Southern Cross shares fail to sparkle

Dec 11 2007 by Chris Knox, The Journal

THE FTSE 100 index started the week in positive territory on Monday, rising by 10.5 points to close at 6565.4.

Southern Cross Healthcare, the care home provider, released results for the year ended September 30. It reported that profit before tax, depreciation and amortisation came in at £66.8m, up from £48.8m last year.

The company’s Chairman, William Colvin said: “We have successfully completed and integrated a number of acquisitions and also grown organically.”

In addition, the board appointed Nancy Hollendoner as a non-executive director.

Shares in Southern Cross ended 2.19% down at 580p.

GlaxoSmithKline has received an approval letter from the US Food and Drug Administration for Requip, its treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

This is according to SkyPharma which holds a patent for the slow release mechanism for Requip by controlling daily plasma fluctuation levels.

Requip is already approved in eight countries in Europe.

In addition, GlaxoSmithKline has formed a “multi-year strategic alliance” with Galapagos, the Belgian pharmaceutical company.

Galapagos will receive up to £3.5m, which is subject to the sale of an anti-infective medicine. Shares in GSK were down 0.53% at 1304p.

Severfield-Rowen released a trading statement yesterday. The structural steel group confirmed that its order book has increased to a record £405m compared to £300m last year. The group expects the order book to increase further and confirmed that the integration of Fisher Engineering is progressing ahead of plan.

Severfield rose 1.31% to finish at 484p.

The region’s largest riser was Angel Biotechnology, up 8.06% and most notable faller was Immunodiagnostic Systems, down 3.81%.

Ken Oiwa Ken.oiwa@brewin.co.uk