Tuesday tips round-up: Galliford Try, KazMunaiGas

The shrewdness of Galliford Try’s boss, Greg Fitzgerald, has stood the company well since the financial crisis. Fitzgerald, who has been at the outfit for 34 years, the last 11 of them at the helm, opted to raise funds at the bottom of the crisis. He used those resources to scoop up land at cheap prices, putting in place the foundation from which to then proceed to double the size of its housing division. The housebuilder and commercial contractor also proved quite adept at cutting costs at its construction division, but without harming its ability to win new business in a tough market. The firm’s announcement of a deal to build the first phase of the redevelopment of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital showed the company at its best.

Its Morrison construction arm will build it, while Galliford will maintain the premises as part of a 25-year £18.5m management contract. Unfortunately, the company’s chief is due to step down at the end of the year. There are also fears of a slowdown in the housing market. Nonetheless, the company has proved clever at adapting its business model to the times and has been hitting all its targets. More growth is yet to come, so “buy”, writes The Times’s Tempus.

The inner workings of Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) is perhaps one of the more obscure corners of the global financial landscape. In essence, they allow emerging market companies, for example, to raise funds in more developed capital markets without having to pursue a full listing, with all the disclosures to regulators which that requires. Another aspect of GDR’s is that what transpires around them sometimes goes unnoticed. Yesterday’s decision by Kazhakstan’s state-owned oil and gas company to withdraw its offer for the 40% of KazMunaiGas it does not already own is a case in point.

The rationale behind that decision is the continuing collapse of the oil price, which makes the economics of the offer much less attractive for the would-be suitor. The government-owned firm – which holds a 17% stake in the vast (and troublesome) Kashagan field - had been aiming to integrate KazMunaiGas into the parent firm and to then pursue a full listing. It was easy to miss the news given the GDR structure, but quite a story nevertheless, says the Financial Times's Lex column.