MARKET REPORT: New boss John Kennedy lifts lowly oil rig maker Lamprell

UPDATED:

21:28 GMT, 15 June 2012

Major shareholders of Lamprell, including Legg Mason and Schroders, have had their prayers answered.

The struggling oil rig maker has appointed industry veteran John Kennedy as its new chairman.

He will replace Jonathan Silver after the latter apparently decided he is ‘too busy’ to carry on in the role and steps down to become deputy chairman. The news helped the shares rally 15.95p, or 20 per cent, to 95p.

MARKET REPORT: New boss John Kennedy lifts lowly oil rig maker Lamprell

Sector guru Malcolm Graham-Wood at VSA Capital said: ‘John Kennedy is little short of a legend in the oil service industry.

‘He was most recently executive chairman of Wellstream until it was bought by General Electric of the US.

‘It may well be a seminal moment for Lamprell as when Kennedy is around things tend to happen.’

As Kennedy comes in one door, non-executive director Brian Frederick leaves through another after handing in his resignation.

Lamprell’s
management lost virtually all of its credibility recently when the
shares crashed from 4 to a low of 68p after it rolled out two drastic
profit warnings in a matter of weeks.

There
was controversy too when it was revealed that two of its senior
managers had sold shares worth 1.7million just ahead of the first
warning.

Also tempting
buyers back into the fray was news that it has now successfully
delivered Hull 108, thereby meeting the terms of its contract with Grupo
Mexico.The delivery means that Lamprell can repay 45m of debt which is
outstanding on the rig.

There
was less investor enthusiasm shown for Donald Brydon’s appointment as
chairman designate at Sage, a penny dearer at 248.7p. Currently chairman
of Smiths Group and Royal Mail, Brydon will succeed Tony Hobson on
September 1. An underwhelmed George O’Connor, analyst at Panmure Gordon,
said: ‘Sage has plumped for the “one of us” category. Chairmen without
an understanding of the end markets need to “bone up” in a hurry.’

Banks
led the charge as the Footsie jumped 55 points in response to
Chancellor George Osborne and Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King’s
plan to resuscitate the British economy via a new liquidity scheme.
Sentiment
was also helped by strong rumours that the US Federal Reserve will
announce a new round of quantitative easing at Wednesday’s Federal Open
Market Committee meeting.

Best
levels were not held though as nervy fund managers took profits ahead
of Sunday’s crucial Greek elections. All digits are crossed that the
pro-bailout New Democracy Centre Right party, will prove victorious.
The close was 11.76 points up at 5,478.81. The FTSE 250, however, soared 155.02 points to 10,729.65.

Wall
Street rose 60 points in early trading boosted by talk that major
central banks are preparing co-ordinated action to provide liquidity
after the Greek election.

Partly
owned by the UK tax-payer, Royal Bank of Scotland gained 18.2p to
247.6p and Lloyds Banking Group 1.55p to 31.3p. Bob Diamond’s Barclays
added 8.05p to 200.8p.

Perceived to be heavily oversold by JP Morgan Cazenove after collapsing 37 per cent in
the past month, Imagination Technologies recovered 63.2p to 499.5p. The
broker says Imagination is uniquely positioned because it is a pure
play on the smartphone/tablet markets.

Renewed
selling on further consideration of the eye-watering sum (2.3billion)
paid for rights to televise live football matches from the Premiership
left Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB down 9.5p more at 661.5p. BT, which dropped
3.54 per cent on
Thursday when gobsmacked investors heard it was forking out 738million
for 38 Premiership games a season for three years, eased 0.5p further
to 201.2p.

Carpetright
was again threadbare as its shares slumped to 661p after Dutch retail
sales figures for April showed consumer confidence falling to record
lows.

They closed 6.5p
off at 681.5p but Oriel Securities remains a seller. The broker says
news that Dutch non-food sales were down 12.7 per cent year-on-year does not augur well. European retail accounts for 20 per cent of Carpetright’s sales.

The
much smaller United Carpets plummeted 1.5p, or 40 per cent, to an
all-time low of 2.25p after the company said it has had to terminate a
number of franchise agreements which in the current challenging trading
environment have been difficult to pass on to new franchise customers.

The
board has orchestrated a strategic review of its store network to
decide whether the underperforming stores can be made viable or have to
be closed.

- Mobile computer pioneer Psion rocketed 27.25p or 45pc to 87.75p on a surprise 129.3million cash bid worth 88p a share from Motorola Solutions Inc. The deal, which MS hopes to close in the fourth quarter of the year, will help it expand its business with industrial clients. Psion has almost completed a restructuring programme which it said would deliver 4m of cost savings in 2012 and 6million in 2013.

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MARKET REPORT: New boss John Kennedy lifts lowly oil rig maker Lamprell