Scottish sausage-skin maker Devro has agreed to a £540million takeover offer from a German company.

Devro said the deal with Saria was "attractive".

The company's shares closed on Friday at 307p - a rise on the day of around 60%.

One of Saria's subsidiaries also makes sausage casings and already distributes Devro products in Brazil.

Saria is part of the Rethmann Group, one of the biggest private companies in Europe.

Devro chairman Steve Good told the BBC: "Under the ownership of Saria, the combined business will have an enhanced product offering, will be a stronger, more-diversified group of scale, and will look to further accelerate long-term sustainable growth.

Cultural fit

"We believe that Saria's understanding of our markets, its strong financial position and the cultural fit will benefit the group's business and employees.

"As a result, the Devro directors have agreed unanimously to recommend that Devro's shareholders accept the offer from Saria."

Devro, which is headquartered in Moodiesburn, near Glasgow, has seven sites around the world.

In 2019, Devro announced it was closing its Lanarkshire factory in Bellshill with the loss of 90 jobs.

At the time, the firm said it intended to increase manufacturing at its other North Lanarkshire site in Moodiesburn.

Meanwhile, this is a quiet week on the reporting front on the stock market, with only a handful of FTSE 350 companies due to make announcements.

EasyJet annual results

EasyJet reveals its full-year results tomorrow, and there are number of areas which will interest market watchers.

Sophie Lund-Yates, a lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, explained: "Last we heard, easyJet expected capacity over the October half-term and Christmas to be back at pre-pandemic levels.

"On Tuesday, we'll find out if this was a fair prediction. This will be a crucial barometer for the group's performance over the next year. We're cautiously optimistic it can reach this target.

"We'll also be monitoring is the scale of full-year losses. These are expected to come in between £170million and £190million owing to adverse exchange rates and disruption and cancellations in the third quarter. A worse-than-expecting showing on this front won't be well received by the market.

"Finally, it's forward bookings we'll keep an eye on. With the cost-of-living crisis weighing on people's spending power, and the pent-up demand from the pandemic unwinding, we wonder if easyJet is likely to report a weakening of demand. The group's stronger brand and proposition hold it in a better position than others in our opinion, but it's still something to be mindful of."

FTSE 100

The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was down 57 points at 7,426 shortly after opening this morning, following Friday's 20-point gain.

Brent crude futures were 2.64% lower at $81.42 a barrel.

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