FTSE 250 movers: FirstGroup surges; M&B fizzes lower
London’s FTSE 250 was flat at 20,967.40 in afternoon trade on Thursday.
FirstGroup surged after Sky News reported that EQT Infrastructure had joined the race for the £2.5bn US operations of the London-listed transport operator.
On the downside, IP Group slumped after Invesco sold 61.9m shares in the company in a placing.
The shares were sold at 100.5p each, according to trade, which was the lower end of the initial guidance of between 100.5p and 103p and a discount of around 9.5% to the closing share price on Wednesday.
Trainline fell after saying it was selling £150m of convertible bonds to shore up its finances against a potential extended Covid-19 downturn in ticket sales. The online travel ticket platform said its banks had agreed to extend a covenant waiver by a year once the bond issue is executed, giving it further breathing space.
Mitchells & Butlers retreated after saying it was planning to raise capital from shareholders with no pubs trading and the company burning through up to £40m a month of cash during the Covid-19 lockdown. Rival JD Wetherspoon also lost ground
Wizz Air was in the red after cancelling the bulk of its UK flights in January due to the latest lockdown. Fellow budget airline easyJet also flew lower.
TP Icap was on the back foot after launching a rights issue to fund its acquisition of Liquidnet.
FTSE 250 - Risers
FirstGroup (FGP) 76.30p 8.30%
Energean (ENOG) 869.70p 8.17%
Network International Holdings (NETW) 317.00p 4.41%
Chemring Group (CHG) 299.50p 3.28%
Future (FUTR) 1,846.00p 3.13%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 34.20p 3.01%
Playtech (PTEC) 451.80p 2.78%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 342.40p 2.51%
Signature Aviation (SIG) 410.00p 2.50%
Pantheon International (PIN) 2,540.00p 2.42%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
IP Group (IPO) 101.40p -8.65%
Trainline (TRN) 437.20p -8.38%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 224.50p -5.47%
easyJet (EZJ) 766.20p -4.15%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 4,288.00p -4.07%
TP ICAP (TCAP) 237.60p -3.65%
Countryside Properties (CSP) 446.00p -3.04%
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 420.40p -2.95%
Wetherspoon (J.D.) (JDW) 1,061.00p -2.84%
Derwent London (DLN) 3,076.00p -2.78%