7th Mar 2014 11:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Friday.
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COMPANIES
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Online fashion retailer Boohoo.com plans to raise GBP300 million in its initial public offering on AIM, a flotation that will give it an initial market capitalisation of GBP560 million, higher than initially expected. The company said it has successfully priced the IPO and placing of 600 million shares at 50 pence each. It expects dealings to start March 14. The flotation had previously been expected to give the company a valuation in the region of GBP500 million.
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Premier Foods has priced a two-tranche GBP500 million offering of senior secured notes, part of the capital restructuring it announced earlier in the week. The first tranche, with GBP325 million, are 6.50% senior secured notes due 2021, while the GBP175 million second tranche is made up of senior secured floating rate notes due 2020 at 3-month sterling LIBOR plus 5.00%, reset quarterly. The offer is GBP25 million more than the company detailed earlier this week, but will be offset by a reduction in its planned revolving credit facility.
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Dundee-headquartered Alliance Trust warned that the looming Scottish independence referendum is creating uncertainty for the business and it has begun to take action to reduce it, as it reported a strong set of 2013 results, buoyed by good returns from its equity portfolio.
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The institutional shareholder that invested GBP750,000 in Verdes Management, the company rescued earlier this week by Coms PLC Chief Executive David Breith, has been revealed in a Friday stock market filing as Helium Rising Stars Fund, a hedge fund registered in the Cayman Islands.
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MARKETS
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Major stock indices in the UK and Europe are slightly lower Friday ahead of key US jobs data later.
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FTSE 100: Down 0.2% at 6,772.33
FTSE 250: Down 0.4% at 16,612.95
AIM ALL-SHARE: Down 0.04% at 896.94
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The pound briefly gained against other major currencies after UK consumer inflation expectations dropped to their lowest level in four years, but has since dropped back.
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GBP-USD: Up at USD1.6756
EUR-USD: Up at USD1.3887
GOLD: Down at USD1,348.63 per ounce
OIL (Brent): Down at USD107.92 a barrel
(changes since end of previous GMT day)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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The Crimean parliament speaker has said the rest of Ukraine should follow the Black Sea region in seceding to Russia, a day after the US called the referendum illegitimate and Moscow and the West remained far apart on how to de-escalate tensions. Speaking in Moscow after talks with Russian lawmakers, Vladimir Konstantinov said the new government in Kiev had seized power illegally, echoing the views of Russia's top leadership. Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted in an hour-long phone call with US President Barack Obama that Moscow's policies with regard to Crimea and eastern Ukraine are fully legal.
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China allowed its first bond default on Friday after solar panel maker Chaori Solar failed to pay investors some CNY90 million, or USD15 million, in interest. Shanghai-based Chaori Solar Energy Science and Technology Co. said it was still trying to raise money from sales of overseas assets to pay the interest. Analysts see the government's decision not to help meet payments totalling CNY89.8 million as a landmark in the ruling Communist Party's liberalization of China's financial markets.
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UK consumers now expect prices in the UK to rise by 2.8% in the coming year, according to the latest Bank of England inflation survey, down from 3.6% recorded in November. The central bank also said that the two-year expectation fell to 2.8%, from 3.4%, and the five-year expectation dropped to 3.2% from 3.7%. The near term inflation expectation is the lowest in four years and is supportive of the BoE's message that interests rates will stay low for some time to come. Even so, the bank's inflation attitudes survey showed that 40% of Britons expect interest rates to rise within the next 12 months, up from 34% in November.
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Job placements in the UK increased at the fastest pace in nearly four years in February, data from a survey by Markit Economics and KPMG showed. Permanent job placements increased at the strongest pace since March 2010, while demand for temporary employees rose at a weaker pace. Meanwhile, earnings of British employees increased in February at the strongest pace since October 2007.
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet said that bitcoin, the world's most well-known form of virtual money, is not a currency, but would be taxable. Tokyo defined bitcoin as a product that is not handled by banks and securities houses. It also added that consumption tax would be levied on purchases of the virtual currency and income tax would be imposed on profits from its sale. The decision came a week after the collapse of the Tokyo-based Mt Gox, one of the largest exchanges for the virtual currency.
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The highest-ranking member of the US military said Thursday that the disclosures made by former National Secrurity Agency contractor Edward Snowden will cost the US military billions of dollars to rectify. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey told a congressional committee that "the vast majority" of the thousands of documents taken by Snowden were not related to domestic surveillance, but were concerned with military operations, capabilities, tactics and procedures.
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is considering banning YouTube and Facebook after local elections at the end of this month, according to remarks carried by local media. Erdogan made the remarks on a late night television interview programme on Thursday, following the leaking of recordings of his private conversations, apparently through wiretaps.
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Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been found guilty of sodomising his former aide by the Court of Appeal, reversing an acquittal by a lower court two years ago. The three-member appellate court said the Kuala Lumpur high court judge had erred in doubting the integrity of DNA samples presented by the prosecution during the trial. Sodomy carries a penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment and caning in Malaysia. The court has not passed sentence on Anwar, 66.
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Germany's wholesale prices declined at the fastest rate in three months in January, figures from the Federal Statistical Office showed. The wholesale price index dropped 1.7% year-on-year, after a 1.3% fall in December. It was the fastest decline since October's 1.8% decrease. Month-on-month, wholesale prices slid 0.1% in January, reversing a 0.3% gain in the previous month.
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