Today’s winner of the small-cap world is engineering consultant Hyder Consulting (LSE: HYC). Hyder’s share price has surged higher by around 37% at time of writing.
Buyout
These gains come after Hyder received a buyout offer from Arcadis UK Investments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Arcadis N.V. According to Hyder’s press release on the matter, the company’s management has been in negotiations for some time regarding this deal. The board of directors has recommended that shareholders accept the offer.
Arcadis is offering 650p per share in cash for Hyder, a total consideration of £256.2m. This offer represents a 38.5% premium to the closing price of 469p on 30 July 2014.
Commenting on the offer Ivor Catto, Chief Executive of Hyder said:
“…ARCADIS’ recommended cash offer announced today represents a significant premium to Hyder’s current share price. Although the Board believes that Hyder has a strong future as an independent business, it considers that this cash offer substantially recognises Hyder’s growth prospects, and provides certainty, in cash, to our shareholders today…”
However, some shareholders may feel short changed by this deal, as Arcadis’ offer is 45p per share below Hyder’s all-time high of 695p reached earlier this year.
Struggling
Today’s small-cap loser is Promethean World (LSE: PRW). Shares in Promethean have fallen over 16% at time of writing, after the company unveiled a set of poor half-year results.
During the first six months of the year, Promethean’s revenue declined 17.6%, or 11.6% in constant currency. These declines were a result of a softening in demand for educational equipment within European markets. European revenue fell by around a third during the first half of the year.
However, a strong pound was, to some degree, responsible for Promethean’s poor performance. On a constant currency basis, Promethean’s North American revenues, which represent around 63% of total sales, rose 4.4% during the period.
With revenues slumping during the first half, Promethean’s losses widened. The company reported a loss of £6.4m for the first six months of the year, compared to a loss of £3.4m for the year ago period.
Still, management stated that the group remains on track to hit full-year targets. City analysts are currently forecasting that Promethean will report full-year pre-tax losses of £2.1m, a loss per share of 0.8p.
