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11 April 2017

Twitter – End of days

The loss of the NFL is a disaster

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11 April 2017

LeEco - Le crunch

Crunch time appears to be fast approaching.

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11 April 2017 · 2 min read

Market Commentary - Housing, Infrastructure, Construction and Services 11th April 2017

There is limited new news this week and only Victoria plc, the carpet maker and distributor, adds to our knowledge this morning with a positive trading update. The topics raised most frequently with us are around the UK central government being so tied up with Brexit it is tempted to extend existing outsourcing services contracts and whether Greg Fitzgerald can turn around Bovis.

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10 April 2017 · 2 min read

Market Commentary - Housing, Infrastructure, Construction and Services 10th April 2017

Carillion has announced that it’s JV with, we believe, Aramark, has won one of the seven Hestia contracts to be awarded. Hestia is the MoD’s name for its softer services FM work (including managing retail units) that is currently being tendered. We are heading for a couple of “News-Lite” weeks over the Easter break. There was no trend to the moves on Friday last that we can see. Travis Perkins was the leader up 2.2% to 1538p on 922,116 shares traded. The main loser was Galliford Try, down 1.1% to 1467p as the shares adjust to the ending of Bovis discussions and going XD with the 32p interim payment on 23rd March.

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7 April 2017 · 2 min read

Market Commentary - Housing, Infrastructure, Construction and Services 7th April 2017

Vp, formerly called and still better known on some places as Vibroplant, has announced a trading update and an acquisition. Homeserve was the best riser, up 1.8% at close at 633p, gaining even stronger support in the afternoon after a good morning’s work, suggesting positive US investor interest. Berendsen and Mitie were the joint backmarkers, down 2.9% and 2.5% respectively.

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5 April 2017

Premier Oil continues to consolidate

This morning, Premier announced the signature of a share purchase agreement with Al-Haj Energy Limited for the sale of Premier Oil Pakistan Holdings (Premier’s Pakistan business) for a cash consideration of $65.6m. Proceeds from the sale are, understandably, to be used to reduce corporate debt.  The sale of Pakistan follows the divestment of Block A Aceh ($40m) in January 2015 and Premier Norge AS ($120m) in November 2015 as Premier consolidates its geographical foot-print and focusses on core areas including the UKCS and SE Asia.

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5 April 2017

Xiaomi - No favours

Xiaomi’s ecosystem remains its biggest weakness.

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5 April 2017 · 3 min read

The evolution of in-flight entertainment

Will the new restrictions on electronic devices change IFE trends?

Recently I have been reading with interest about how avionic manufacturers are rethinking in-flight entertainment (IFE) given that almost every passenger now has their own electronic device, pre-loaded with their choice of films, television programmes and music. In a culture of ‘on demand’ entertainment, a small screen with poor sound quality, showing a fuzzy version of a relatively recent film understandably lacks the allure it used to hold. There is one school of thought that personal devices could soon remove the need for dedicated IFE systems altogether and I can see the logic in that. Well at least I could until the ban on electronic devices on certain routes from the Middle East was introduced. This unexpected change to the status quo has caused consternation amongst travellers with children and business passengers alike, and will no doubt have the avionics industry reassessing about what future IFE systems should look like.

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5 April 2017 · 2 min read

Market Commentary - Housing, Infrastructure, Construction and Services 5th April 2017

HSS Hire has reported its full year numbers for the year to end December 2016 and as expected they do not make great reading but might have been worse. HSS is rebooting itself to stand a better chance of success.

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4 April 2017 · 2 min read

Android’s success shows up Google’s deficiencies

Android has surpassed Windows as the No.1 platform for accessing the Internet globally, highlighting just how bad Google is at monetising Android as it remains only a small percentage of total revenues.

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