Billabong shares weight Australian trading

In the UK, the week has brought a string of corporate news.

Mothercare is allegedly considering to sell its lossmaking Early Learning Centre business, according to Sky News. The TV channel unveils that Mothercare would have been holding talks with potential advisers about a sale, although the company has not yet made a formal announcement on this matter.

Meanwhile, ‘The Sunday Times’ broke the news of two board members at N Brown sold large equity stakes the week after the business posted a good trading statement. Alan White, the chief executive, sold 173,515 shares for 850,000 pounds, whilst Dean Moore, the finance director, sold 97,688 shares for 480,000 pounds and then a further 200,000 shares for 980,000 pounds.

Elsewhere, Moody's Investors Service changed Foot Locker Inc's ratings outlook to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’.

In a note to investors issued Tuesday, analysts at Moody's stated: “The outlook revision to positive reflects Moody's expectation that Foot Locker's credit metrics and operating performance will continue to improve over the next 12-18 months. For the past several years, Foot Locker has surpassed its expected operating performance. The positive outlook also considers consistently positive same store sales growth and expanding operating margins that are expected to continue to contribute improvement in credit metrics. Notably, we anticipate the company's lease adjusted debt leverage to be around 3.8 times for fiscal 2013 (ending February 2014) versus 4.5 times in fiscal 2012. Furthermore, Foot Locker's European operations have proved resilient in the midst of difficult macroeconomic conditions.”

Given the company's track record of exceeding its long term financial goals, Moody's expects Foot Locker to continue to grow its sales and EBITDA, and make good progress toward its new financial targets. "Should Foot Locker maintain positive same store sales momentum and meaningfully improve profitability, such that debt leverage is sustained below 4.0 times, the company's Corporate Family rating could be upgraded to Ba1," commented Tiina Siilaberg, Assistant Vice President at Moody's.

Finally, in Australia, shares in Billabong International Limited have fallen 4.22 percent, trading at 0.40 dollars after the deal with Altamont Capital Partners was broke to the news.