Takeover buzz swells L&G trade

TURNOVER in insurance giant

By the close an extraordinary 134m had changed hands as excited punters chased the stock 7p higher to 86p. It would be ironic if RBS launched an offer. NatWest bid £10.7bn, or 210p-ashare, in September 1999, but dropped its bid before it fell into the arms of RBS.

Institutional investors who subscribed for L&G at 60p in September - when chief executive David Prosser passed the hat round for £786m to help shore up its balance sheet - must be feeling pretty relaxed. It has already forged sales alliances with banks and building societies. Its market share of pensions has more than doubled. First-quarter sales fell 4% to £223m but it still easily outperformed its bigger rivals. RBS, which closed 15p better at 1614p, already owns the Direct Line insurance operation.

A leading fund manager pooh-poohed the idea of an RBS bid, but did not rule out the possibility of a European player making a move on L&G in the short term. Rival life assurer Britannic, itself no stranger to takeover gossip, rose 6p to 219 1/2p.

Boosted by better-than-expected full-year results from private equity group 3i (38 1/4p better at 522p), the FTSE 100 drew further encouragement from positive US data, which raised hopes that the world's largest economy is on the mend. The Footsie jumped closed 36.1 higher at 4011.1.

An upbeat annual general meeting (AGM) lifted IT services company LogicaCMG 16p to 136p. Trading for the first four months of 2003 is in line with guidance given to analysts at the beginning of March. MMT Computing rose 9 1/2p to 95p after entrepreneur Bob Morton bought a further 579,000 shares (4.75%), increasing his stake to 15.4%.

Software group Gresham Computing soared 58 1/2p to 166 1/2p after revealing that Cable & Wireless's (6 1/4p up at 89 3/4p) Real Time Nostro online financial transactions system, which is enabled by its software, is to be adopted by ANZ Bank, Barclays, JP Morgan Chase and Mizuho Corporate Bank.

The bullish tenor of chairman Geoff Unwin's AGM left UBM33p dearer at 301 1/2p. The company has made a solid start to the year and UK trading has been good with increased profit and improving margins.

Struggling music giant EMI raced up to 144 3/4p on vague talk of a bid from US giant Microsoft before finishing 6 1/4p to the good at 138p.

Persistent selling saw Marconi fall 0.22p to an all-time low of 0.60p. The telecoms equipment maker on Monday won court approval for its £4bn financial restructuring. The stock will be suspended today and new Marconi Corporation shares begin trading on Monday.

AIM-listed Vodka bar operator Inventive Leisure rose 3 1/2p to 95p amid industry whispers that like-forlike sales are up 2% on last year without any discounting.

Bristol & West Investments, the bridging loans specialist, gained 1.88p to 10 1/4p on a bid approach. Flat speaker manufacturer NXT rose 8 1/2p to 54 1/2p on rumours of a takeover approach.

Speculation that Mears has won another major local authority contract helped shares of the support services group advance 4 1/2p to 96 1/2p. Computer games developer and publisher SCi Entertainment rose 5p to 62p. Its best- selling Conflict: Desert Storm game has been featuring at the E3 trade exhibition in Los Angeles. Clothing company Slimma looked tatty at 43p, down 8 1/2p, after warning about full-year profits.