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SHAREtrack off the rails after Emap deal

Written by Sam Fountain
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
The ailing credit market and a spike in home foreclosures has once again taken the world’s financial markets for a major tumble. The SHAREtrack – sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers – shed a massive 6.8 per cent of its value since this time last week, dragged down mainly by the halving of publishing giant, Emap’s market cap. Amid weeks of news that the Peterborough-based company’s directors has been offloading their shares – valued in the millions of pounds – the company’s sale of its consumer magazines business to a partnership between Apax and Guardian Media Group was okayed by an EU commission at a price of 470p per share, effectively halving Emap’s share price. The loss of £1bn in market capitalisation has hit the BW index hard, as the value of entire list of companies only comprised £28bn before the sale, with the reduction in value accounting for almost four per cent of the index’s drop. To compound matters, the precipitous plunge was aided by a poor performance across the board this week, which saw big losses from heavy hitters Autonomy, ARM and DSGI. Software giant, Autonomy has dropped 12 per cent, or 112p over the last seven days, despite making a number of software licencing agreements within that time. Superchip designer, ARM also slid eight per cent, while electronics retailer, DSGI slipped seven per cent, both without making an announcement. In a week that saw all of the companies in the index with a market cap over £1bn making a loss, it was among the micro caps that the biggest percentage loss were made. Troubled drugs firm, MMI, which is still reeling from a boardroom coup last month dropped a further 34 per cent to 19p per share, while greeting product manufacturer, International Greetings continues its decline, falling 22 per cent after making its second profits warning in six months in February. After seeing some amazing gains last month, digital TV software provider, ANT Plc also experienced a downside this week, dropping 17 per cent. On the upside, medical device designer and manufacturer, Consort Medical, formerly known as Bespak, led the way in value, which at a gain of just 29p per share, gives some indication of what a struggle the market has seen recently. Also with gains this week were cleaning chemical distributor, Zenith Hygiene, which has gained 36 per cent in value, and recovered some of the huge losses it made after announcing an accounting mix-up last month.