Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: The Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves
Speaker 2: in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg data.
Speaker 3: Well, let's take a look at some stocks on the
Speaker 3: move today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll and I'm joined
Speaker 3: by Bloomberg's Breaking News editor Louise Moan and Louise, good morning.
Speaker 3: We're watching the moves higher in oil prices this morning
Speaker 3: after the weekend's developments in the Middle East. How are
Speaker 3: the likes of BP firing this morning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you've got BP Shell both the top two gainers
Speaker 1: on the FOOTZEO hundred, so both firmly into the green
Speaker 1: and leading gains there. And that's also tracking across Europe
Speaker 1: as well, so you know, the likes of Title Energies
Speaker 1: in Paris also up. As you say, this is after
Speaker 1: a turbulent weekend in the Middle East and essentially casting
Speaker 1: doubts on the prospects for peace talks. Obviously, the c's
Speaker 1: five deadline is looming and there's very differing of views
Speaker 1: being offered from both sides, so that's causing oil to rise,
Speaker 1: and then of course oil related stocks to track those rises.
Speaker 1: As well, so oil eraising much of the declines that
Speaker 1: we saw on Friday and you know, reversing that and
Speaker 1: as I say, shell BP the top two again is
Speaker 1: on the foot seat one hundred this morning.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: In other sectors, the owner of William Hale Evoke could
Speaker 3: be in takeover talks tell us more.
Speaker 1: Indeed, yes, they've confirmed their in talks to be acquired
Speaker 1: by a company called Bally's Intralot. This is a joint
Speaker 1: venture between Bally's, the US casino operator, and a Greek firm.
Speaker 1: So it's listed in Athens, but the majority holder is
Speaker 1: the US company. So they've offered fifty p per share
Speaker 1: for a Voke that's about thirty percent above its closing
Speaker 1: price on Friday. It would value Evoke at about two
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty five million pounds, So Vokes the owner
Speaker 1: of William Hill eighty eighty eight used to be called
Speaker 1: eight eighty eight, so a big gambling company here in
Speaker 1: the UK. It's been on a financial strain for quite
Speaker 1: a long time and it's been exploring a sale since
Speaker 1: late last year, so it's got a lot of debt.
Speaker 1: So on the one hand, it's got a lot of
Speaker 1: debt after it acquired William Hill in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: It's then also been hit by a lot of higher taxes.
Speaker 1: So of course Rachel Reeves imposed higher taxes on gambling
Speaker 1: firms in the November budget. They came into effect this
Speaker 1: month and as a result of Volkes said as a
Speaker 1: direct result of that, it planned to close two hundred
Speaker 1: betting shops due to those tax sikes. They announced that
Speaker 1: last month. So it's been under a lot of strain
Speaker 1: and now confirmed that it's in talks with Ballet's Inchlot
Speaker 1: to be acquired. So as a result, shares shot up
Speaker 1: this morning of Volks shares shot up. It didn't quite
Speaker 1: match how much they've fallen over the past twelve months,
Speaker 1: but they did shoot up. I mean, and as I say, yeah,
Speaker 1: hasn't quite matched that falls and if you look back
Speaker 1: even further, they're far off their peak in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: so still trading a lot lower than historically, but shares
Speaker 1: up as a result of that potential deal coming down
Speaker 1: the line.
Speaker 3: Okay, so that's on Evoke. Let's turn then to Commerce Bank.
Speaker 3: Of course, the lender that's seen quite a lot of
Speaker 3: headlines around a potential takeover offer. What's the latest this morning.
Speaker 1: Indeed, Yeah, some fresh comments from Unicredits. So obviously been
Speaker 1: trying to buy Commerce Banks since about September twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: and then recently presented a thirty five billion takeover offer
Speaker 1: which is set to kick off this month. Already at
Speaker 1: Commerce Bank's largest shareholder, they've got a stake of just
Speaker 1: under thirty percent, but they essentially have been stepping up
Speaker 1: their push to acquire the bank. So the CEO, there's
Speaker 1: been some comments from the CEO saying that Commerce Bank
Speaker 1: needs deep changes, suffers from structural weaknesses, it's an ongoing
Speaker 1: story of underperformance, and saying that Commerce Bank hasn't engaged
Speaker 1: with it in what it calls a meaningful way in
Speaker 1: regards to that attempt of a takeover office. So it's
Speaker 1: been consistently kind of shut down rebuffed by Commerce Bank,
Speaker 1: the two banks essentially saying they've got very different views
Speaker 1: on how to go forward, and Commerce Bank's own CEO
Speaker 1: last week kind of vowed to stick with their own
Speaker 1: standalone strategy. So at heads on this and as I say,
Speaker 1: there's been there's been fresh comments from UniCredit this morning.
Speaker 1: Commas Bank shares rose and Frankfurt compared with declines across
Speaker 1: the sector, so potentially those that rebuffing is continuing to
Speaker 1: be welcomed, so we'll be keeping a close eye to
Speaker 1: see to see how that one develops.
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