LONDON (ShareCast) - Xansa led today’s risers after the French IT services provider Groupe Steria agreed terms of a recommended proposal to buy the outsourcing and IT group for 130p a share, valuing the UK firm at around £472m.

The offer for Xansa, which was forced on Friday to admit it was in advanced bid talks, represents a 70% premium to last Thursday’s closing price.

Revenue Assurance was also lifted by M&A news after support services firm Spice agreed to buy the firm in a cash and share deal, valuing the group at about £102.9m.

Under the terms of the agreement, Revenue shareholders will get £125.50 in cash and 13.09 Spice shares for every 100 shares they hold in the software and service provider.

The deal represents a premium of around 17% to the closing price of 176p per share on 27 July, the last business day prior to the date of the announcement.

FTSE TechMARK - Risers
Xansa (XAN) 126.25p +21.39%
Revenue Assurances Services (RAS) 196.00p +11.36%
SDL International (SDL) 409.75p +6.98%
Bionostics (BIO) 27.00p +5.88%
AEA Technology (AAT) 113.00p +4.39%
Filtronic (FTC) 157.50p +4.30%
Alphameric (ALM) 32.50p +2.36%
Pace Micro (PIC) 109.50p +2.34%
Alizyme (AZM) 85.75p +2.08%
Thus Group (THUS) 172.75p +1.77%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Antisoma (ASM) 33.50p -8.22%
Elan (ELA) € 13.12 -4.58%
QXL Ricardo (QXL) 1,080.00p -4.42%
Dicom Group (DCM) 163.50p -3.82%
Torotrak (TRK) 33.00p -3.65%
BTG (BGC) 101.25p -3.57%
Ark Therapeutics (AKT) 118.00p -3.28%
ServicePower (SVR) 15.50p -3.13%
DRS Data (DRS) 33.50p -2.90%
Axis-Shield (ASD) 254.00p -2.31%

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