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Cable and Wireless attracts AT&T talk
American telecoms group AT&T has ambitions to expand further overseas, especially into the business sector, and
analysts believe this could mean the company showing predatory interest in UK outfit Cable & Wireless.
C&W, which is in the throes of taking over rival Thus, has slipped 2.2p to 167.3p. But Mark James at Collins Stewart
said: "We'd highlight the fact that we continue to see AT&T as a far more likely buyer of C&W UK than the perennial
rumour regarding. Deutsche Telekom. AT&T has a stated interest of international expansion in the corporate space,
and C&W could help with that."
Still with telecoms, Vodafone is 1.45p lower at 134.35p after reasonable results from rival 3, owned by the
Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate.
James said: "This can only make an exit from either the UK or Italian market less likely rather than more so, and we
would see this as a (small) negative for Vodafone."
Elsewhere the seemingly endless tug-of-war between miners and financials continued. Banks are heading lower on
continuing credit crunch fears, while mining companies are higher after an upbeat statement from Eurasian Natural
Resources Corporation which accompanied a 160% jump in half year profits. ENRC added 30p to ￡10.57, while rival
Kazakhmys rose 30p to ￡12.90.
The financials have the upper hand at the moment, with the FTSE 100 down 41.7 points at 5330.1.
Retail sales showed an unexpected rise in July but analysts were sceptical about the figures, pointing out they have
been unusually volatile in recent months.
Publisher Reed Elsevier was 2.5p lower at 580p despite talk in the German media that Gruner & Jahr was interested in
buying the company's trade magazines unit.
Finally Vislink, the microwave radio company, fell 2p to 25p as half year profits fell from ￡6.9m to ￡2.2m. But
Vislink has appointed Duncan Lewis - a telecoms specialist who has worked for BT, Mercury and as an adviser for
private equity group Carlyle - as its new chief executive, and analysts believe he has major plans for the business.
House broker Investec said: "We would hope he will be able to outline a sensible route (organic /acquisitive /
disposals / sale) for the business, and crucially, manage it successfully through the 2GHz wind-down in 2009."
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发表于 2016-7-10 18:27:18