LONDON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – British government outsourcing and consultancy firm Tribal Plc (TRBG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has been approached about a possible offer, it said on Friday a month after previous offer talks broke down, sending its shares up some 17 percent.

In a brief statement which it said responded to recent press speculation, Tribal confirmed it had been approached about a possible offer but said there was no certainty a bit would be made.

It did not say who the approach came from and gave no further detail.

Shares in Tribal, whose main clients are government departments such as health and education, were up 16.7 percent at 49 pence by 0913 GMT, having risen as high as 53.08p, their highest since Nov. 1 when it said talks had ended on a previous bid approach. [ID:nSGE6A10BS]

At the time of its November statement, the stock had already lost almost half of its value since Tribal’s warning in October that earnings would be below expectations because of the impact of public spending cuts.

Some analysts have said approaches for Tribal would most likely come from private equity. Tribal’s founder and former CEO Henry Pitman told Reuters in October the company would be best served bowing to a private equity buyout. [ID:nLDE69P1YA]

Two weeks ago Tribal said it had been appointed preferred bidder by the National Health Service to lead a 12 million pound ($18.7 million) contract. (Editing by Paul Sandle and David Holmes) ($1=.6410 Pound)

LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) – British airline Virgin Atlantic [VA.UL] on Wednesday said it had received several “lines of enquiry” about tie-ups with rival carriers after it hired Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to assess the aviation market.

“Following Deutsche Bank’s recent appointment, we have received a number of lines of enquiry but it is far too early to comment on individual details,” Virgin said in a statement.

“We expect Deutsche Bank’s work to run on for a number of months but have nothing further to add at this stage.”

A Virgin Atlantic spokesman declined to comment further.

Britain’s Sky News reported that Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic had received a “string of approaches” from rivals including U.S. carrier Delta (DAL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) airlines.

Faced with mounting competition from low-cost, no-frills upstarts, the notoriously low-margin airline industry has been going through a period of rapid consolidation and analysts believe larger carriers such as Virgin Atlantic now need partners to stay ahead of the competition. [ID:nN28155193]

A merger between British Airways (BAY.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Spain’s Iberia (IBLA.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was last month given the stamp of approval by shareholders, opening the door to their plans to buy up other players in the airline sector.

LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Bank note printer De La Rue (DLAR.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) warned on Tuesday it might lose a top customer after shedding nearly a fifth of revenue and halving profit in the first half because of faulty paper production.

The 35 million pound cost of suspending production at one of its plants was in line with a September profit warning and the firm said it would resolve the issue through management appointments, a focus on paper quality and engaging its customers.

Executive Chairman Nicholas Brookes told Reuters that doubt lingered over De La Rue’s relationship with the customer for whom the faulty banknote paper was originally produced.

“There is still uncertainty with a principal customer and we have not heard whether we will continue or not continue supplying this customer,” Brookes said, adding that the client in question is one of De La Rue’s largest.

Newspapers have reported the faulty paper was destined for India, one of the company’s largest clients. The Reserve Bank of India has declined to comment. [ID:nLDE6860VF]

First-half revenue was down 17 percent at 209.2 million pounds and profit before tax and exceptional items was 23.8 million, down from 48 million in the same period last year.

De La Rue’s shares, which have lost 30 percent of their value since the company first reported problems at its paper factory in July, were down 3.7 percent at 0820 GMT to 598 pence.

LONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Rexam (REX.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Europe’s largest drinks can maker, said it expected second-half results in line with its expectations, with strong growth in South America countering weaker sales in Europe and North America.

Rexam, which makes cans for Carlsberg (CARLb.CO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Austria-based Red Bull, said its beverage cans and plastic packaging businesses performed as it expected in the period from July 1 and it would focus on investing in South America.

“We continue to expect our results in the second half of 2010 to be similar to those of the first and remain focused on cash, cost and return on capital,” chief executive Graham Chipchase said on Tuesday.

“In beverage cans, volume growth in Europe was driven by specialty cans, although as expected the growth rate in the period was somewhat slower than in the first half due to stronger prior year comparators,” the company said.

Rexam will lose also some volume in its North American drinks can business by the end of this year and the company said contract negotiations with customers, as part of efforts to broaden its client base, were progressing well.

On a conference call with analysts Chipchase said no contracts had yet been signed in North America but that the next step was “largely about crossing the Ts and dotting the Is”.

Rexam, which also makes lipstick cases for L’Oreal (OREP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said in Brazil it would increase capacity by 1.7 billion cans, helping to hike-up total capacity in South America to 14 billion cans in 2012, from 11 billion in 2009.

LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters) – British electronics supplier Electrocomponents Plc (ECM.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) more than doubled pretax profit in the first half, boosted by online sales and cost control, and said on Friday full-year results will be better than anticipated.

Its shares jumped to a three-year high of 279.5 pence and were up 6.3 percent at 263 pence by 0912 GMT, making it the top gainer on the FTSE 250 index of mid-sized British companies .FTMC, which was down 1.1 percent.

Pretax profit for the six months to Sept. 30 rose 104 percent from a year earlier to 50.5 million pounds, well ahead of the 42.5 million expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue increased by 24 percent to 563 million pounds, said the company which sells batteries, semiconductors, cables and resistors mostly industry customers. It held its interim dividend at 5 pence, in line with expectations.

“We’ve seen strong underlying sales growth of over 24 percent … all regions are in double digit growth … That’s led us to raise our expectations for the full year,” Chief Executive Ian Mason told reporters on a conference call.

“Everybody is innovating on everything everywhere. You’ve got a proliferation of electronics, coming out of the recession there’s a lot of innovation going on,” he said.

Evolution Securities analyst Adrian Kearsey reiterated a “buy” rating on the stock. “There’s very impressive cost control driving the operating margins on last year … We’ve raised our full-year profit before tax forecast from 102 million pounds to 110 million pounds,” he said,

LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) – British local authority Bournemouth Council has awarded outsourcing firm Mouchel (MCHL.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) a 10-year, 150 million pound ($242 million), contract to provide IT services and facilities management.

“Full council approved the award of an Incremental Partnership Contract to Mouchel, for an initial period of 10 years, with a proposed contract start date of 1 December 2010,” Bournemouth council said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

Shares in Mouchel, which warned of an uncertain outlook last month, climbed as much as 6 percent and by 0932 were 4 percent higher at 91.25 pence.

Local authorities across Britain are cutting costs aggressively after central government took an axe to their budgets in a bid to bolster public finances.

Some councils have already taken to outsourcing the bulk of their services, and Bournemouth said the contract with Mouchel would help it save up to 40 percent of its revenue budget over the next ten years.

In July Bournemouth council decided to defer its decision on whether to finalise the deal with Mouchel, which beat larger rivals Serco SRC.L, Capita (CPI.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Balfour Beatty (BALF.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to secure “preferred bidder” status for the contract.

At the time councillors complained Mouchel had not presented sufficient financial information.

LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), one of Britain’s biggest utilities, reported better than expected first-half profits on Wednesday and raised its interim dividend, causing a jump in the share price.

SSE said high wholesale gas prices and low renewable energy output led to a 6.1 percent decline in adjusted first-half pretax profit of 386 million pounds ($616 million), better than the average market forecast of 361 million pounds according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S Estimates.

The Perth, Scotland-based company, which has 9.9 million customers and a market value of more than 10 billion pounds, raised its interim dividend 6.7 percent to 22.4 pence.

“We’ve been crystal clear we can sustain the dividend growth by 2 percent above inflation. We constantly review our capital programme,” Chief Executive Ian Marchant told reporters in a conference call.

Earlier on Wednesday Germany’s E.ON (EONGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s largest utility, promised its investors a minimum level of dividend payout for the next two years, seeking to restore confidence in an industry unsettled by falling prices and demand. [ID:LDE6A90NG]

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Fraser McLaren said the SSE results brought a sense of clarity which should support medium-term growth and raised his rating on the shares to ‘buy’.

“With the stock having underperformed the UK utilities since June, we see the renewed clarity and management confidence as positive”.

LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – British building and social housing repairs firm Rok Plc (ROK.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is to go into administration and trading in its shares has been suspended, it said on Monday.

Auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers [PWC.UL], which had been working with Rok’s banks ahead of loan refinancing talks, is set to be drafted in as the administrator later on Monday, a person close to the situation said.

Rok declined to comment further and Chief Executive Garvis Snook was not immediately available for comment.

Earlier this year Rok’s rival Connaught CNT.L went into administration owing its bank lenders 215 million pounds after saying it had been hit by a sudden cutback in spending by several local authorities ahead of the government’s budget cutbacks. [ID:nLDE6A41JP]

In September Rok cleared its former finance director Ashley Martin after an investigation related to problems at its plumbing, heating and electrical (PHE) unit.

The probe into the PHE unit showed the problems “were due to a scaling back of sub-contracting work from the private housing sector and a combination of weak operational, commercial and financial controls within that part of the business”.

Analyst Andy Brown at Panmure Gordon said Rok’s decision to go into administration possibly reflected “another sorry tale of poor management”.

LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) – British energy-saving scheme operator Eaga Plc (EAGA.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it would have to restructure to cope with a 70 percent slash in government funding for a major programme, sending its shares plummeting to a two-year low.

Last month the British government said it would phase out the Warm Front programme, which is run by Eaga and gives grants to low-income households so that energy-saving improvements can be carried out on their properties. [ID:nLDE69J0G8]

Government funding for Warm Front will be cut to 100 million pounds ($160.4 million) by 2013, from 345 million, Eaga said in a statement on Wednesday, leading it to forecast lower activity.

“As a result of this lower funding, activity in both our Managed Services and Heating and Renewables segments, during the current and next financial years, will be significantly lower than the board expected,” a company statement said.

“To deal with the scale and speed of the reduction in Warm Front activity, the group is taking steps to significantly reshape its operational structure and as a result we expect to incur significant exceptional restructuring-related charges.”

Eaga’s shares shed 21 percent at the start of trade, but by 0842 GMT they pared losses to 14 percent, trading at 61 pence.

The firm said restructuring would cost 20 million pounds over the next two years and will affect its cash position.

LONDON (Reuters) – Outsourcing and consulting firm Mouchel Plc (MCHL.L: Quote, Profile, Research) slumped to a full-year loss and warned of an uncertain outlook due to government austerity measures, wiping more than a quarter off its stock market value.

Mouchel, which helps the government maintain highways and provides consultancy to local authorities, had already this month warned its full-year results would not meet analyst expectations.

Its shares plummeted 27 percent to 91-1/12 pence by 9:27 a.m., hitting their lowest in more than eight years.

The group on Thursday posted a 14.7 million pounds pretax loss for the year through July after taking 45.2 million in exceptional items, on revenue which fell 15 percent to 632 million.

Underlying pretax profit before tax and one-offs dropped 24 percent to 30.5 million pounds, in line with what the company said earlier this month it expected.

Mouchel, which also said it would skip its final dividend in order to save resources and help reduce its debt, said it would take a cautious approach to the year ahead in light of budget cuts.

“There has been an extensive reassessment of spending priorities and, in consequence, the postponement or reduction in scale of various programmes,” the company said in a statement.