Good morning!

I am back from a fine holiday in Athens - should have gone there a long time ago!

The economy and general state of economic progress did not seem to be doing particularly well on the ground, although that did not detract from a fantastic experience of Greek culture, cuisine, architecture and history. Did I mention the food?

The experience of Greece within the EU has been, let’s be diplomatic, somewhat mixed. And today is apparently going to be the voting day for MPs when it comes to Mrs May’s EU Withdrawal Agreement. It is natural that questions of politics will be on our minds.

This being the SCVR, I will be covering company news first, referring to macro developments only if they have a major impact on the markets.

Best,

Graham



Today we are covering:




Flybe (LON:FLYB)

  • Share price: 2.6p (-37%)
  • No. of shares: 217 million
  • Market cap: £6 million

Offer Update

This looks like very bad news for those who were hoping for an improved offer for Flybe.

The consortium, Connect Airways (Virgin Atlantic/Stobart), is lending Flybe's main operating company £20 million, under revised conditions. Flybe wasn't able to satisfy the original conditions.

£10 million of the funds will be released today - implying that it is needed to keep the lights on?

An agreed sale of Flybe's main trading companies to the consortium for £2.8 million will proceed without shareholder approval, since Flybe now has a standard listing on the LSE, rather than a premium listing.

The rationale for switching to the standard listing was presented as follows in Flybe's interim report last year:

This would have the benefit of allowing the Company greater flexibility when considering divestments, particularly to recycle cash, as the current low market capitalisation places restraints and complexity on such disposals for…

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