image

Authoritative Independent Monthly Share Selections Using Technical & Fundamental Analysis

Latest issue now available

Ask Central - In takeover talks

December 2003

Investing in shares may lose you all or some of your money. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Some of the shares recommended here may be small company shares, which can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade and this makes such shares more risky than other investments.

  • Epic Code:
  • AKC
Shares in Ask have shot up to 168p after the group confirmed it had entered into merger talks with City Centre Restaurants, 76.5p.  Any proposal would involve Ask shareholders receiving a premium to the current price (i.e. more than 166p). There certainly appear to be useful synergies between the two groups.  While Ask is strong on the high street, City Centre, whose brands include Garfunkel"s, Café Uno, Frankie & Benny's and Est Est Est, has more sites (128) in airports and leisure parks than its 112 units on the high street.  The deal also has a degree of symmetry, with the prospect of Ask's founders, Adam and Sam Kaye returning to run the company that bought out their father's restaurant chain, Garf ...

To access our archive of articles and to receive current issues you need to subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber? Login

With small companies there is an above average degree of risk compared to buying blue chips. Please be aware that we have not assessed the suitability of any of these investments for you. The newsletter simply states a personal view and diarises the editor’s investment decisions. Please speak to your stockbroker or other qualified individual to ascertain whether any of these companies mentioned would form useful additions to your own portfolios. Past performance is no indication of future success.

All material on this website is protected by copyright. You may use Information retrieved from the www.scsw.co.uk website for your own personal non-commercial use which means that you may not sell or copy this information to any third party without prior written consent. ISSN 1358-183X