Ellis is market leader in the UK in distributing commodity chemicals like caustic soda, nitric acid and phosphates, with a market share of around 30 per cent. But there should still be plenty of scope for expanding the speciality chemical side, while its US share remains a minimal 2 per cent despite being the fifth largest operator there.Strategic advantage is enhanced by its strong environmental position, while the strong pound, if continued, will slice only around pounds 600,000 from translation of second-half figures On a forward p/e of 14, the shares are good value.. Next is very much in the Marks & Spencer camp when it comes to Christmas trading statements. Both believe that brevity is a virtue and yesterday's effort from Next ran to all of three sentences. But when your numbers are as good as these no one is going to worry. Next clearly enjoyed a very merry Christmas with combined sales in the 24 weeks to 11 January up 16 per cent on the same period last year. Star performer yet again was the Next Directory catalogue, where sales were 26 per cent higher.
The stores also showed good growth with sales up 14 per cent on selling space 5 per cent higher. But shareholders who have beamed with pleasure as they have watched the meteoric growth of Next shares in the last six years will always ask the same question. Have I had the best of the run and should I bail out? Probably not.For some observers the outstanding success of the Next formula remains something of a mystery The shops always look busy but not that busy. And the merchandise is good, but is it streets ahead of rivals? Figures like this suggest consumers think it is.Can Next keep it up? Next Directory still has plenty of scope for growth though it will not be able to deliver 26 per cent increases every year. The market may get more competitive with the Littlewoods deal with Freemans consolidating the industry. But Next is well advanced with the direct approach to mail-order selling that rivals are only just beginning to copy. For both the high street stores and the directory, the strength of consumer spending and the coming building society windfalls will benefit retailers with strong brands like Next.Yesterday's numbers were good enough for analysts to leave their full- year profit forecasts unchanged at pounds 157m.
With the shares up 12.5p to 541.5p yesterday they trade on a forward rating of 18 Not cheap but still worth holding.. There were red faces at Schroders yesterday after the City's leading independent investment bank admitted its fund management arm, Schroder Investment Management, had inadvertently accepted Triplex Lloyd's hostile pounds 58m bid for William Cook, the steel castings group, due to "a clerical error". The acceptance has been withdrawn much to the embarrassment of Schroders, whose corporate finance division is acting for Triplex Lloyd. SIM has a policy of deferring decisions on takeovers until the last possible moment, but accidentally agreed to throw its 5.44 per cent stake in Cook behind the bid at the first closing date. "It's unsatisfactory," said a source at Schroders. "There is some corporate embarrassment that a colleague has made a mistake."Schroders insists the error came to light only after the unusually high level of acceptances for the Triplex Lloyd bid on the first closing date became known. "When they [SIM] realised they had made a mistake they let both sides know," the source continued.But Schroders could not explain how the error came about.
"As a matter of policy it should be inconceivable for this to happen," the source continued.Shareholders who do not wish to vote on a bid until nearer the offer deadline do not have to fill out any forms at the first closing date for acceptances.SIM's withdrawal now means that just 0.39 per cent of William Cook's shareholders had accepted the Triplex Lloyd bid by New Year's Eve."I am glad shareholders are appreciating our strong arguments on value and prospects and how Triplex Lloyd's offer is derisory," said Andrew Cook, William Cook's chairman.His comments, the latest in an increasingly heated war of the words, drew a stiff response from the Triplex camp."Andrew Cook knows perfectly well that the withdrawal of acceptances ... is the result of one shareholder who accepted the offer due to a clerical error. Andrew Cook knows this because the shareholder in question wrote to explain this to the chairmen of both Triplex Lloyd and William Cook. No other conclusion should be withdrawn from the withdrawal of the acceptance," a statement said.Nevertheless, the episode is clearly a setback for Triplex Lloyd, who made much of the high level of acceptances at such an early stage of the bid. It also adds to the impression that the highly acrimonious bid, far from being the knockout blow that many analysts assumed at the outset, will have to be increased if William Cook is to lose its independence.That is certainly what the stock market is suggesting.