timeline is provided on how long the review under CTDA regulations will take, given a current backlog in their reviews.”
“We have confidence in our data and the application is another positive step that allows us now to progress UK focused commercial discussions.”
The tests can show a positive results within seven minutes, whilst a negative result can take up to 17 minutes. They have 98% sensitivity.
Gas prices have hit record highs due to high demand and tensions between Russia and the West.
UK gas increased 20% in a day to 457p per therm. The European benchmark jumped 16% to €171.40.
Commenting on gas prices, James Waddell, head of European gas at Energy Aspects said: “Europe has very little storage buffer this winter and Europe’s balance is therefore a lot more dependent on imports than in previous years.”
“Additionally, Gazprom has traditionally shipped around 20% of its supply to Europe through Poland, but these flows have been inconsistent this year and driving up uncertainty about how much gas Europe will actually receive from Russia.”
The increase in prices mean that UK household bills may face an increase next year.
