The Morning News Update with Tullow Oil, Petra Diamonds and Rangers International

FTSE 100

AstraZeneca (AZN) – the majority of US Food and Drug Administration Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee (AADPAC) members voted that the FDA should not require cardiovascular outcomes trials for the peripherally-acting mu-opioid receptor antagonist (PAMORA) class of drugs, which includes MOVANTIKTM (naloxegol oxalate), an investigational treatment for opioid-induced constipation (OIC) for patients with chronic non-cancer pain.

Tullow Oil (TLW) – has refinanced its NOK 2 billion (ca. $330 million) Norwegian exploration loan facility and has successfully increased the size of the facility to NOK 3 billion (ca. $500 million) and extended the availability to the end of 2017.

FTSE 250

Petra Diamonds (PDL) – announces the recovery of an exceptional 122.52 carat blue diamond at the Cullinan mine in South Africa.

EnQuest (ENQ) – agrees to acquire ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc.’s interest in the Seligi oil field and the PM8 PSC, located offshore Malaysia. 

Millenium & Copthorne (MLC) – the acquisition of the Novotel New York Times Square, located at 226 W. 52nd Street in New York City, New York, completed yesterday. The property is a 34 storey building in the heart of Manhattan’s theatre district and contains the 480-room Novotel New York Times Square hotel, a small amount of office and retail space and a penthouse apartment.

Small caps

Rangers International (RFC) – approximately 17,000 season tickets have been renewed to date for the Club’s forthcoming SPFL Championship season.

Transence Technology (TRT) – anticipates that final sales for the year will be not less than £3.5m, which will exceed last year by more than 130%. However, this figure is lower than that anticipated at the time of the interim figures in early February. 

t1ps stocks in the news

Johnston Press (JPR) – the 6.52 for 1 Rights Issue saw 92.25% take up.

Ortac Resources (OTC) – the Slovak Central Mining Bureau has confirmed the decision of the Regional Mining Bureau, Banska Bystrica to approve Ortac’s application to begin trial underground mining at its Šturec deposit in Slovakia. 

Avanti Communications (OTC) – has successfully placed $150 million in Senior Secured Notes due 2019 resulting in proceeds to Avanti  of $157.5m. The bond was issued at a premium of 105% to the September 2013 issue price resulting in a Yield to Maturity of 8.575%. The proceeds of the offering will be used to commence the HYLAS 4 project.