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)

“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.

In September, BA, Iberia and AMR Corp’s (AMR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) American
Airlines signed off on a long-awaited strategic alliance that
will see them cooperate on flights between Europe and North
America. [ID:nLDE68S07H]

(Editing by Rhys Jones)

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.

The company said uncertainty over the impact of the paper
investigation on the company’s full-year results remained and
Brookes said further disciplinary action of staff would be taken
and a number of new managers had been appointed.

“We’re taking a very active stance here and a very
appropriate stance to ensure we maintain our integrity … we
are very encouraged with the response that we’ve had from our
customers around the world,” Brookes said.

The firm’s former chief executive, James Hussey, stepped
down in the wake of the problems and a successor has yet to be
found, a fact which analysts have said has put additional
pressure on De La Rue’s share price. [ID:nLDE67B0AG]

“Underneath James we have a tremendous strength, we’ve had a
very, very high level of candidates coming forward, and I think
we have a very, very good preferred candidate,” Brookes said,
but would not confirm whether the candidate was internal.

The company, which was founded by Thomas de la Rue in
Guernsey in 1813 and has been listed since 1947, is expected to
post full-year pretax profit of 73.2 million pounds, according
to a poll of seven analysts compiled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
(Editing by James Davey and David Cowell)
($1=.6244 Pound)

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.

Chipchase said business in Russia had good long-term
prospects, despite receiving a “mixed bag” of feedback from
customers there, and said sales from the country would be
improved, but still negative.

Seymour Pierce analyst Caroline de La Soujeole reiterated
her “buy” rating on Rexam’s stock.

“Strong growth in higher margin speciality cans will offset
lower demand in standard sizes and very strong demand in South
America will offset weaker growth in developed economies,”
Soujeole wrote in a note.

Shares in the company, which are listed on the FTSE 100
index of top British firms, rose by 2 percent at 0856 GMT to 317
pence each.

Analysts forecast Rexam to post full year pretax profit of
396 million pounds ($631 million) and revenue of 4.8 billion
pounds, according to research compiled by Thomson Reuters
I/B/E/S.
($1=.6274 Pound)

(Reporting by Golnar Motevalli)

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,

Electrocomponents, which also sells products under the RS
brand, said online sales had grown by 42 percent, led by North
America, and it was on track to meet its medium-term target of
developing eCommerce to represent 70 percent of revenue.

Group Finance Director Simon Boddie added the company’s
strong cost controls had been aided by more online sales and
rationalising warehouses in Britain. “Nearly 50 pct of the
business being online has huge cost benefit,” Boddie said.

Mason said Electrocomponents would continue with its
strategy of focusing on international sales, which now account
for 70 percent of the business, and growing online sales in
countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and China.

In September rival Premier Farnell (PFL.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) beat
second-quarter forecasts, also more than doubling its profit on
strong sales and growth in Asia and North America.
[ID:nLDE6871P4]
(Editing by Paul Hoskins and David Holmes)

“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.

“Assurances were given at council by Mouchel as to their
financial position and ability to deliver the contract as
offered,” the council said on Thursday.

Government spending cuts are seen as an opportunity for some
outsourcing companies to win new business but increased public
scrutiny and financial difficulties at companies such as
Connaught CNT.L and Rok (ROK.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have made councils more wary.

Execution Noble Analyst David Brockton said the contract was
evidence that Mouchel could benefit from cuts to public services
but he kept his “sell” recommendation.

“This is the first major win for Mouchel in some time …
However, until we have confirmation that the group’s financial
position is secure we maintain our cautious stance.”

($1=.6192 Pound)
(Additional reporting by Rosalba O’Brien; editing by Paul
Hoskins)

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”.

SSE’s share price was up 3.8 percent at 1,160 pence by 1533
GMT, off a 16-week high of 1,174 pence hit earlier in the
session.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For ANALYSIS pieces on UK summer gas price surge

click on [ID:nLDE664195] [ID:nLDE65L1T0]

Graphic on shrinking winter-summer gas price spread:

link.reuters.com/sud74q

Table on UK gas storage projects: [ID:LDE6A90Y8]
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

NEW GAS STORAGE ?

Marchant also said the firm has deferred making a final
decision on the proposed Aldbrough II gas storage facility, a
joint venture with Norway’s Statoil (STL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The delay was due to uncertainty over regulations and the
shrinking premium of winter gas prices over summer contracts,
Marchant said, caused by an increasing capacity for Britain to
import liquefied natural gas (LNG).

“The market environment is not brilliant … Even if the
market were looking good we would be holding off, because we do
not know what the intervention would be,” he said.

“We’re deferring that until all the regulations are settled
on gas storage.”

NUCLEAR PLANS

SSE, together with consortium partners GDF Suez (GSZ.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and
Iberdrola (IBE.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), expect to make a final investment decision
on building a nuclear power plant around 2015.

Marchant said the nuclear consortium had not yet exercised
its option to buy a site at Sellafield in northwest England to
build a new plant, adding that the option had several years to
run. [ID:nLDE6A910W]

SSE has so far only spent a “few hundred thousand pounds” on
its nuclear expansion plans, excluding the cost of holding the
option on the land, Marchant added.

The British government has said it hopes many of Europe’s
largest utilities will build enough nuclear power plants to
replace the country’s ageing state-built plants.

Many have signed up but say the British power market needs
to be radically changed if a revival in nuclear power generation
is to materialse.

SSE is on average expected by analysts to report a pretax
profit of 1.25 billion pounds for the year to March 2011, down
from the 1.29 billion made the previous year, with the forecast
0.6 percent higher at 1.255 billion euros according to the
Thomson Reuters StarMine ‘SmartEstimate’ which weights analysts’
forecasts according to their track record.
($1=0.6256 pounds)
(Additional reporting by Karolin Schaps; Editing by Greg
Mahlich)

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”.

Rok had already begun to look into a debt refinancing, even
though its 90 million-pound revolving credit facility only
expires in March 2012 and its loan burden was far less than
Connaught’s. Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC were two of Rok’s
main creditors.

Snook said at the time of Connaught’s demise that Rok would
be poised to pick up some of Connaught’s contracts to provide
maintenance for homes run by local authorities throughout
Britain.

Bob Holt, chief executive of Mears (MERG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), one of the few
remaining listed UK social housing repairs firms, told Reuters
his company would be prepared to pick up any suitable contracts
that are re-opened for tender by Rok’s administators.

Only last month Rok announced that it had won a 32
million-pound contract with the Scottish Government’s economic
and community development agency to provide design and
contruction services for the Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Shares in Rok last traded at 18.5 pence each, valuing the
company at around 33 million pounds.
(Editing by Greg Mahlich)

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.

“We expect the group’s forecast current year cash balance to
reduce by approximately 25 million pounds,” Eaga said.

SOLAR DIVISION

Eaga, which floated in 2007, said it had made good progress
on its project to install solar panels in the social housing
sector.

“Whilst further work is required to bring this project to
fruition it has the potential to deliver revenue from a
significant number of installations,” the company said

Analysts at Brewin Research retained their “buy” rating on
Eaga’s stock and said the solar panel project offered future
growth prospects. Other analysts were, however, less convinced.

“It is hard to see where new buyers will come from at this
stage and we see the share price as “dead money” so have cut our
recommendation to a sell,” Panmure Gordon’s Andy Brown said.

Execution Noble analyst David Brockton retained his “hold”
recommendation but downgraded earnings forecasts for 2011 and
2012.

Other government-backed energy efficiency schemes such as
the Green Deal, feed-in tariffs (FITs) and the Renewable Heat
Initiative will provide growth opportunities, the company said.

($1=.6233 Pound)

(Reporting by Golnar Motevalli; Editing by David Hulmes)

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.

“The timing and impact of these measures has been particularly noticeable in the more discretionary areas of capital expenditure,” it added, highlighting highway schemes and school building projects as affected areas.

WELL PLACED

Mouchel said trading in the local authority market had been hit by cuts but it expected business to increase in this area in the longer term as local councils turn to outsourcers to help them make savings.

“The group anticipates an increase in local authority outsourcing as a result of the economic climate and is well placed to take advantage of these opportunities and to increase its penetration into local authority markets,” Mouchel said.

It said it wanted to focus on reducing costs and saving money and had starting refinancing its principal banking facilities.

Analyst David Brockton at brokerage Execution Noble said the refinancing was a “silver lining” as the company is close to breaching its covenants, but retained his “sell” recommendation on the stock.

“Mouchel’s full-year figures are disappointing with a pass on final dividend … We would expect the dividend cut and likely downward revisions to 2011 forecasts to weigh on the shares today,” Brockton wrote.

The company also said David Tilston was appointed group finance director and said it had completed a restructuring its management consultancy arm.

Its Middle East operations had also stabilised, Mouchel said, after being stung last year from fall-out from the debt crisis in Dubai, where it was working on a number of engineering projects. The firm said it would focus on Abu Dhabi.

(Editing by David Holmes)