Shake-up gossip batters Invensys

SO who will be the next debt-laden group to pass the hat round to shareholders?

Meanwhile, short sellers mauled Invensys amid intense speculation that it could be considering a cash call to help repay part of its £3bn-plus debt.

The automations and controls conglomerate fell 10p to 106p on turnover of 33m-plus on gossip that new chief executive Rick Haythornthwaite, who took over in October, could announce fundraising plans and yet more redundancies in his strategy statement due later this month.

About 80% of Invensys debt is at floating interest rates and some £500m of debt will be due for repayment in August. Haythornthwaite has reassured shareholders that the group will meet its banking covenants. Last month, he sold its power storage business for £350m.

One analyst pooh-poohed the rights issue theory. He said Invensys had been dragged sharply lower by events at US engineering conglomerate Tyco Industries. Tyco plummeted 250p to 2400p after announcing plans to borrow $5.9bn to repurchase all of its $4.5bn commercial paper. Raising eyebrows, too, was an allegation that Tyco spent $8bn over three years on on more than 700 acquisitions without announcing the deals. Tyco says it did disclose them in regulatory filings.

Tobacco giant Imperial was sold down to 911 1/2p before closing 7p off at 921p. Investors baled out amid speculation that it plans a £900m fund-raising to help buy German cigarette maker Reemtsma for up to £4bn.

The Footsie closed 22 .4 points off at 5167.3 after Wall Street dropped 169 points in early trading on worries about US accounting practices and corporate profits. Sterling rose to $1.4235 with the euro holding at 61.1p.

Cable & Wireless shed 10 1/4p to 259 1/4p on fears that it will issue its third profits warning within a year with its trading update in March. Colt Telecom fell 5 3/4p to 67 1/4p, mmO2 cheapened 2 3/4p to 74 3/4p and Vodafone 5 1/4p to 149p.

Friendless after a profits warning, Energis lost 2p to an all-time low of 15 1/2p. Its peak last year was 793 1/2p.

Dealers played the Last Post for telecoms services group IMS after its shares were suspended at 4 1/2p (down 4 3/4p) pending clarification of its financial position.

After chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell-said he expects 'flat' spending on advertising this year, WPP slumped 21 1/2p to 664 1/2p.

Top-Shop-to-Dorothy-Perkins-and-Evans retailer Arcadia may have called off bid talks with 20.1% Icelandic shareholder Baugur, but punters continue to get stuck in. They lifted Arcadia 16p to 273p on hopes that the Viking raider will now either launch a hostile cash offer or sell its take on to another interested party. Broker ABN Amro upgraded from hold to buy.

Computacenter rose 22p to 381 1/2p on confirmation of talks with British Telecom with a view to providing support for desktop computing equipment and supply of IT hardware products to BT in the UK.

Buyers dug in at Aim-listed Tertiary Mining on hearing that it has been awarded a five-year exclusive exploration licence over the Ghurayyah tantalum/rare metal deposit in Saudi Arabia. It rose 10 1/2p to 28 1/2p.

Golden Prospect, which invests in the mining market and gold exploration in Africa, jumped 1 3/4p to 9p after a near-28% stake changed hands at 8 1/2p.

Betinternet.com, the online bookie, held at 24 1/2p despite sharply reduced interim losses of £596,000. It expects to be in the black by the year-end. Far Eastern punters currently wager up to £1.6m a week on football. During June's World Cup in Japan, that could easily rise to between £5m and £10m.

Electronic equipment supplier Densitron advanced 4 3/4p to 28 3/4p after a strong final quarter of orders, which rose 30% after a six-month decline. It says full-year profits will be in line with expectations.

AS analysts prepare to visit Cluff Mining platinum deposits in South Africa in the next few days, veteran chairman Algy Cluff, 61, will be at home awaiting the birth of his third child. He is hoping for good news all round. Cluff's Bushveld complex is the most prolific platinum-producing region in the world and the company is on target to be in production early in 2003. The shares are 4p off their all-time high of 259p.