SMALL CHAPTER MOVEMENTS: TT Electronics rejects Volex acquisition offers

A showdown is brewing between manufacturing specialists. volex plc and smaller competitor TT Electronics after the latter twice rejected the former’s advances.

Volex revealed on Friday that it had submitted two cash and share offers, the first valuing TT at 129 pence per share and the second at 139.6 pence per share.

According to Volex, TT’s board of directors has refused to accept the proposals, despite the tempting 77 percent premium offered to shareholders.

Volex president Nathaniel Rothschild was outspoken in his criticism of TT’s management.

“Despite the resilience of TT Electronics’ underlying business, it has faced persistent challenges in recent years, which Volex believes have been exacerbated by execution failures by the board of directors, including former and current executive leaders. “he commented.

Rothschild also attributed TT’s share price to its 10-year low on these mistakes, among other things an acquisition strategy that has “produced very disappointing results” for the group.

TT’s share price immediately soared 35 per cent to 107.5p after the bids came to light. This is still a long way from Volex’s offer, implying a large degree of doubt about a deal in the future.

There was less drama for the AIM All-Share index, which fell about half a percentage point over the week.

Most of these losses were felt after the opening bell on Tuesday, when UK unemployment data provided by the ONS showed “some cracks appearing in the labor market”, according to Deutsche Bank analysis.

Blue chip stocks outperformed junior stocks this week, with the FTSE 100 entering Friday flat at 8,067.

MP Evans Group plc surged about 8 percent as the dividend aristocrat announced full-year profits will be higher than expected thanks to rising crude palm oil prices.

Shortage of vegetable oil supplies is behind the increase, Deputy Evans said.

Ondo InsurTech plc The stock price rebounded 15 percent after the company announced that Nationwide Mutual, one of the largest insurers in the United States, will deploy Ondo’s LeakBot water leak detection device in 16 US states.

Chairman Mark Wood said he was “delighted” that the relationship has developed into something potentially significant for the business: “And of course it builds on a number of other important contracts we have in the US.”

In weekly delisting news, challenger trade here agreed to be bought by Switzerland’s SIX Exchange for 727 pence per share in cash, valuing the entire business at £225 million on a fully diluted basis.

As part of SIX, Aquis will be able to accelerate business development and “compete more effectively on the European stage, whilst maintaining our entrepreneurial spirit”, said chief executive Alasdair Haynes.

The deal came at a substantial premium and Aquis jumped to the top of AIM’s list of moving companies with a gain of 114 per cent.

audioboom actions rose more than 10 percent this week thanks mainly to improved full-year guidance released Friday. It was the second update in as many months.

Audioboom now anticipates adjusted pre-tax profits of $2.8m (£2.2m), up from October’s $2.5m forecast, which itself had been raised from a previous estimate of 1.3 million dollars.

In the energy sector, Star Energy Group plc rose 34 per cent after announcing the sale of land in Alton, Hampshire to Pickerings Hire for £6.3 million.

Pantheon Resources plc rebounded more than 20 percent in response to an update on its Alaska operations.

Pantheon has begun drilling operations for the Megrez-1 well, located in the Ahpun field on Alaska’s North Slope, when test targets are estimated to host up to 609 million barrels of ANS crude oil and 3.30 trillion feet cubic of natural gas.

Electronics group listed on AIM Solid State Shares plc plummeted 40 percent on Friday after announcing that payments linked to a UK government defense contract had been suspended pending the completion of a strategic defense review next summer.

Although Solid State expects orders to be received in due time, they will fall outside the current financial period.

Digital Zoo fell by a quarter after publishing its interim results. Although revenue rose 29 percent year-on-year and gross profit nearly quintupled, the cloud-based software group warned that orders in the next quarter will be “limited.”

AIM listed investment company tekcapital plc fell almost 20 per cent in a technical downgrade following a £1m equity round.

Lastly, flooring products manufacturer. victoria plc share price fell by a third over the week. A trading update on Friday suggested that “demand will return to the apartment market, albeit from a very low base of 20-25 per cent below 2019 levels due to broad macroeconomic factors”.