Micro Focus International, the IT group whose chief executive left earlier this month after two profit warnings, has jumped nearly 10% after news of a takeover approach.
The company has previously been linked with private equity bidders or larger technology groups such as IBM and SAP. But news of a share buy back programme in March seemed to temporarily dampen down some of the speculation, although the takeover talk was revived last week. And now the company has confirmed it has received "a very preliminary, non-binding approach." As a result it is suspending the buy back programme.
The news has lifted its shares 32p to 370p, valuing the company at more than £700m making it the biggest riser in the FTSE 250.
Close behind is Heritage Oil, up 17.7p to 262p after the exploration group announced a $100m buy back after its shares halved since January as it announced a gas rather than oil discovery in Iraq. The company also faces a $313m lawsuit from former partner Tullow Oil. It said:
The recent share price performance following the discovery of the Miran gas field in Kurdistan neither reflects the underlying value of the assets nor our belief in the longer term prospects of the company.
