深夜影院

The fraud protection and identity authorisation business GB Group (GBG) saw its shares drop after it reported a significant impairment following a 鈥渇ew years of underperformance鈥�.

After strong growth during the pandemic, the company has reported a revenue decline for the last three financial years, which combined with increased macroeconomic uncertainty, forced the company to adopt a more cautious medium-term growth outlook.

The 拢73.1mn impairment contributed to the 拢68.1mn operating loss, a swing from the 拢22.7mn operating profit last year.

Broker Peel Hunt lowered its FY2027 operating profit forecast by 10 per cent, but it saw some momentum in the second half of the year, and expects GB Group鈥檚 medium-term growth to accelerate as the US business starts to show 鈥渕ore stable underlying dynamics鈥�.  

Its shares were down 10 per cent the morning of the results.

British Land (BLND) has appointed Joanne McNamara as its new chief executive following a five-month search for a replacement for the outgoing Simon Carter.

McNamara joins from Oxford Properties, the real estate arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, one of Canada鈥檚 largest pension funds. There she built up their European property portfolio, which currently has 拢8bn in assets under management.

McNamara will be a somewhat familiar face to British Land, which has an existing joint venture with Oxford on London鈥檚 Leadenhall building, known colloquially as 鈥淭he Cheesegrater鈥�.

British Land chair William Rucker described McNamara as 鈥渙ne of Europe鈥檚 most respected real estate professionals鈥� with a 鈥渟trong reputation for decisive leadership鈥�.

Shares rose 2 per cent in early trading.

A year after being outbid for a new copper mine in the US, Central Asia Metals (CAML) has gone north of the border to launch a 拢123mn, all-share acquisition of a copper-gold project in Quebec. Cygnus Metals (AU:CY5) owns the Chibougamau project, which includes a shuttered processing plant and five deposits across a 280-square-kilometre area. CAML has been on the hunt for another mine for years, given its Kazakh Kounrad operation has less than a decade of life remaining. 

Under the deal agreed with the Cygnus board, CAML would hand investors 0.06 new shares per Cygnus share held, equal to 30 per cent of the share count post-deal. Before a trading halt on the eve of the deal announcement, Cygnus was trading at A11垄, or A$129mn, while the CAML offer values it at A$232mn. 

鈥淲e see this transaction as a compelling opportunity for CAML to add a high鈥慻rade copper鈥慻old asset that fits well alongside our existing operations,鈥� said the miner鈥檚 chair Nick Clarke. CAML will also add a TSX listing as part of the terms. 

CAML鈥檚 shares tumbled in March on news that it was having difficulty at the Sasa mine in North Macedonia, making an all-share deal far more expensive than a few months ago. After the bruising experience with New World Resources last year, where CAML traded bids with a Canadian private equity firm, the company has built in some protection to this deal. This is in the form of a call option, where CAML can quickly take a 9.9 per cent stake in Cygnus if another bidder arrives on the scene. Its shares rose 1 per cent on the news. 

鈥淭he all-scrip structure is at least balance sheet-preserving, and the presence of an existing processing plant on-site should keep initial capex materially below the [circa] $300mn greenfield build implied by the failed New World Resources bid,鈥� said RBC Capital Markets analyst Laura Chan, who added that the deal was positive for the CAML investment case.