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Well, let's take a look at some stocks on the move today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll and I'm joined by Bloomberg's Breaking News editor Louise Moan and Louise, good morning. We're watching the moves higher in oil prices this morning after the weekend's developments in the Middle East. How are the likes of BP firing this morning.
Yeah, you've got BP Shell both the top two gainers on the FOOTZEO hundred, so both firmly into the green and leading gains there. And that's also tracking across Europe as well, so you know, the likes of Title Energies in Paris also up. As you say, this is after a turbulent weekend in the Middle East and essentially casting
doubts on the prospects for peace talks. Obviously, the c's five deadline is looming and there's very differing of views being offered from both sides, so that's causing oil to rise, and then of course oil related stocks to track those rises. As well, so oil eraising much of the declines that we saw on Friday and you know, reversing that and as I say, shell BP the top two again is on the foot seat one hundred this morning.
Okay.
In other sectors, the owner of William Hale Evoke could be in takeover talks tell us more.
Indeed, yes, they've confirmed their in talks to be acquired by a company called Bally's Intralot. This is a joint venture between Bally's, the US casino operator, and a Greek firm. So it's listed in Athens, but the majority holder is the US company. So they've offered fifty p per share for a Voke that's about thirty percent above its closing
price on Friday. It would value Evoke at about two hundred and twenty five million pounds, So Vokes the owner of William Hill eighty eighty eight used to be called eight eighty eight, so a big gambling company here in the UK. It's been on a financial strain for quite a long time and it's been exploring a sale since late last year, so it's got a lot of debt. So on the one hand, it's got a lot of debt after it acquired William Hill in twenty twenty one.
It's then also been hit by a lot of higher taxes. So of course Rachel Reeves imposed higher taxes on gambling firms in the November budget. They came into effect this month and as a result of Volkes said as a direct result of that, it planned to close two hundred betting shops due to those tax sikes. They announced that last month. So it's been under a lot of strain and now confirmed that it's in talks with Ballet's Inchlot to be acquired. So as a result, shares shot up
this morning of Volks shares shot up. It didn't quite match how much they've fallen over the past twelve months, but they did shoot up. I mean, and as I say, yeah, hasn't quite matched that falls and if you look back even further, they're far off their peak in twenty twenty one, so still trading a lot lower than historically, but shares up as a result of that potential deal coming down the line.
Okay, so that's on Evoke. Let's turn then to Commerce Bank. Of course, the lender that's seen quite a lot of headlines around a potential takeover offer. What's the latest this morning.
Indeed, Yeah, some fresh comments from Unicredits. So obviously been trying to buy Commerce Banks since about September twenty twenty four, and then recently presented a thirty five billion takeover offer which is set to kick off this month. Already at Commerce Bank's largest shareholder, they've got a stake of just under thirty percent, but they essentially have been stepping up
their push to acquire the bank. So the CEO, there's been some comments from the CEO saying that Commerce Bank needs deep changes, suffers from structural weaknesses, it's an ongoing story of underperformance, and saying that Commerce Bank hasn't engaged with it in what it calls a meaningful way in
regards to that attempt of a takeover office. So it's been consistently kind of shut down rebuffed by Commerce Bank, the two banks essentially saying they've got very different views on how to go forward, and Commerce Bank's own CEO last week kind of vowed to stick with their own standalone strategy. So at heads on this and as I say, there's been there's been fresh comments from UniCredit this morning.
Commas Bank shares rose and Frankfurt compared with declines across the sector, so potentially those that rebuffing is continuing to be welcomed, so we'll be keeping a close eye to see to see how that one develops.
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