Hints and tips:
...L&Q, another of the largest players, merged with East Thames last year, and this year bought a £500m commercial land business....
...David Orr, chief executive of landlord trade body the National Housing Federation, calls the new affordable rents “laughably ill-named”....
...The city’s state-appointed emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, is expected to present his plan for restructuring in the coming weeks....
...In L’Equipe’s view, any prediction is uncertain....
...How do you compete with L’Oréal? They spend more on advertising in a week than you can budget for in a year.”...
...A&L shares have been under pressure since Santander, the Spanish owner of Abbey, said last week it was not interested in bidding for the mortgage lender....
...The daily chat with FT Alphaville editor Paul Murphy and Neil Hume or Robert Orr from the FT’s London markets team begins at 11am, London time....
...Elsewhere in the banking sector, Bradford & Bingley gained 5.3 per cent to 190½p as traders took the view that it could end up merging with A&L....
...A&L has already said it would write down £185m ($362m) on its Treasury investments because of credit market turmoil....
...Broker Charles Stanley also noted that Lexington Pharmaceuticals of the US was looking to launch a copy cat version of Splenda, T&L’s zero calorie sweetener....
...The broker said the results would be extremely uncomfortable and estimated A&L’s tangible common equity at just 355p a share....
...MF Global said there was a chance A&L would now be forced to cut its dividend. Traders also pointed out that A&L was the most expensive stock in the sector, trading at 1.9 times book value....
...A&L is the most shorted stock in the FTSE 100, with more than 20 per cent of its share capital on loan. Royal Bank of Scotland added a further 4.2 per cent to 413½p ahead of tomorrow’s results....
...“With the fundamental problems at A&L now well understood, and with M&A speculation likely to remain in the press, we think the downside to A&L is now limited,” the broker said....
...“Even after recent writedowns, A&L still has significantly more exposure to SIVs and CDOs than its direct peers,” said James Hutson at Keefe Bruyette & Woods, who rates the stock “underperform”....
...Pinault Printemps Redoute, owner of Gucci and YSL Beauté, was poised to bid for Clarins Clarins rose sharply on Monday as reports of a deal followed last week’s speculation of a possible bid from rival L’...
...Sector watchers said Santander could extract up to £240m of cost and revenue synergies by crunching A&L together with Abbey, and could afford to pay up to £10 a share and still meet its acquisition criteria...
...L’Oreal lost 3.9 per cent to €85.31 as growth in sales at the cosmetics and beauty group failed to excite the market....
...“Similar to the arguments we have been using for being underweight the UK banks for 2007, we expect A&L to suffer from declining returns as its retail banking margins remain under pressure as mortgage competition...
...“A&L may not offer best-in-sector growth, but it is not too far behind and its valuation is compelling....
...Cazenove said it had confirmed with A&L management that it had no need for further issuance of covered bonds or securitisations this year....
...Prudential gained 5.2 per cent to 660p while L&G rose 3.1 per cent to 128.9p....
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