Investors in British Airways breathed a sigh of relief at its third quarter figures today which showed its losses were not as bad as many had expected.
Although it hit a deficit for the quarter, pretax profits over the nine months to the end of last year came in at £310m compared with analysts’ forecasts of £245m.
BA shares jumped 9.5p to 391p on the news.
It came on a morning which saw the FTSE-100 Index of leading shares make an early gain of 30.1 points to 5865.1 despite a mixed set of performances overseas.
Wall Street was marginally off overnight, while Japan’s slight falls countered a strong gain in Hong Kong.
Corporate news came thick and fast, with infrastructure management group Amey having its bid for baggage handler Servisair rejected by the prey’s board, which said another bid may be in the offing.
Servisair outlined its reasons for the rejection, made last month, in a definitive defence document.
Amey remained level-pegged at 597.5p, while Servisair fell a penny to 213.5p.
Billboard advertising group Primesight pasted up a 32p jump in shares to 317p as Scottish Media Group – down 1.5p to 856p – made an agreed offer at 320p a share.
Talks collapsed over a merger between oil services company Abbot Group and its Norwegian counterpart ProSafe. The City held deep concerns about the deal, and Abbot’s shares jumped 35p to 180p, with some seeing it as a possible bid target.
Industrial gases concern BOC fell 23p to 840p after reporting a fall in its profits for the first quarter of the financial year. The company said its markets remained weak.
Capital Shopping Centres, owner of the Gateshead MetroCentre and Lakeside in Essex, saw a strong performance despite the retail slowdown. Shares jumped 8p to 366.5p on the news.
PA News 09/02/99
