Hopes of a Greek deal before deadline help support sharesLeading shares seemed to be heading for a new five month low but a revival on Wall Street, and hopes that the latest “last chance” meeting to resolve the Greek crisis could produce results, helped pull them back from their worst levels.Even though the Eurogroup get-together started with Greece and its creditors still firmly entrenched in their conflicting positions, investors became a little more optimistic the two sides would pull back from the brink before it was too late. News that Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis intended to present proposals to the meeting helped lift sentiment, although it was not clear whether these were new plans or not.We move to reduce given current macro pressure which could continue to hit mega caps. Earnings per share forecast is around 3% lower from PowerSchool sale (down around 1% in the full year ) and around 2% down from foreign exchange rebase (dollar mostly). [PowerSchool] was flagged previously by Pearson as a sale candidate as it is a back office oriented data management system business with no obvious synergies with other Pearson learning operations. Sale price of $350m implies 3.6 times 2014 sales ($97m) and 17.5 times profit ($20m) so very decent multiples reflecting good margin (20.6%) and a market leading position (a third of market)The group has turned a corner. The management team is making good progress with the operational improvements. Demand for Hornby products remains strong, with demand currently outstripping supply. Continue reading...
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