¹û¶³´«Ã½

Rosebank Industries (ROSE) plans to raise £1.9bn from investors to fund the acquisition of two US-based businesses for a combined $3.05bn (£2.3bn).

The company is buying components maker MW Components for $950mn and ASP CPM Holdings, which makes processing equipment for animal feeds and fuels, for $2.1bn.

They are both being purchased from US private equity firm American Securities.

Rosebank will raise funds at 330p a share – a slight premium to the 328p the company’s shares were trading at when they were suspended on 16 February when news of the potential deals first broke. 

The capital raise is fully underwritten by institutional shareholders, but the company also plans a smaller retail offer at the same price, through which the directors have agreed to subscribe to £12.3mn of shares.  

Rosebank has also raised the remaining amount needed to fund the deal through new debt, which will push net debt to 2.75 times cash profit.

Rosebank also revealed results for 2025. For most of the year it was a cash shell, but it includes 19 weeks of its ownership of Electrical Components International (ECI), during which time it declared an operating loss of $46mn on revenue of $445mn, although this figure contained one-offs relating to restructuring and other non-cash charges.

The company said “good progress� had been made on the restructuring plan, through which it intends to reduce the number of company-owned sites by a quarter.

Full-year results for FTSE 100 global car distributor Inchcape (INCH) met consensus forecasts, but a cautious outlook left investors underwhelmed, with the shares edging lower in morning trading. Not even a new £175mn share buyback was enough to lift the downbeat mood.

Management guidance for this year was for organic volume growth to come in towards the lower end of the group’s 3–5 per cent forecast range, with performance weighted to the second half. Operating margins are expected to remain resilient at around 6 per cent, in line with last year.

Revenue was broadly flat at £9.1bn, while adjusted pre-tax profit came in at £443mn, reflecting stable margins of just under 5 per cent. Free cash flow was strong at around £365mn, equating to cash conversion of roughly 80 per cent of adjusted operating profit.

Vehicles backed by asset management giant Blackstone (US:BX) are bidding for aerospace company Senior (SNR), the company said on Tuesday morning. Senior had said last week two potential buyers had approached it with offers, but only named Advent International. A Bloomberg report on Tuesday morning triggered the Blackstone announcement. 

“Senior confirms that, on 20 February 2026, it received a preliminary, non-binding all-cash offer from a consortium comprising of Tinicum Incorporated and funds and vehicles managed by Blackstone,â€� Senior said. 

The company rejected two bids in January before bringing in advisers to run a more formal sales process. This led to the suspension of a £40mn buyback programme. 

In 2025 results yesterday, the company reported a 20 per cent jump in adjusted operating profit to £63.6mn. Its shares are up 47 per cent so far this year, including an 18 per cent jump on the Advent announcement at the end of last week.

Intertek (ITRK) shares fell 13 per cent in early trading after full-year organic growth at the FTSE 100 quality assurance specialist fell short of analyst expectations. The lack of a fresh buyback also didn’t reassure investors.

Adjusted operating profits rose 9.3 per cent to £620mn, pushing the margin up 90 basis points to 18.1 per cent. As a result, adjusted earnings per share jumped 10.1 per cent at constant currency to 254p.

However, like-for-like revenue growth came in at 3.9 per cent, against the consensus of 4.4 per cent. While the consumer products and corporate assurance divisions performed well, revenue in the world of energy arm fell 1.3 per cent.

Adjusted free cash flow fell 14 per cent to £352mn due to higher interest costs and higher capital expenditure, missing the expected £374mn. Net debt rose to £1.3bn, up from £799mn a year earlier due to a string of deals.

For 2026, management guided for mid-single digit like-for-like revenue growth and upgraded its outlook for the consumer products business to mid-single digit growth.

Silver miner Fresnillo (FRES) is one of the top beneficiaries of the precious metals bull run, its shares going from 650p at the beginning of 2025 to almost 4,300p on Monday afternoon. But a run like that brings high expectations, and news that the Mexican company would raise spending significantly this year brought a 5 per cent sell-off.

The overall picture was as expected in the 2025 results, with the cash profit up 81 per cent to $2.8bn (£2.1bn), ahead of analyst consensus of $2.7bn. Fresnillo also announced a much higher final dividend than expected at 108¢, taking the year’s payout to 63 per cent of adjusted profit, compared with the usual policy of 33-50 per cent.

Investors were surprised by the capital spending guidance for 2026 of $765mn, compared with $400mn in 2025. “Capex guidance surprises have been a feature of this reporting season and an unfortunate consequence of high prices, but we expect the shares to react negatively if none of these investments translate into growth,� said RBC Capital Markets analyst Marina Calero.

Challenging geology has led to Central Asia Metals (CAML) cutting the expected life of its Sasa lead and zinc mine by five years, taking the end date down to 2034.

This will bring a $120mn impairment in the 2025 results later this month. Investors sold off on the update, sending the shares down 15 per cent in morning trading.

CAML had hit a three-year high before the mine life update. “As mining has progressed deeper at Sasa, the geology has presented increasing challenges … in particular, the orebody has become narrower,� the company said. CAML had already cut guidance at the North Macedonian underground operation in July due to the issues.

CAML also runs the Kounrad copper project in Kazakhstan, but has been looking for M&A opportunities for years. Its last big acquisition was Sasa. “[The Sasa mine life reduction] comes at a time when CAML’s investment case is already under pressure with rising copper equity valuations narrowing the window for M&A, putting management’s search for a material acquisition increasingly at risk,� said RBC Capital Markets analyst Laura Chan.

International Workplace Group (IWG) shares slumped 6 per cent in early trading as the Switzerland-based hybrid workspace platform disclosed annual earnings at the low-end of its guidance range and continued to feel the pressure from market worries about AI and real estate.

For the year to 31 December, the group’s managed and franchised division drove system-wide revenue up 4 per cent to $4.5bn (£3.3bn). Adjusted Ebitda was up 6 per cent to $531mn, against guidance of $525mn-$565mn.

Management stuck with Ebitda guidance of $585mn-$625mn for 2026 and at least $1bn in the medium term. It also raised its current share buyback programme by $50mn to $100mn.

Aberdeen’s (ABDN) net outflows more than tripled last year, as the FTSE 250 fund manager depended on its Interactive Investor platform to drive annual profit growth.

As pre-reported in January, assets under management and administration (AUMU) in 2025 was driven up 9 per cent to £556bn from the previous year on market movements as net outflows jumped from £1.1bn to £3.9bn.

Outflows were driven by Aberdeen’s investments business (institutional and retail wealth, and insurance partners) but investors also took money out of the adviser unit at the group’s wealth arm. Management expects adviser net inflows to return this year and the unit to deliver £1bn of inflows in 2027, a year later than hoped for.

Kier (KIE) has announced a £25mn buyback alongside half-year results, and increased its interim dividend by 30 per cent to 2.6p.

The construction company reported adjusted operating profit of £71mn on revenues of £2bn, up 7 per cent and 3 per cent respectively versus the prior year. Its forward order book increased 5 per cent from June to £11.6bn and covers 94 per cent of expected 2026 revenues and 78 per cent of expected 2027 revenues.

The company also reported a positive average month-end net cash position of £17mn, ahead of analysts’ expectations.

“The group continues to trade well with full year performance forecast to be in line with the board’s expectations,� said chief executive Stuart Togwell. Analysts are forecasting FY2026 operating profit of £169mn. Shares rose 1 per cent in early trading.

Shares in Reach (RCH) fell more than 9 per cent this morning after the owner of the Daily Mirror and Daily Express newspapers revealed a £223mn non-cash impairment charge in its annual results.

The writedown dragged the publisher to a statutory operating loss of £160mn last year, compared with a £72mn profit in 2024. On an adjusted basis, operating profit rose 2.4 per cent on £518mn revenues, down from £539mn.

Digital revenue fell by 0.9 per cent for the full year and by 7.8 per cent in the fourth quarter alone, which management blamed on a “material reduction� in referral traffic from Google. Print revenue was down 4.6 per cent.

Net debt more than doubled to £35mn, but the dividend was maintained at 7.34p per share. Looking into 2026, management is taking a “cautious approach� to digital performance for the year given lower referral volumes, but still expects to meet market expectations.

Keller (KLR) has announced its own bumper distributions programme this morning, in the form of a £100mn buyback and a 42 per cent increase in its dividend to 70p.

The contractor, which specialises in laying the groundwork for construction, reported underlying profit of £218mn on revenues of £3.1bn, both up 6 per cent versus the prior year (adjusted for FX).

Performance was stronger in Asia Pacific and Europe & the Middle East, but weaker in North America.

Its order book of £1.5bn is unchanged versus the prior year, and the company has not issued guidance for 2026.

“Operational performance is sustainable,� said new chief executive James Wroath, in reference to the group’s 7 per cent underlying operating profit margin.

Shares rose 6 per cent in early trading.