Financial Trading Blog

Stock of the day 18/11/2014 – Salamander Energy




At the tail end of October Salamander announced that it had been approached by various companies, including Ophir Energy and Cespa, the latter leading a Spanish consortium of bidders. Following this announcement shares in Salamander jumped 4% to 97.6, and by the final Friday of October had reached 106.15. However, after this initial flurry of excitement, prices levelled slightly, and spent much of the past two weeks hovering around the 100 mark.

Then things got interesting. After a stagnant few weeks, last Friday saw Salamander’s share prices jump to 116.4, a growth of 21%. This came after news that the consortium led by Cespa had put in an offer for the company of around £313.5 million in order to battle with a proposal from Ophir Energy. This looked set to start a bidding war between the two companies, and Salamander’s share prices responded in kind. However, there was a twist in the tale on Monday, as Cespa reprimanded Salamander for making details of the offer public, stating that Salamander’s announcement was made without Cespa’s consent. Unsurprisingly, this wrist slap was felt on the markets, with Salamander’s shares dropping from last Friday’s 116.5 to close at 109.85 on Monday.

This was not the end of the bad news for Salamander, as Tuesday morning revealed that Cespa was no longer interested in the company whatsoever. Salamander appears to have become the victim of its own attempts at pushing stock prices higher, and has paid dearly, with shares falling today by 17% to hit 91, the company’s pre-bid-talk level.

What remains in the fray is Orphir Energy’s conditional proposal. Ophir have remained quiet during this Salamander saga, and have so far provided no comment on the acrimonious break-up between Salamander and Cespa. If they are to make a bid for Salamander Energy, the market may react more cautiously than it did before.

DISCLAIMER


Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 64% of retail investors lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. For professional clients, spread betting and CFD trading can also result in losses larger than your initial stake or deposit.

Spreadex Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, provides an execution only service and does not provide advice in any way. Nothing within this update should be deemed to constitute the provision of investment advice, recommendations, any other professional advice in any way, or a record of our trading prices. This update does not constitute or form part of an offer of, or solicitation for a transaction in any financial instrument, nor shall it or the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract therefore. Any persons placing trades based on their interpretation of the comments or information within this update does so entirely at their own risk.

No representation, warranty, or undertaking, express or limited, is given as to the accuracy or completeness of the information or opinions contained within this update by Spreadex Ltd or any of its employees and no liability is accepted by such persons for the accuracy or completeness of any such information or opinions. As such, no reliance may be placed for any purpose on the information and opinions contained within this update.

The information contained within this update is the intellectual property of Spreadex Ltd and is protected by UK and International copyright laws. All rights reserved. Users may however freely download, distribute and reproduce extracts of the contents, subject always to accrediting Spreadex Ltd as the source and providing a hyperlink to www.spreadex.com.