FTSE 250 movers: Carillion piles pressure on Balfour Beatty for merger

14th Aug 2014 17:04

Carillion led gains. On Thursday the company piled pressure on rival Balfour Beatty to resume merger talks by revealing that it had held meetings with several of Balfour's major shareholders. The construction group said it had told the investors that the merger could save at least £175m a year by the end of 2016, enhancing earnings "significantly" from then.Ophir Energy swung to a half-year profit as the oil and gas company sold assets in Tanzania. The group reported a pre-tax profit from continuing operating of $589,436 for the six months to end of June 2014, compared to a loss of $19,374 seen over the same period a year earlier. The firm divested a 20% interest in Blocks 1, 3 and 4 in Tanzania to Pavilion Energy for $1.25bn with a final $38m payable on the final divestment decision. Proceeds will be used to fund other exploration projects.Real estate linked stocks such as Foxtons, Rightmove or CSR were on the move in the aftermath of the Bank of England's latest Inflation Report, which led markets to scale back their expectations for interest rate hikes this year. On Thursday analysts at Bank of America?Merrill Lynch upgraded their recommendation on shares of real estate investment trusts British Land and Land Securities to 'buy' from 'neutral'. Egyptian gold miner Centamin unveiled a maiden interim dividend of 0.87 cents a share despite reporting a dip in profits for the second quarter as the cost of production rose. The company said it is to pay out a total of $10m to shareholders. Chairman Josef El-Raghy said that with no further major expansion projects planned at Centamin's flagship Sukari project, he now sees "solid growth potential and a stable balance sheet". He added: "We now look forward to a sustained period of strong free cash flow generation".AB