Sharewatch: Capital And GWR Dip On Merger News

Capital and GWR saw their stock market value decline yesterday as investors digested trading updates alongside details of their proposed £711 million merger to create the UK’s largest commercial radio company with a combined turnover of around £243 million.

Capital saw shares dip by 3.01% yesterday to close at 416źp after reporting a 4% year on year increase in revenues, but warning it was cautious for sales in the upcoming October to December period. GWR fell by 8.44% to finish at 249˝p as it said that revenues in the first half of the year would be up by 3%, compared with the 6% expected by analysts (see Capital Radio Cautious Over Fourth Quarter Results).

Rival radio groups Emap and Scottish Radio Holdings remained in the spotlight following trading updates issues earlier this week.Emap rose by 0.7%, but SRH dipped by 0.84% to close at 945p despite revealing that full-year revenues will be a healthy 9% ahead of last year (see SRH Confident Of Revenues Growing By 9% In 2004).

Elsewhere, Highbury House saw shares rise by 2.94% yesterday to close at 8žp after the chief executive, chairman and finance director purchased a combined total of 971,000 shares. Earlier this week the group admitted that it will fail to meet expectations this year (see Highbury House Unable To Meet Full-Year Expectations).

London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index closed 0.5% higher yesterday at 4,588.1 with the mid-cap FTSE 250 advancing by the same amount to finish at 6,262.8. Trading volume was 2.7 billion.

The closing prices of media company shares on Wednesday were: