29th Dec 2021 08:16
(Alliance News) - Anglo American on Wednesday confirmed it has entered talks with Brazilian mining peer Vale over the potential to jointly develop the Serpentina iron ore resource.
Anglo noted that Vale's Serpentina is contiguous to its Minas-Rio iron ore operation in Brazil.
"These discussions are preliminary in nature and there can be no certainty that any agreement will be reached or, if any agreement is reached, on the terms or scope of any such agreement," Anglo added.
In its own release, Vale also confirmed the discussions. The company was responding to a letter from the Securities & Exchange Commission of Brazil, following a media report by Bloomberg on Thursday last week. It said there was no decision or agreement on the acquisition of a stake in Minas-Rio.
Anglo American shares were down 0.4% early Wednesday.
Here is what you need to know at the London market open:
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MARKETS
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FTSE 100: up 1.0% at 7,444.78
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Hang Seng: down 0.9% at 23,062.05
Nikkei 225: closed down 0.6% at 28,906.88
S&P/ASX 200: closed up 1.2% at 7,509.80
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DJIA: closed up 95.83 points, or 0.3%, at 36,398.21
S&P 500: closed down 0.1% at 4,786.35
Nasdaq Composite: closed down 0.6% at 15,781.72
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EUR: down at USD1.1300 (USD1.1330)
GBP: flat at USD1.3420 (USD1.3416)
USD: up at JPY114.89 (JPY114.38)
Gold: down at USD1,805.30 per ounce (USD1,808.50)
Oil (Brent): up at USD79.17 a barrel (USD76.00)
(changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Wednesday's key economic events still to come
1000 CET EU monetary developments in the euro area
0830 EST US international trade in goods
1030 EST US EIA weekly petroleum status report
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The National Health Service is mounting a fresh drive to get Covid booster jabs into arms to protect against the fast-spreading Omicron variant in the UK. The NHS vaccination programme is sending around 650,000 text messages and 50,000 letters to people who have not yet received their top-up dose, encouraging them to roll up their sleeve and have a "jabby new year". The move comes as ministers continue to monitor the latest data with England and Wales recording a record 129,471 confirmed cases on Tuesday, while separate figures for Scotland showed another 9,360 cases. No data was available for Northern Ireland. The government at Westminster has said while the early evidence suggests Omicron is less likely to cause serious illness than earlier waves it stands ready to impose new measures in England if necessary. Currently England is alone among the home nations in ruling out additional controls before the new year, with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all having put in place further controls since Christmas.
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People in the UK who managed to save some money during coronavirus lockdowns have now spent around a fifth of it typically, research suggests. Seven in 10 people said they had been able to put money aside during the pandemic amid fewer opportunities to spend, Paragon Bank found. The average amount people had saved during lockdowns was GBP1,216. But when asked what percentage of their pandemic savings people had now spent, the average amount was just over a fifth – equating to around GBP261 of lockdown savings having been spent. Over-55s were twice as likely as young adults to have managed to hang onto all of their savings.
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The US government promised its allies in Europe transparency and solidarity regarding its planned talks with Russia to address tensions over Ukraine. The dialogue would focus on "mutual goals," US State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters. He stressed that Washington would stick to the principle of "nothing about them without them" regarding any issues affecting US allies in Europe. Nonetheless, Price said the "strategic stability dialogue" with Russia would take a bilateral format. "We have always fully and thoroughly briefed our allies" following past meetings, he added. Representatives from the US and Russia plan to come together in Geneva on January 10 to discuss the Ukraine tensions and security guarantees demanded by Moscow.
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BROKER RATING CHANGES
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none reported Wednesday
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COMPANIES - FTSE 100
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AstraZeneca said it has agreed to a global development and commercialisation agreement with California-headquartered Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc for eplontersen, formerly known as Ionis-TTR-LRX. The drug helps to treat TTR amyloidosis by reducing the production of transthyretin, or TTR protein. The two pharma firms will jointly develop and commercialise eplontersen in the US, while Astra will develop and commercialise it in the rest of the world, except in Latin America. As part of the deal, Astra will pay an upfront fee of USD200 million, and will make additional conditional payments of up to USD485 million upon regulatory approvals. After that, Astra will pay up to USD2.9 billion of sales-related milestones based on sales thresholds between USD500 million and USD6 billion, plus royalties in the range of low double-digit to mid-twenties percentage depending on the region.
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Miner Fresnillo said its 44%-owned Juanicipio project continues to face delays. The Mexican state-owned electricity utility, Comision Federal de Electricidad, has told Fresnillo that approval to complete the tie-in to the national power grid cannot yet be granted and the mill commissioning timeline will therefore be extended by approximately six months. "This is directly related to knock-on effects of the pandemic on the CFE's operations, predominantly related to a lack of CFE staff which limits its ability to oversee three key tasks to: review the existing installation; supervise physical connection to the active power grid; and approve required blackout prevention devices," Fresnillo explained. The miner said it will "do all that it can to expedite these necessary approvals". Full load commissioning activities are now expected to be approved sometime after the first week of May 2022.
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COMPANIES - FTSE 250
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Diversified Energy said it has closed the sale of an undeveloped Haynesville acreage in Texas, netting USD34.6 million from the divestment. Oaktree Capital Management has also divested its interest in the acreage, with the total sum of both sales coming to USD67.4 million. The sale was first announced by Diversified in mid-November, and the energy company expects a second closing of the deal of up to USD4 million to be conducted in the near future, of which Diversified stands to net around USD2 million. Despite ascribing no value to the undeveloped Haynesville leasehold, the sale has reduced Diversified's investment in the upstream assets acquired from Tanos Energy Holdings in August to USD83 million from USD118 million.
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COMPANIES - MAIN MARKET AND AIM
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Round Hill Music Royalty Fund has acquired a "significant share" of the publishing rights of Niko Moon, a US country singer. The deal comprises 29 compositions, including songs performed by Zac Brown Band, Avicii, and Sir Rosevelt. The top songs ranked by revenue are: Homegrown, Keep Me in Mind, Heavy is the Head, Beautiful Drug and Loving You Easy. Round Hill did not disclose the financial details of the deal but noted the catalogue has a revenue mix of 37% mechanical, 52% performance, 10% sync and 1% other. Chair Trevor Bowen said: "We are pleased to announce the acquisition of this important catalogue. This acquisition highlights Round Hill's ability to source and acquire attractive catalogues in a highly diverse array of music markets. This acquisition will bolster the portfolio's country and pop assets, further diversifying the portfolio by genre and income type."
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Constellation Automotive Holdings said it has received acceptances for its agreed takeover offer of Cambridge-based auto retailer Marshall Motor Holdings representing 64.4% of all shares. This satisfies its condition of 50% acceptances, though other conditions are not yet satisfied. Constellation noted the deadline for acceptances of its 400 pence per share offer, worth GBP322.9 million in total, is February 12. The Marshall Motor board agreed to the offer back in early December. Marshall Motor shares were down 0.3% at 392.00p early Wednesday.
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COMPANIES - GLOBAL
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Telefonica announced an agreement with unions in Spain to cut around 2,700 jobs, part of a wave of job cuts in the telecom sector in the country this year. The redundancy plan targets workers turning 55 or older in 2022 and with at least 15 years employment at the company, Telefonica said in a statement. The firm said the job cuts, which will affect about 15% of its workforce of 18,500 people in Spain, will cost about EUR1.5 billion this year. The Spanish telecom giant predicted the staff reduction will produce annual savings of more than EUR230 million from 2023. Telefonica is the third telecoms operator to announce a round of layoffs in Spain in 2021 following the UK's Vodafone Group in September and France's Orange in May.
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Wednesday's shareholder meetings
7digital Group PLC - AGM
Bezant Resources PLC - GM re fundraise
Directa Plus PLC - GM re placing and subscription
Eco Atlantic Oil & Gas Ltd - AGM
Jubilee Metals Group PLC - AGM
Proton Motor Power Systems PLC - GM re share subdivision
Wildcat Petroleum PLC - AGM
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By Tom Waite; [email protected]
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