Market Tracker weekly round-up—29 March 2018

Weekly round-up of the latest corporate announcements, including a recommended all-cash offer by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group for FreeAgent Holdings, a possible offer by Takeda International for Shire, a recommended cash and share offer by CME Group for NEX Group, an IPO by Odyssean Investment Trust, secondary offers by Bushveld Minerals, Summit Theraputics and Restore plc, returns of value by Ferguson and GKN, listing rules transactions by GlobalData, RM2 International, Action Hotels, GlaxoSmithKline, Chariot Oil & Gas, Summit Theraputics, and JD Sports Fashion, and AGM notices by Merlin Entertainments, IMI, National Express Group, Barr (A.G.), Ferguson, Bgeo Group, Staffline Group, and Bodycote.

The daily round-up covers all deals announced until 12 noon on the date of the daily round-up from 12 noon on the previous business day. Any deals announced after this time frame will be included in the following daily round-up.

The information contained in the daily round up is transferred to the weekly round up on a Friday. All announcement data is republished in the monthly round up at the end of the month. To access previous announcements please visit the Market Tracker section or the News tab on the Corporate homepage

Market Tracker—Statement of scope

Market Tracker deal analysis tool

New deals (and AGMs) announced:

AGMs

Announcement date	Issuer	Industry sector	Key information
29 March 2018	Bodycote plc	Engineering & manufacturing	Bodycote has announced that its 2018 AGM will be held on 30 May 2018.
29 March 2018	Staffline Group plc	Professional services	Staffline Group has announced that its 2018 AGM will be held on 17 May 2018.
28 March 2018	National Express Group plc	Travel, hospitality, leisure & tourism	National Express Group has announced that its 2018 AGM will be held on 16 May 2018.
27 March 2018	Bgeo Group plc	Banking & finance	Bgeo Group has announced that its 2018 AGM will be held on 30 April 2018.
27 March 2018	Ferguson plc	Engineering & manufacturing	Ferguson has announced that its 2018 AGM will be held on 23 May 2018.
26 March 2018	Barr (A.G.) plc	Food & beverages	Barr (A.G.) has announced that its 2018 AGM will be held on 3o May 2018.

23 March 2018	IMI plc	Engineering & manufacturing	IMI has announced that its 2018 AGM will be held on 3 May 2018.
22 March 2018	Merlin Entertainments plc	Travel, hospitality, leisure & tourism	Merlin Entertainments has announced that its 2018 AGM will be held on 27 April 2018.

IPOs

Announcement date	Issuer	Industry sector	Key information
27 March 2018	Odyssean Investment Trust plc	Financial Services	Odyssean Investment Trust plc has announced its intention to carry out an initial public offering to raise up to £100 million by way of an initial placing and an offer for subscription for up to 100 million Ordinary Shares at 100 pence per Ordinary Share.

LR/AIM Rules transactions

Announcement date	Company	Industry sector	Key information
29 March 2018	GlobalData plc	Media & telecommunications	GlobalData has announced a Related party transaction under the AIM Rules.
29 March 2018	RM2 International S.A.	Engineering & manufacturing	RM2 International has announced a Related party transaction under the AIM Rules.
28 March 2018	Action Hotels plc	Travel, hospitality, leisure & tourism	Action Hotels has announced a Related party transaction under the AIM Rules.

27 March 2018	GlaxoSmithKline plc	Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology	GlaxoSmithKline has announced a Related party transaction under the Listing Rules.
27 March 2018	Chariot Oil & Gas Limited	Oil & gas	Chariot Oil & Gas has announced a Related party transaction under the AIM Rules.
27 March 2018	Summit Therapeutics plc	Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology	Summit Therapeutics has announced a related party transaction under the AIM Rules.

26 March 2018

JD Sports Fashion Plc

Retail & wholesale trade

JD Sports Fashion has announced a Class 1 transaction under the Listing Rules.

Returns of value to shareholders

Announcement date	Company	Industry sector	Key information
27 March 2018	Ferguson plc	Professional services	Ferguson plc has announced its intention to return cash to shareholders by way of a proposed special dividend of £2.84 ($4), equivalent to approximately £700 million ($1 billion). This is subject to the completion of the disposal of Stark Group at the end of March 2018 and shareholder approval at the general meeting held on 23 May 2018.

26 March 2018

GKN plc

Automotive

GKN plc has announced its intention to return up to £700 million of cash to shareholders as soon as practicable following completion of the Dana-GKN Driveline transaction.
This is expected to be the first instalment of the up to £2.5 billion cash return programme.

Secondary Offers

Announcement date	Issuer	Industry sector	Key information
27 March 2018	Bushveld Minerals Limited	Mining, metals & extraction	Bushveld Minerals Limited has announced the placing of 152,749,172 new ordinary shares of 1 penny each at a price of 10.3 pence per share. The Placing Shares wil represent 14.4% of the Company’s issued share capital on Admission.
27 March 2018	Summit Theraputics plc	Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology	Summit theraputics plc has announced a placing to raise up to £15.0 million, though the placing of up to 8,333,333 new ordinary shares of 1 penny each in the Company. The intended price for the Placing Shares is 180 pence per share.

26 March 2018

Restore plc

Financial Services

Restore plc has announced a placing to raise up to £51.5 million, through the issue of 10,100, 000 ordinary shares, of 5 pence each at 510 pence per Placing Share.

Takeovers

Announcement date	Company	Industry sector	Key information
29 March 2018	NEX Group plc offer by CME Group, Inc.	Financial services	CME has announced a recommended cash and share offer through its wholly owned subsidiary CME London Limited, for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of NEX Group plc.The offer value is £3.9 billion. The consideration of value is 500 pence in cash and 0.0444 new CME shares. The firm offer follows the possible offer announced on 15 March 2018. See deal summary: NEX Group plc possible offer by CME Group, Inc.
28 March 2018	Shire plc possible offer Takeda International Limited	Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology	Takeda International has announced it is considering making an approach of a possible offer for Shire plc. Takeda is still in its preliminary stages exploring Shire plc.The PUSU deadline is on 25 April 2018.
27 March 2018	FreeAgent Holdings plc offer by The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc	Computing & IT	Royal Bank of Scotland has announcedthrough its wholly owned subsidiary, Silvermere Holdings Limited (RBS bidco), a recommended all-cash offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of AIM company, FreeAgent Holdings plc.The consideration value is 120 pence per FreeAgent share. The offer value is £53 million. The founders of FreeAgent agreed with RBS as part of the consideration of the acquisition the founders will receive fully paid B Ordinary Shares in RBS bidco. The B Ordinary Shares constitute 23.5% by value of the aggregate consideration due to the founders under the Acquisition. The B Ordinary Shares will constitute approximately 5% of the share capital of RBS bidco with the balance of the share capital (consisting of 41,658,332 A Ordinary Shares) held by NatWest.

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