Sharewatch: Maiden Dips Despite Rail Wins
Outdoor advertising heavyweight Maiden saw an unexpectedly poor day’s trading yesterday, losing 0.43% to close at 231˝p, despite the company announcing two new account wins to strengthen its burgeoning rail advertising business (see Maiden Expand Rail Business With New Account Wins).
The contract wins with the Go Ahead Group’s New Southern Railway and Thameslink subsidiaries should have come as a relief to investors, as Maiden has lost several important rail advertising contracts to rival Viacom Outdoor recently (see Viacom Doubles Rail Business With First Group Win).
Elsewhere, the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster ITV lost 0.23% to close at 231˝p on the same day that news broke of negotiations to sell off the company’s digital channels, Plus and Men & Motors, as part of its £600 million programme to sell off its non-core assets (see ITV Puts Plus and Men & Motors Under The Hammer).
Conversely, satellite broadcaster BSkyB rose by 1.81% to 491ž as chairman Rupert Murdoch announced expectedly strong profits, despite the slowdown in subscription figures and the growing threat from Freeview (see Murdoch Predicts Strong Profit Growth For BSkyB).
The FTSE 100 dipped yesterday, losing 0.8 points to close at 4,706.3, while the FTSE 250 plummeted by 21.1 points to close at 6,370.5.
The closing prices of media company shares on Wednesday were:
