Sharewatch W/E 13/06/97

The long-awaited mergers of Granada/YTTV and STV/Grampian took place last week, though the stock-market was far from overawed by the news.

Scottish Media’s announcement that it would be taking over Grampian on Tuesday (subscribers see STV And Grampian Merge) sent the group’s price down 1p the next day to 705p, a price it would remain stuck at for the rest of the week. Grampian rose half a penny to 318p and also stayed at this price up to Friday.

Granada’s move, made on Wednesday *(Granada Swallows Yorkshire), meant that it initially rose 11 to 896p but then fell to a close of 891.5p on Friday. It appeared that YTTV was thought to have benefited the most from the merger, as it rose 20 to 1175p on Thursday and maintained this price on Friday.

While the announcement of GWR’s annual results *(GWR Hits £11m Profit) allowed the radio group initially to rise 3.5p to 174.5p, the market failed to stay impressed and its price dropped 1p on Thursday and then fell 1.5p on Friday.

Rumours that WPP had set a date for its merger of JWT and the Network *(WPP Sets Date For Merged Media Outfit) may have been responsible for the group’s jump of 5.5p to 258p on Thursday and a rise of 3.5p on Friday.

* Subscribers only