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Latest Dublin Prices

ISEQ's gains drift but still tops 3,700

Monday, February 25 17:42:07

The ISEQ above the 3,700 mark today as shares in Elan surged nearly 7pc after it received an offer USD6.5 billion for the company and Kingspan dipped after its latest earnings report.

The index was up 14.30 points to 3,708.77.

US based RP Management, an investor in royalty streams from pharmaceuticals, said it's willing to buy Elan for about $6.5 billion after the Irish drugmaker failed to respond to RP's approaches.

There are substantial risks to Elan's plan to make acquisitions with the $3.25 billion it will receive from selling its stake in the Tysabri multiple-sclerosis drug to Biogen Idec Inc. (BIIB), the New York-based firm, known as Royalty Pharma, said in a statement today. The offer of $11 per American depositary receipt is 3.8 percent above Elan's closing price Feb. 22, and represents "the full value of Elan today," RP said. The offer is a challenge to Dublin-based Elan's strategy of reinvesting the Tysabri proceeds, which will leave the company with virtually no operations. Chief Executive Officer Kelly Martin's plan to buy drugs that are on the market, late-stage experimental products or some early-stage clinical research projects drew skepticism from investors when it was announced Feb. 6. The company said Feb. 22 it also would buy back $1 billion of stock. Shares in Elan jumped 55c to E8.52.

Kingspan's stocks fell 17c to E3.68 after it recorded a 13 percent rise in trading profit for 2012, despite a slowdown in activity in the second half of last year due to weak construction markets in the euro zone. The No.1 producer of insulation in Britain, Ireland, Canada and Australasia posted its third consecutive year of growth, it said today. Kingspan had a strong performance in Germany and Central Europe in the first half of last year, but a decline in activity in construction markets in the Benelux and Netherlands took hold in the second half. Other leaders in the sector expected a slide in their sales in the latter half of 2012 because of the deepening problems in the euro zone's building sector, already facing the collapse of housing markets in Spain and other crisis-hit states. Kingspan's full-year trading profit of 107.7 million euros in the 12 months to end-December was up from 95.7 million the previous year. Yearly revenue rose 5 percent to 1.63 billion euros while debt came in at 165.5 million euros, shrinking from 170.1 million a year earlier even though the company made two acquisitions during the course of the year.