Shares in Novera Energy powered up yesterday after the wind farms group finally agreed to a £112 million takeover by Infinis Energy, its rival, which is backed by Terra Firma, the private equity group.

The group, up 1p at 77p, has been the subject of a bitter takeover battle for a number of weeks, with both sides trading blows over the company’s valuation and future prospects.

However, Novera has agreed to an offer of 77p per share after Infinis bought another five million shares in the group, taking its stake to more than 50 per cent, and making the bid unconditional. Infinis had started the bidding at 62.5p.

The deal is still below the 90p per share that Infinis offered when it tried to buy Novera last year, and will disappoint shareholders who were holding out for more money, with KBC Peel Hunt, the stockbroker, recently saying that Infinis could afford 98p.

FFastFill soared 2.12p to 9.88p after the trading systems software group said that it thought Ion Trading, a privately owned electronic trading group, had bought a 19 per cent stake. Ion also has a big holding in Patsystems, FFastFill’s rival.

Petra Diamonds rose 4¼p to 63p after the miner sold a 168 carat white diamond that it discovered at its Cullinan mine in South Africa for $6.28 million (£3.8 million). The Bank of Montreal said that two diamonds recovered by Petra at the same time, which have not been sold yet, could be worth as much as $28 million.

Legion added 0.12p to 2.12p after the security group raised £1 million in a share placing by Seymour Pierce.

Ascent Resources lost 1¼p to 5¾p after raising £6 million in a placing by Astaire, the brokerage, to develop its oil and gas assets.

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